# Lighting, tell me what you know



## CloseTheVoid (Aug 29, 2012)

So I'm spent an embarrassing (maybe not here) amount of time looking at videos and pictures of people's home haunts. Obviously the type and amount varies with the theme but common among yard haunts is specific colored lighting. It seems to work beautifully in graveyards and to spotlight props. What I'm wondering is how to go about doing it! What lamps to house the bulbs should you use? What bulbs? How should you wire it up? Suggested colors? How much lighting?

Give me all the advice you got!


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## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

I would start with a "wash" either red, green or blue. I use LED par 54's for this. (About $50 at any guitar center, I need four of them.) Then, I focus attention on specific areas by using a different color. That takes a few more par cans. ( In my case 3) after that I highlight some of the props with black light neon fixtures from a party store and to pinspot I have found the the easy way is to use LED flashlights with a gel. The Nice thing is that the parcans come in handy for party's as well. Then again, that's just how I do it, there may be a better way


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## jaege (Aug 23, 2009)

I agree with R Lamb, first start with a wash of a single color over the whole scene, then highlight with several different colors. I use a blue wash with par 20 halogen bulbs, over my graveyard, since that looks like moonlight and has a great effect with fog. Then I highlight individual items with either green or purple small (home made) led spots. My pumpkin patch is washed in yellow par 20s, and I use red highlights.


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## DarkLore (Jan 25, 2009)

So many questions and even more possible answers. The important thing to understand about light is that it is an additive color system. Add more to get to white. Which means, if you add too much you will wash out strong coloring. Keep color separated without much overlap for deep colors. Large, directional bulbs for spreading areas of color. Smaller spots for specific objects. I prefer LEDs because they require less power but still give bright light. Before you buy, decide what lights will use standard power and whether you plan to wire others on less power like 12v.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

There is a downloadable PDF on Yard Haunt Lighting on this page:

http://www.robertdbrown.com/haunt/

There is a discussion of lighting a haunt in this thread:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=31363


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

Lighting can be expensive and to get the best color saturation for your props, it will become complicated, but it doesn't have to start that way. Starting out on lighting, if you have a tight budget, is to buy the clamp lights from a place like Home depot for a few dollars, and then add in some spot lights that are colored bulbs, or colored flood lights. This gets you your starting effect and lights up your yard cheaply for the first year. Figure out what color scheme you like with red or blue or purple and then build off of this. 

I am currently switching to LED lighting over the course of a year or two and am still trying to figure out what color I want where. I probably never will figure it out completely. I am also making my LED spots, like several others on this forum. There are multiple threads on here in the Prop How To section on doing this. I combined the methods between the type of connection, pre wired LEDs, and the mounting/ housing from 3 separate how to's. 

The goal of most here is safety for the ToTs so getting away from 120 volt running through the yards on extensions cords, and going to a low voltage LED system is the way I went. Much less chance of a hurt kid with a faulty wire. Also GFCI our lighting outlets to protect from the weather as well.


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