# That Halloween House



## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

HOLY BEANS. You have a fantastic setup. I LOVE it. 

What kind of black lights do you use? Everything is super glowy and it looks like the lights are smaller LED?


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## 66539 (Feb 20, 2016)

What a wonderful haunt. It always shows when a person loves what they do, and you do such a great job in keeping the Halloween spirit alive. Thanks for the posts.


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## annamarykahn (Oct 4, 2009)

frankie's girl, thank you for the kind response 

most of the black lights are the fluorescent type. there are several large that are mounted on the house that provide a general flood in the yard, and along the walkway up to the porch there are several compact fluorescent in work light type reflectors. we have a few led "black lights" but i prefer the fluorescent type because they do produce light in the 365nm wavelength. all inexpensive leds produce light most of their light in the 400nm range, which is visible purple color. i want the black light reactive paints to "pop" out of the "darkness" so if there is 400nm light the purple color is visible so the contrast isn't as good, & the "pop" isn't as dramatic.

amk



Frankie's Girl said:


> HOLY BEANS. You have a fantastic setup. I LOVE it.
> 
> What kind of black lights do you use? Everything is super glowy and it looks like the lights are smaller LED?


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## annamarykahn (Oct 4, 2009)

thanks, chubstuff  

hopefully, there will be a halloween this year & the covid-19 situation will have been resolved. in any case i hope that you, your family & everyone stays healthy!

amk



chubstuff said:


> What a wonderful haunt. It always shows when a person loves what they do, and you do such a great job in keeping the Halloween spirit alive. Thanks for the posts.


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

annamarykahn said:


> frankie's girl, thank you for the kind response
> 
> most of the black lights are the fluorescent type. there are several large that are mounted on the house that provide a general flood in the yard, and along the walkway up to the porch there are several compact fluorescent in work light type reflectors. we have a few led "black lights" but i prefer the fluorescent type because they do produce light in the 365nm wavelength. all inexpensive leds produce light most of their light in the 400nm range, which is visible purple color. i want the black light reactive paints to "pop" out of the "darkness" so if there is 400nm light the purple color is visible so the contrast isn't as good, & the "pop" isn't as dramatic.
> 
> amk



I had wondered about the strength of the LED blacklights since all I'd read indicated they weren't quite the right temperature or light range... sometimes the old school stuff really is better! 

I any case, I love your display/haunt. AMAZING and I hope your neighborhood TOTs realize how lucky they are!


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## annamarykahn (Oct 4, 2009)

Frankie's Girl said:


> I had wondered about the strength of the LED blacklights since all I'd read indicated they weren't quite the right temperature or light range... sometimes the old school stuff really is better!
> 
> I any case, I love your display/haunt. AMAZING and I hope your neighborhood TOTs realize how lucky they are!


thanks for the kind words/feedback  a lot of the tots that show up are repeat "victims", lol, that come every year. we''re in a small city in tx & many have said that they've never seen anything as impressive as our little display, even in houston, or dallas. i find that hard to believe because there have to be many/some people that have the same "passion/obsession" in those huge cities.

we've been doing this since we moved into our house since 2009. started small and have grown. our max tot count was over 500 a couple years ago. not bad for a city of less than 20,000 ;-)

we have maxed out the front yard & porch area & probably have enough stuff for at least double the area. all of the store bought props have been modified so at a minimum they're black light reactive, and when the props are displayed, they're not randomly located. a lot of thought goes into "staging" the props so they "tell a story" or at least look like they belong together. one of my pet peeves are displays that just put out store bought or home made props without thinking about how they can be made to look better & not just hung/placed randomly.

it's a lot of work, but the reactions from everyone who drops by is priceless  

amk


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## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

Thank you so much for posting your halloween display, I have always loved your huge tarp faces and the black lighting. I just bought some wildfire clear white paint, and now I understand your statements with the LED vs regular flourescent black lights. I never understood how all of it really made a difference, but it sure does.


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## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

Have you seen Ghost of Autumn Wood on youtube? He really shows how the tube lights really make the difference. He has the really long ones strapped onto his trees.


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## annamarykahn (Oct 4, 2009)

matrixmom,

thx for the ghost of autumn wood heads up  very kewl

i've seen so many youtube videos that are so impressed with how bright led black lights are ... it's sad that these people don't know what they're talking about ... you want black lights to just make the fluorescent/neon colors to pop out from a dark/black background, ideally, you don't want to see the background, & with fluorescent lights, you get a darker background than is possible with the typical led black lights. yes the leds are "brighter" because you see the background, but the contrast between the fluorescent/neon and the background is poor. fluorescent tubes do emit visible light, but it is significantly less (nothing is perfect) than leds so the colors pop more  

having said that, i do use black light leds & have some solar powered blue yard lights that also, to my delight, emit some ultraviolet light as well.

stay healthy & scary :-0

amk


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## annamarykahn (Oct 4, 2009)

i probably should have added a clickable sample for one of last year's videos






amk


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## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

Love that clown face at the end...looks like its floating


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## matrixmom (Oct 29, 2010)

What kind of lights do you have behind the picture tarps?


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## annamarykahn (Oct 4, 2009)

matrixmom,

just compact fluorescent black lights ... the larger one has 6 or 7, smaller has 4 ... 

amazon has the 7 socket version here => https://www.amazon.com/Toplimit-Spl...ds=light+bulb+splitter&qid=1588355679&sr=8-11








hope that helps  

that clown face is suspended by fishing line, i think, i don't remember, lol

amk


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