I'm a guy who typically dislikes any kind of LED tea light. They seem dim and never realistic. And most are light orange, not the neat bright white of a real candle flame.
I was initially going to use real candles in the ANGELS' hearts and in the green CHURCH staffs around the KINGS, but I realized early on that would have been foolish due to the heat and the potential for accidents (a lesson I ignored from the big votive stand I built).
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| Each of these green-glassed jars had three LED tea lights in them. |
So I thought I'd pass along the type I purchased on Amazon. Really bright and totally realistic. My advice would be to use two or three in anything you're thinking of lighting, but definitely DIFFUSE the light sources by wrapping the tea lights in a thin piece of crumpled white tissue paper - but only one layer!
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| I used two LED teal lights for the hearts. |
Here's the link to the LED lights if you're interested...click below:
16 comments:
I think LED tealights continue to improve all the time - thanks for the recommendation.
Important to note: These "burn" for days and days.
Nice and bright too.
Thanks, Rot! Love these kinds of tips / tutorials! I think a lot of us obsess over details like this (I.e. the best LED impression of candle or incandescent light), so this kind of pointer is always appreciated to spare some experimentation pain! Great work and thanks for always sharing and setting the standard high!
I am ALWAYS skeptical about using led tea lights. Afraid of them looking too fake and not bright enough.
I have been researching those led flame bulbs. SO many out there and the reviews are up and down for all of the ones I looked at so far.
You know what I miss? The crazy GREEN GREEN GREEN of glow sticks of days past. Is it just me or have they changed the formula and the new glow sticks are just NOTHING compared to the old color?? That color is basically burned into any of my earliest Halloween memories.
All of that to say, your lights remind me of that memory. Well done. Glad you found something "new fangled" that you took and adapted to fit your needs and make it better than what it could be on its own. Great tips!
Oh, and if you EVER find a way to make LED Christmas lights not look 100% lame let us know. LOL.
Those forcers of LEDs will have to pry my beloved C9's out of my cold, dead hands.
totally agree about the old glowsticks.
In my memory they're violently bright.
and would be for a couple days.
and i agree also about the LED Christmas lights.
My eyes definitely can't handle them. As they always feel like they're quivering to me (the lights...not my eyes).
I love the flameless tea lights...except that I love the fact that the real ones economically come with their own timer...you don't have to worry about turning them off.
i love when (no matter what tome of year) i see a lone swipe of twinklies sparkling in soneone's yard or thru a house window. always makes me stop & admire. lights are so magical. they just make ya feel so good. they're life!!
Please consider posting a video--I'd like to see how realistic is the flicker effect.
I have piles of LED tealights and agree with your assessment that they leave much to be desired, way too dim, etc., etc. Would like to replace them, and the ones you're showing here might be the ticket.
Thanks.
You're gonna have to trust me on this!
until i get a smart phone..and the video of the ANGELS' Hearts is proof!
https://youtu.be/38wCmaOgMmM?t=46
Very interesting, these are the lights I use in some of my pumpkins!
on a side note....I still want to see one of your haunts in person and of course, I would show up in full, bloody clown costume.
For Spooky Franklin I use remote controlled pod lights in all my foams as well as in the hanging pails. I've had a few pails I forgot to drill drainage holes in and these lights continued to work underwater. As I had the pails hanging all October it was nice to be able to turn them on with the remote buy simply walking thru the yard setting remote timer to 8 hours.
I've had a few of these lights for at least 5 years.. Still working..
https://www.amazon.com/HOME-MOST-Halloween-Pumpkin-Lantern/dp/B07GKX5J1G/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1543254461&sr=8-8&keywords=pumpkin+light
I use little LED votives that have timers in them. I turn them on at dusk the first night and they went until about 10. Each day they turn on and off until take down day when they get shut off for the season. I turn them all on one by one and mix them up in a bag and put them all around the haunt. I must have at least 50 of them. The ghostly lighting of the candles at dusk is a really cool effect.
Thanks, I just watched your 2018 video (I'd somehow overlooked it before) and the light in the "hearts" does indeed look like candle flame. Now, if these tealights had a built-in timer, they'd be ideal. I'm going to order some and give them a try.
I've obsessed over the darn LED candle realism for a bit. The best I've found so far (by far), is this funny little Solderless Flickery Flame LED Kit from EvilMadScientist at https://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/777 . You have to use some sort of thin diffuser (i.e. simple white tissue paper) to hide the actual LEDs and the flame's flicker is a bit too fast, but they're pretty awesome and the color is nearly dead-on. They're reasonably priced at $8.95, but are a learning kit, so you'll remember circuits and breadboards real quick! Haven't looked into simply getting the parts on my own, I'm sure it would be a fraction of the cost. Unfortunately, you do have to manually the darn things on. If anyone is smarter with circuitry than me, a simple daily on/off timer would make these awesome. Here's a video of them: https://youtu.be/TiCOr9gC-jY .
Good to know. My biggest fear of battery tea lights is if the ONE package I get has weak batteries. Then if I get a few, I have to turn them all on and stare at them to see which ones are the brightest, especially for photographing. But these look great. Especially those church staffs, LOVE them!
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