Thread: Lighting Questions?

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I have A Haunted House With 8 Areas/Rooms. I Have 2 rooms I'm Not Sure What Lights I Should Use, All Rooms Are Clowns With Mostly Black Plastic Walls, Room 1 Has A Trick R Treater In A Cage With Body Parts And Blood. Room 2 Is A Room With A Trick R Treater Tied In A Chair. Booth Rooms The Scares Are From Behind The Decoy (Chair & Cage Victum). Was Woundering What Your Idea Of Lights I Should Use, Red? Blue? ETC?

I've always found that colored lighting is an experiment. Depending on the mood you want to set to that scene & color of props - things in that scene which a colored light can add to the effect or neutralize / dull down ( in a wrong way ) your scene...

If your using 2 different colored lights together in the same scene you'll get a 3rd color cross over.

I would experiment when you have each room set up to see the best effect for that scene.

If you use a flip-flop approach, you can use say a yellow or blue lite when they 1st approach the room giving it a calmer / non threatening feel, then switch over to say a red lite to suddenly create a scene of doom....

I agree on the lighting is an experiment. My wife was collecting masks and had them hanging on the wall. They were not the masquerade type but rather female face figures with jester hats or the like and a little bit of makeup. We had a red light bulb we tried in a lamp and when the light hit the masks, it was down right scary at how they changed. Play around and see how the mood changes with it!

I try to stay away from red when doing blood scenes. It makes the skin look rosey and hides the blood too much. Kind of a wash out effect so you can't see where the person was bleeding. I'm leaning more toward bluish lights now that give a more wash over the characters. I too need help with lighting because, I don't use enough or large enough to light up areas. I tried those little clip-on cheepo led lights last year and they were worhless in my opinion.

I only use red on a prop or scene if there is no blood, but to give a particular prop an evil essence- on people red doesn't look good.

I find a lot of small canister lite fixtures for .50 - 1.00 at my salvation army that I use reg colored bulbs in,they work perfect for what I need. They can be attached to a wall or placed on floor. & just got a nice new Chauvet par38 can for $2. on 1/2 off day there also yesterday !!

Those little lites might have a few good uses, but in general they didn't do much for me....

I agree with everyone!!I own a stage lighting company so heres a few tips: clowns you might want a black light or strobe. red gives everything an erie feel, leds can also make colors look like other colors if shined correctly. hope this helps!!

Austin

I was not suggesting red per se. I was talking about how when we were using a red bulb for something else, it really changed the masks. I should have been more clear, but I was suggesting trying different color bulbs to see the different effects. Each color is going to do its own thing. Personally, I use a bug lamp spotlight because I like the gold light.

I think it all comes down to experimenting, lots of variables with each individual haunt & mostly - what you think looks good for your haunt....
Play & have fun.

& I like bug lamp spotlight,.....gold tone, hmmm sounds like a pretty cool lighting application, add that to the lighting book of must tries !

Thanks For All The Help, I Thing I Will Use A Small Strobe Light And Check A few Colors To See How It Looks Once I Get The Haunt Set Up.

I have two questions lighting and power.
1) I want to have a pressure or motion switch that when tripped/stepped on, lights turn on and power is sent to a leaf blower? Any suggestions?
2) In my bathroom I want the lights to spontaneously go out and black light to either go on, or has previously been on. Both for shock value.

Just found the forum. Awesome. Getting excited for Halloween!

Thanks in advanced.