As a Haunter you become obsessed with your lighting, and I have to admit that as each season approaches I get cold sweats worrying about the wiring and the bulbs and the fixtures which get stuffed around the porch. I probably have more fixtures and more varieties of bulbs than a hardware store (the extinct family-owned kind).
There are always two considerations:
1. How does it look to the naked eye?
2. How does it look in the photos?
Incandescent bulbs are warmer and seem more natural, yet fluorescent bulbs (http://images.lowes.com/product/converted/822985/822985510356lg.jpg) seem to be more brilliant and are WAY more durable. And they seem to catch small details in twigs and sticks.
Still on the fence on which I prefer, so I suspect I'll always use a mix.
Used all fluorescent bulbs in 2014 (must confess that staring at those crosses hurt my eyes):
Used orange fluorescent bulbs on the porch (seen on the corn stalks) and regular floods on the lawn (eyes did not hurt):
Used an orange fluorescent behind the Strawman and in the fire pit, and used a regular blue flood on the porch, and amber floods for the two scarecrows (and a green fluorescent bulb in each of their heads):
Here's a lighting test with one of the scarecrows. Blue regular Flood lamp on the porch with an orange LED spotlight on the scarecrow in the top pic, and an amber flood in the bottom pic (I really dig the effect in both, but I went with the amber floods since they were easier on the eyes in person):
16 comments:
I guess it's a matter of personal choice. The blue cfl seems overpowering to me in person and in pics. I've tried in the past to get it as far away and high up to get a pale moonlight feel. But no success yet. One day. You definitely have lightning down pat IMO. I do love the bottom scarecrow pic. The amber incandescents give it a lit by firelight feel. I need outlets around the yard cause I really dread running extension cords.
Funny cause I don't have any outlets in the front of the house and run two long cords from the yard around each side of the house.
The garden is snaked with extension cords on the big night. I feel I've tested the limits of extension cords...(picture the outlet in A CHRISTMAS STORY)...
I couldn't find a photo from that movie...so here's another one:
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2012/12/screenshot_121712_213_pm.jpeg
Thank you for sharing your lighting experiences...gives me some ideas to try for next year. I have literally done things differently every single year, experimenting to try for an optimal look. I've never been 100% satisfied.
My yard is also riddled with extension cords...pretty much throughout October. Wish I had outlets in the yard...but I'll have to save that for when I hit the lotto!
Great post after the conversation this morning. I run extension cords around the perimeter of the fence in my yard and I cover them in leafs when necessary. I want to better hid my clamp lamps next year. I may make some special tombstones for this.
Yes, great thread on lighting. I use the black plastic containers from the garden shop to hide stuff, and sticks of course. And sometimes toilet paper tubes covered in black duck tape for smaller lights. Thanks for sharing!
I love that you did a post on this! You would crack up if you saw the collection of floodlights and battery powered spotlights that I have amassed. I tell myself every year that I won't need to buy any new lights for next year but then always find something new in the technology that gets me reeled in again. My problem is dealing with things getting wet since October is always a wet month in Texas and my haunt is so large that I have to have the lighting set up well in advance. I splurged last year and spent $600 to have 5 new outlets added to the front of house specifically for Halloween lighting. Well worth it to not have to have so many extension cords or the horrible nightmare of pushing it past the limit and having the whole thing blow on show night. Yes....I have had that happen. I still have a mix of everything but was thrilled to stumble across the new colored LED spotlights by Gemmy that hit the market this year. They pack a punch when lighting up one prop without polluting the rest of your set where you might want to use a different color. And they draw very little electricity and don't get hot. I am always worried about setting leaves or other organic matter on fire with a hot floodlight. Anyway....could go on and on about this topic and find it so interested to see the different results you have gotten by experimenting.
Where are you guys finding amber LED flood lights? Or LED floodlight bulbs? All I came across where the blue, green and red LED spotlights which are all closed units with a single LED bulb. You can't switch out the bulb.
http://www.spirithalloween.com/product/orange-led-spot-light/77562.uts?Extid=sf_froogle&utm_campaign=RKG-Shopping-Brand&utm_medium=paid&utm_source=google&utm_term=110529448186_condition_new_product_type_decorations&utm_content=Brand&utm_inex=e&product_id=01227883&adpos=1o1&creative=57291664066&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CP7r_-aAsdACFYtXDQodNAAB1Q
Spirit Halloween of all places had orange LED spotlights. VERY bright..I was trying to dim them with orange crepe paper...I'll definitely use them in the future.
Cool!! By the time I made it to the Spirit store those were gone but I found the awesome purple ones they had. Really purple.....not pink....and they featured a strobe and flash switch.
Holy Tarra, I got my blue and green flood lights on Amazon. The amber ones for the life of me I can't remember where I got them, but it wasn't Amazon. It was some lighting web site though.
By the way, can I borrow $600 so I can put in new outlets in front of my house??? :D
That is something I need to do though.
Since California's new normal seems to be a state of drought, we had our front lawn torn out a few years ago to add xeriscaping, plus a couple of infinity fountains by our steps. Since we had to put in new electrical outlets for the fountains, I had them add another one on the side of the house on another circuit, so I wouldn't have to run everything on one. I have a 1300 watt Chauvet fog machine, it's a concern.
It really is worth it to save up and have an electrician put in more juice.
I discovered LED floods at Home Depot (in the Christmas section) and they're good, but I feel like there's almost too much contrast between my hot spots and my shadows. I'm still playing with them...
I'm such a novice at this. Next year...for a Sideshow theme I hope to up my game as I'm starting way early. Used a mix of orange and blue LEDs with one white one that was tinted red using cellophane.
There are never, ever enough extension cords!! We buy more every year, and every year, we're putting together an extension cord puzzle, trying to fit as many things as we can on each power source, because we don't have enough cords. Now the hubs has started running wire for some of the mini spots that we use to highlight specific pieces and they yard becomes a death-trap tripping hazard, which I always snake though in the dark and the fog just to get pictures on Halloween lololol ahhhh what we won't do for the love of Halloween!
Thank you for sharing your lighting techniques. I'm really interested in decorating more outside next year and lighting is so important!
i love the last 2 pics of the same scare cause those 2 panels look like an old school advertisement you would see in like a magazine for colour scheme choices. you know like an old GE advertisement. "how do you want to shed light on your High Hold Day this year, well the selections are endless over here at GE". : D
oooopsss!!..High Holy Day.
i read & type everything incorrectly anymore. : (
Post a Comment