# Lighting my yard display



## bignick (Sep 25, 2008)

I have attached the basic blue prints of what i hope my yard will look like this year when everything is all said and done. Now all i really have for lights are the garage and front porch lights. Neither one really light the front yard well. The garage is right next to the TOT path and i could run an extension cord from there. My question is How should i light my display so that A. people can see it and B. I can keep vandals from trying to take my stuff. 

If you guys could provide links to what i should buy i would really appreciate it.


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## Lilly (Jun 13, 2006)

you need a couple or three flood lights .
hook em up and check different positions.


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## Lilly (Jun 13, 2006)

check this out

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=9441&highlight=ghostess+lighting


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## bignick (Sep 25, 2008)

Thanks Lilly!


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## gypsichic (Jun 6, 2006)

i learned from http://skullandbone.com/tutorial_01.htm


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## Front Yard Fright (Dec 23, 2005)

bignick said:


> I have attached the basic blue prints of what i hope my yard will look like this year when everything is all said and done. Now all i really have for lights are the garage and front porch lights. Neither one really light the front yard well. The garage is right next to the TOT path and i could run an extension cord from there. My question is How should i light my display so that A. people can see it and B. I can keep vandals from trying to take my stuff.
> 
> If you guys could provide links to what i should buy i would really appreciate it.


What we do, is we have 2 big blue spot lights located on the back of our cemetery pillars and have them pointed down at the cemetery. It works great because one, the lights are high enough so they can light the whole cemetery and second, you don't have to worry about people tripping or touching your lights.

What you could try to do is put some lights up on trees in your yard, providing you have trees! Hope you get it all figured out!
:jol:.


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## Frighteners Entertainment (Jan 24, 2006)

Getting down to the basics.
If you want real, go blue.
If you want to invoke an entertaining aspect, green and red.

It all comes down to what you want for the end effect.
So, what are you looking for?


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## bignick (Sep 25, 2008)

I don't really know what color i want. I want to show off my props and there gory ness so i am guessing green and red but i would have to see displays with different colors to see which ones i like best.


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## Frighteners Entertainment (Jan 24, 2006)

If you want it to look real in moon light....no choice but blue.
but accent lighting, we can work on that.
Small spot lights for the areas you want to have the effect you want.

Everything going to be outdoors?


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## spideranne (Jul 17, 2006)

I have a very similar house layout to yours and I do two blue floods in the front corners of the cemetery and then red floods behind the back tombstones to light the props closer to the house. I have no trees to speak of so the floods in those cheap metal holders just sit on the ground or maybe propped on a rock. I keep thinking I'll hide them the next year, and then I never do, no one notices. I find lighting to be just something you have to play with until you get it the way you would like it.


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## Frighteners Entertainment (Jan 24, 2006)

I agree, it's all on what you want.
You are the artist of your own creation.


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## Lilly (Jun 13, 2006)

your welcome Big nick...
fe is right about the blue..thats the most creepy look I think.
sure accent any of your props with a sep smaller light.maybe soft yellow

I don't know about red and green that makes me think of xmas


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## bignick (Sep 25, 2008)

I like how spideranne set it up. I can totally see that too. So i would need 4 maybe 5 lights. What kind should i get. BTW everything is outside. I also forgot that i have an outlet outside the front of my house and i have a light on the front porch that i can change out and put in a different colored bulb.

So where can i find this stuff?


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## ScreamingScarecrow (Oct 1, 2008)

bignick said:


> I don't really know what color i want. I want to show off my props and there gory ness so i am guessing green and red but i would have to see displays with different colors to see which ones i like best.


Overall blue is great for the flood effect but nothing shows gore like white light so try smaller white lights in key areas to bring out the gore. or but this is a bit tricky - try mixing red, yellow, blue and green, where all the lights spill togehter you'll have near white light.


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## bignick (Sep 25, 2008)

where do i get the different colored bulbs?


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## corner haunt (May 21, 2008)

You can get lights any where. Hardware store, Home Depot, heck I just got some black light cfl's at Walgreens.
I would read that Skull and Bone lighting guide. That was great.


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## witchywoman (Oct 24, 2005)

What do you do when you have a nice bright street light infront of your house??


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## bignick (Sep 25, 2008)

Paint the street light Blue


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## poison (May 12, 2008)

*Malibu Lights!*

I highly recommend using 11 WATT MALIBU SPOT LIGHTS. They come in a kit at home depot and they are subtle enough NOT to ruin he eerie effect of a graveyard or what ever your lighting. You can put different COLORED covers on the front to see which works best for each display. I have never used flood lights because they are just too bright.


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## bignick (Sep 25, 2008)

Thats what i am afraid of is having a flood light being to bright.


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## corner haunt (May 21, 2008)

Take the time and read through the info from Skull and Bones that gypsichic posted. It has some great info on there. This will be the first year I will be doing any lighting, and I think it will help alot.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Two spots in the front, but to the sides...you will have to futz with your tombstones to make sure enough light falls back to hit the ravens & skeletons. The scarecrow can be uplit with red or orange...while it may not be safe, I have spray painted a white spot with red paint around the edges to make the effect I wanted (center white, red edges). Madtinkerer has info on how to make spotlight dimmers- it seems like a pretty quick project once you gather all the materials (something I keep putting off doing day after day!!arg!). 
For the cornstalks, you can use the stalks to hide the up lights from view...my pet peeve is not shielding the spots a bit from the viewers eyes. 
Man, green glowsticks in the pigs heads would look great. They also make mouth sized glowsticks..that would be sweet....OR...pick up a few heavy plastic, semi opaque school binder folders in your choice of color....cut the pieces of plastic to fit in each pigs eye or mouth...use Xmas lights behind the plastic in each head to light the head (lights go up the support stick, up the neck & into the head...)

I think you may need to put up a notice that this is a non-Kosher yard haunt? 


Pigs heads..who woulda thunk it? Where (bytheway) are you GETTING just a pig's HEAD?? Hmmm....I do have a butcher up the street.....Hmmmmm.....(thinkingthinking)


d5


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## halloween71 (Aug 9, 2007)

I don't think blue is to bright at all.I think blue needs to be brighter.It isn't nearly as bright as the other colors.
I am planning on blue for my primary light but think I am going to have to use alot of lights to get the props to pop.On some props I am pin spotting green and red but blue is the main color.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

I found you can also scrape off some of the color on floodlights, to give the light a hint of white. I am gonna use more glowsticks, LED candles and see if strings of lights work better for lower light levels. I have an orange street light about 30 feet away that is my nemesis. (Still debating whether I need to take a risk & slingshot it out...it could happen). I want to do all blue & green...but then I want to use red as a yummy accent...and my house's teeth use a white spot...so it ends up looking like a damn carnival at my house. I gotta figure out how to have the gumption to just stick with green & white....NO RED....
And I still wanna get three pig heads, and have them singing and lit up....or make them into a fountain...
I wonder if I can get chicken heads?? Goat heads?? HMmmmmmmm...............
d5


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## bignick (Sep 25, 2008)

debbie5 said:


> Pigs heads..who woulda thunk it? Where (bytheway) are you GETTING just a pig's HEAD?? Hmmm....I do have a butcher up the street.....Hmmmmm.....(thinkingthinking)
> 
> d5


Google Fukdupstuff. It's an Ebay store. The owner is really nice.


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## bignick (Sep 25, 2008)

Well last night your's truly went to HD to by lighting equipment. Needless to say 180.00 later!!!! I could not believe how expensive extension chords are. 

Whatever, at least i am done spending big money this year. Anyways, i got 6 lights. 2 for the grave yard. 2 for the skeletons, one for the pig heads and one for the scarecrow. I hooked up the graveyard lights last night and they look good. 

I still can't get over how expensive all that stuff was.


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## turtle2778 (Jul 9, 2006)

Nick how much did you find the bulbs and sockets for at HD. At lowes we are currently at 10 for the sockets and 7 for the lights. Just trying to price compare.


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## bignick (Sep 25, 2008)

HD was $5 for the socket and $7 for the bulb.


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## Uruk-Hai (Nov 4, 2006)

I'm with you on the cost of extension cords - especially since you never seem to have enough and end up scrambling at the the last minute. After my initial purchase some years ago I try and pick up at least one additional cord/year. It also didn't help that I want to change over my lighting this year and get away from the more multi-coloured look and go with mostly blue & orange/red. That meant I had to go out and buy a large number of new bulbs for the sockets I already had.

As for light intensity I've got a 4 channel dimmer box to control the amount of light being cast. It was a huge help last year in creating a darker less day-glo atmosphere.

Looking forward to seeing pics of your completed set-up.


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## bignick (Sep 25, 2008)

My father in law suggested buying a couple of 100ft extension chords and then just cutting them into the sizes i needed and from there making new extension chords but ireally don't have time and i don't trust myself.

I hope to have everything up and done by this weekend. So i will post pictures for sure.


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## poopsko (Oct 16, 2007)

Uruk-Hai , where did u get this multi-channel dimmer box ?


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## Uruk-Hai (Nov 4, 2006)

poopsko said:


> Uruk-Hai , where did u get this multi-channel dimmer box ?


I don't want to hijack this thread but I had my dad make it for since 120V wiring makes me nervous! There are a number of extension cord/dimmer how-tos around. Here's the one we used:

http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/HalloweenTech/dimbox_DimmerBox.html

All my dad did was to expand it to 4 outlet/dimmers so that I have a total of 8 plugs running on 4 separate channels. This allows me to adjust the intensity of diff. spotlights independant of each other and really helped in controlling the overall look of the lighting. Hope this helps.


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## nixie (Sep 17, 2008)

I use amber (warm and orange-y) on most of mine. I then put blue lights on my "undead" guys to make them look colder and spookier. I think the blue and orange contrast nicely, and help with the contrast of the "good" and "evil". I also used green light on the coven in the back, hoping to get a layered effect. To be honest, I'm not entirely happy with how it all came out, but I'm planning to leave it for this year, and try to improve on it next year.


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