# Combining two sources of light in cemetery



## marsh28 (Dec 2, 2010)

I'm doing a light o rama display and want to animate my cemetery. The plan is to animate the whole cemetery with blue light and then to accentuate each tombstone with amber LED spots. My question is... will the blue light wash out the Amber LED spots to the point where you won't really be able to see them? I haven't seen any set ups where both the cemetery and individual stones are lit so I'm wondering if it would be too much.


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## TheOneAndOnlyKelly (May 7, 2009)

In a word: depends....

How much light are you using to illuminate the general cemetery versus each tombstone? All things being equal, the tombstones further from the source of the blue light will stand out a little better than the closer ones due to the general lighting being dimmer. Also how pure is the blue light you are using? Blue LEDs are a truer color than an incandescent source that is filtered. The filtered light will still have other frequencies coming through, and you won't get the same "pop" off of the color contrasting.

Using the LoR, which color is being controlled? The amber? If you think the amber is being washed out, you can always increase the number of lights at that point to conteract this.

The best way to tell is to do a trial setup with your blue wash and amber spots and see how it looks. Anything else is more-or-less hand waving at this point.


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## Dr Frankenscream (Dec 1, 2007)

Marsh28,

One of the advantages of using LOR is the ability to dim your lights to the desired level. Once you have your scene set up, you can adjust the intensity of each channel between 0% and 100%. This will give you the right mix of colors you are looking for.

My first year using LOR, I had some creepy black trees with orange string lights. They were way too bright at full intensity so I dialed them back to 25% and they looked much better.

With LOR, you can also add some flicker effects to give it a cool look as well.

Dr. Frankenscream


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## The_Caretaker (Mar 6, 2007)

Also you could make dimmable led spots like these I made: http://www.garageofevilnetwork.com/profiles/blogs/yet-another-led-spot-light?xg_source=activity


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## Bascombe (May 18, 2010)

As a lighting designer at our local theatre, I always know that warm light (amber) will overpower cool light (blue)

once you get your lights set, adjust the levels of both until it's something you like.


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## TheOneAndOnlyKelly (May 7, 2009)

Liked the tutorial, hated the out of focus photos. Any chance you can retake with a little better quality?? Pretty please?


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

Good choice using amber to spotlight your tombstones. Amber is close to yellow, which is on the opposite side of the RGB color wheel from blue. This means that the amber should mix with the blue and get you close to a white on your tombstones. It all depends on the intensities of the respective lights. Luckily, you have a LOR system and can adjust these to your liking.


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## Up_Up_And_Away (Jul 19, 2008)

Actually, orange is opposite blue on the color wheel; yellow is opposite purple. Perhaps using a small orange c7 bulb or even a flicker bulb on each tombstone...


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

Up_Up_And_Away said:


> Actually, orange is opposite blue on the color wheel; yellow is opposite purple. Perhaps using a small orange c7 bulb or even a flicker bulb on each tombstone...


You are describing an RYB color wheel which is used with pigment and is a subtractive color wheel. In that model you are correct about orange being opposite blue, and yellow being opposite purple. This model applies to pigments, and get's you closer to black the more pigment (paint) colors you add.






I was describing the RGB color wheel which is used in lighting and is applicable in this situation. In this model, yellow is opposite blue. This is an additive system that gets closer to white the more colors of light you add. It takes Red, Green, and Blue light to make white. Yellow light is made by combining Red and Green. So, if you combine a yellow light with a blue light, you get white.






Doesn't really matter too much in this particular situation anyway. The amber (or orange) are close to yellow, so you will still get closer to a white color and cause the tombstones to pop out of the blue light.


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## Up_Up_And_Away (Jul 19, 2008)

Wow, thanks! It's like that old "The more you know..." segment. )


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## Up_Up_And_Away (Jul 19, 2008)

Is this the look you're going for, but with a wash of blue?


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

Up_Up_And_Away said:


> Wow, thanks! It's like that old "The more you know..." segment. )


I just read my post again, and it sounds a little snarky on my part. I'm sorry about that. That wasn't my intention.


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## marsh28 (Dec 2, 2010)

Thanks for the advice everyone. By the way, I got the idea of combining Blue washed out light with Amber accent lights from a recent visit to the Haunted Mansion at night during a trip to Disneyworld a couple of weeks ago with my little one. The Blue and red/orange color seems to really pop.


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## marsh28 (Dec 2, 2010)

Dr Frankenscream said:


> Marsh28,
> 
> One of the advantages of using LOR is the ability to dim your lights to the desired level. Once you have your scene set up, you can adjust the intensity of each channel between 0% and 100%. This will give you the right mix of colors you are looking for.
> 
> ...


Doesn't it take along time to change the intensity levels even if you have the sequence done?


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## Dark Star (Nov 6, 2007)

Ok this is what I did. I lit the whole cemetery with blue and then used lanterns around the yard for the amber accents it worked great, following the Skull and Bone method.

http://www.skullandbone.com/images/haunt_lighting_03.jpg


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## Spook_Master (Nov 6, 2008)

marsh28 said:


> Doesn't it take along time to change the intensity levels even if you have the sequence done?


Marsh,

Not really. For example, if you have a light in your sequence that you had set to be "ON" at 100% for 30 seconds (as an example), just select that section and adjust the intensity.

Of course the amount of work will depend on how many different lights you're controlling, but the adjustment itself is pretty easy.


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## Dark Star (Nov 6, 2007)

wow..you guys really make this deep....LOL


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## Darkmaster (May 9, 2009)

You gotta love LEDs and what you can do.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

Besides the brightness of the lights, their placement in relationship to each other and in relationship to the stones will play a very strong role in how well they work.
Mounting amber lights on the backs of the stones so that they are aimed at the stones sitting behind them can give you a broader coverage/illumination of the stones and let you avoid "hot spots" appearing on the stones. If you are using fog then putting your blue lights around the perimeter can help the fog appear to be bluish, and between the placement and the variable intensity on the lights you should be able to get the desired look.


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