# What are your lighting tricks? Post pics too! :)



## 22606 (Aug 11, 2008)

A couple of strobes with tinted plastic lens covers have been my go-to lighting technique for years


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## BeaconSamurai (Nov 5, 2009)

Forelight abd backlighting. Use a spot light to highlight an object, then use a flood light behind it for mood.


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## Gothikim (Jul 25, 2005)

I uplight my house with green floods, then light the cemetery with blue floods, mostly. I also use yellow/orange lighting accents in the cemetery to break up all the blue light. Otherwise it all sort of blends together. I take care to obscure my light sources so they aren't quite so obvious to viewers. In my downstairs bay window, the crank ghostie gets TONS of blacklight, so her glow is almost its own light source. 

This is an OLD photo, but it gets the point across. I've made improvements since then (LED floods, light fixtures that look like rocks, etc). I shoot for a Haunted Mansion sort of feel in my lighting: spooky yet artsy without being cartoony or garish.










Although it's been archived, in a fashion, and is now in PDF form instead of being webpages, I highly recommend the Skull and Bone Yard Haunt Lighting Tutorial. Go to http://www.robertdbrown.com/haunt/ and click on the Yard Haunt... tutorial PDF file. It's where I got started


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## Halloweenie1 (Sep 28, 2008)

I love working with lighting..... I find for me, it can make the ordinary (I am not a prop master- unfortunately ) look much better.

My tip: Leave a little space (darkness) inbetween lighting/or prop areas, so your vignette does'nt get washed out with too much light from overlap from another spot.


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## TheMonsterMasher (Jul 28, 2012)

Halloweenie1 said:


> I love working with lighting..... I find for me, it can make the ordinary (I am not a prop master- unfortunately ) look much better.
> 
> My tip: Leave a little space (darkness) inbetween lighting/or prop areas, so your vignette does'nt get washed out with too much light from overlap from another spot.


These look amazing! You did a really awesome job on these. I really like the tombstones though, those look really great


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## Halloweenie1 (Sep 28, 2008)

*Thanks!*


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## dawghaunt (May 5, 2012)

Where are your lights located in this picture?


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## ozfest43 (Jun 27, 2012)

These are amazing pics! Lights make or break a great haunt scene.


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## jdubbya (Oct 4, 2003)

We use simple flood lights. The front is lit by 2 100w blue and 2 or 3 100 w amber. I've gradually reduced the amount of light we use to avoid a "Christmasy" look, while still allowing the display to be seen.


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## 3pinkpoodles (May 2, 2012)

Halloweenie1

your shost is awesome- the one holding the lantern. Can you spill your secrets? How did you make this??? And- what did you do for the lighting effects?



halloweenie1 said:


> i love working with lighting..... I find for me, it can make the ordinary (i am not a prop master- unfortunately ) look much better.
> 
> My tip: Leave a little space (darkness) inbetween lighting/or prop areas, so your vignette does'nt get washed out with too much light from overlap from another spot.


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## 3pinkpoodles (May 2, 2012)

GOTHIKIM

I also love your ghost- What did you do to make this and waht lighting did you use? I really want to put these types of ghosts in my cemetery  It looks fantastic 


Gothikim said:


> I uplight my house with green floods, then light the cemetery with blue floods, mostly. I also use yellow/orange lighting accents in the cemetery to break up all the blue light. Otherwise it all sort of blends together. I take care to obscure my light sources so they aren't quite so obvious to viewers. In my downstairs bay window, the crank ghostie gets TONS of blacklight, so her glow is almost its own light source.
> 
> This is an OLD photo, but it gets the point across. I've made improvements since then (LED floods, light fixtures that look like rocks, etc). I shoot for a Haunted Mansion sort of feel in my lighting: spooky yet artsy without being cartoony or garish.
> 
> ...


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## Halloween Scream (Sep 29, 2010)

Flood lights are key! I use large washes of color, then lanterns/spots to highlight certain items. I love strobe lights in the windows behind the window cling images. I also did away with my strings of decorative lights (plastic pumpkin or ghost covers over Christmas-type strands), because the look is so much cleaner/professional.


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## haunting_newb (Oct 5, 2020)

I know I'm jumping in on an old post but I'm looking for help with my lighting. My husband purchased these LED lights that you can change the color via remote and we set those up on our small cemetery but there were hotspots of lights. Where do you all hide your lights and make it so that it's not so harsh? I'm including a pic... please be nice! LOL


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## Michael__Myers (Sep 8, 2019)

By harsh do you mean how its visible on the grass? I hide mine behind pumpkins and tombstones. But mainly the lights are pointed up/at an angle


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## Meadow (Apr 14, 2019)

BeaconSamurai said:


> Forelight abd backlighting. Use a spot light to highlight an object, then use a flood light behind it for mood.


Seriously hands down! Lighting with multiple lights gets the best effects.


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## Meadow (Apr 14, 2019)

@haunting_newb Hiding lighting is sometimes just not possible. @Michael__Myers has a seriously strong lighting game this year! Pumpkins, tombstones and sometimes behind the prop itself is necessary. I’ve also had to leave some out and in the boulevard to cross the sidewalk (solar lights) cause I’ve found for motion sensors a person walking by can help trigger a prop. Not to mention if you have a prop that doesn’t set off easily some swirling lights might do the trick or even strobe lights. 

Colored lights are really interesting and can seriously take a display from mediocre to amazing. I know shortly before our props go out we pull out all our colored lights and test the “look”. It’s amazing what green might do instead of purple or orange.


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## cleanfreak (Jul 20, 2015)

LED Floods are the way to go. I found 30w light per each item you have works good......it’s a little expensive, but worth it.


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## haunting_newb (Oct 5, 2020)

cleanfreak said:


> LED Floods are the way to go. I found 30w light per each item you have works good......it’s a little expensive, but worth it.
> View attachment 739707


Beautiful! I just checked and the lights we used are 60w. Unfortunately my hubby won't let me spring on other lights since we have 4 of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QWNW2D3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hopefully we can make it work!


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## haunting_newb (Oct 5, 2020)

Michael__Myers said:


> By harsh do you mean how its visible on the grass? I hide mine behind pumpkins and tombstones. But mainly the lights are pointed up/at an angle
> 
> View attachment 739688
> 
> ...


I love it! I totally see what you mean by just facing them up on the wall. I'll have to find some creative ways to not make it look so bright on certain parts of the grass. Last Halloween it rained all day so the fog that we thought would help just didn't work out. What type of netting is that that you used for the spider web?


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## Michael__Myers (Sep 8, 2019)

haunting_newb said:


> I love it! I totally see what you mean by just facing them up on the wall. I'll have to find some creative ways to not make it look so bright on certain parts of the grass. Last Halloween it rained all day so the fog that we thought would help just didn't work out. What type of netting is that that you used for the spider web?


Thanks  It's the beef netting from Trenton Mills.

Your setup looks fine, you just have a big open space to work with. If you feel it's too much lighting, unplug a light or two, perhaps reposition them and see if it's more to your liking. I always test out different looks to see what I prefer going forward with.


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## Trendyb (Oct 9, 2017)

haunting_newb said:


> I know I'm jumping in on an old post but I'm looking for help with my lighting. My husband purchased these LED lights that you can change the color via remote and we set those up on our small cemetery but there were hotspots of lights. Where do you all hide your lights and make it so that it's not so harsh? I'm including a pic... please be nice! LOL
> View attachment 739687


I have those lights too. You did a good job!


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## FogMaster (Jul 4, 2018)

RGB floods are definitely the way to go.


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## Trendyb (Oct 9, 2017)

Michael__Myers said:


> By harsh do you mean how its visible on the grass? I hide mine behind pumpkins and tombstones. But mainly the lights are pointed up/at an angle
> 
> View attachment 739688
> 
> ...


I can't even see your lights, they are hidden so well!!!! what lights did you use?? also, where is your webbing from?


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## Michael__Myers (Sep 8, 2019)

Trendyb said:


> I can't even see your lights, they are hidden so well!!!! what lights did you use?? also, where is your webbing from?


The lights are the Home Accents Holiday LED spotlights. Through the years I got them from Home Depot and Spirit. The webbing is the beef netting from Trenton Mills


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## SquirrelGoneWild (Oct 7, 2020)

I use RGB floods and lights that are controlled via computer which allows me to set the flood to any color. This allows me to experiment with different colors. I usually use them for my synchronized Christmas display but this year is the first time I will be doing my house for Halloween. Right now I only have 2/3 of floods up and still have to put up the non flood lights. Here is what I've got done so far. Here are some images of me experimenting with color as well as some of the lights with their controllers.


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## TerrorTech (Aug 21, 2020)

FogMaster said:


> RGB floods are definitely the way to go.


Well you're certainly living up to your name haha! Are you feeding them from a pipe on a floor up the middle of each torch?


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