Thread: Flood vs. Spot lights

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So I was wondering everyone's preference for grave yard lighting. I plan on picking up a few standard jam in the ground outdoor spot light deals, and some colored led bulbs to go in them. I don't plan on 1 per tombstone or anything like that, looking to distribute the light as much as possible throughout. I guess my main question is are the flood light bulbs worth the extra money, or will the spots do the trick? Thanks.

well i would go with flood cuz it scatters the light

I would use a flood. They create a great equal amount of light.

However if you are using Par Cans, you may want to try a medium flood. This type of light allows you to have the flood effect with a focal beam of light.

You can make your own Par Cans from coffee cans:
parcan

Just a personal comment here, and it depends on your ambient other lighting, where your graveyard is, what the rest of the yard/neighborhood is like, etc. But I find that a lot of people over-illuminate tombstones. When I used to do tombstones, I used modified plastic landscape light with 7 watt bulbs in them. from across the dark yard (the tombstones were actually just on the edge of the woods) You could just see some small spots of light, and it begged you to come closer for a look. The rest of the yard was VERY dark.

I find that when people use 75 watt floods on every single prop, it totally erases the eerie darkness and makes it as bright as main street Disney. Also "stake lights" through down so much ground scatter (lighting up the ground in front of them more than the prop itself) it defeats the purpose.

Just my personal opinions, but depending on your surroundings, you might try some real low, unfiltered light and see what it looks like. If you try it, put the lights close to the prop, pointing more up at them, then farther away toward them. Also, so low wattage blacklights are a nice effect. 5-10 tubes are available.

Originally Posted by johnshenry

But I find that a lot of people over-illuminate tombstones.

I agree with Johnshenry, if you use to many lights or a high wattage bulb you can lose the effect you were going for. I personally use 30 to 50 Watt bulbs.

I use a 100W flood bulb for the cemetery entrance, and 25W blue party bulbs in clamp lights clsmped on the inside of my fence, so it produces an eerie blue glow on all of the tombstones. Then I use red, and green 25W bulbs for prop lighting. It works great for our setup.

Good post.

After years of doing the halloween yard thing and realizing that the light from my home actually darkens the front even with a small light I think I need different lighting.

I'm going to try two separate floods from behind pointed towards the ground and two or three smaller lights from the front to light up the grave yard.

My son works with an ad agency and does a lot of the animation and lighting. He suggested a harsh flood of 500% pointed from a tree about 14 feet high to the ground and two smaller ones at 30% and 50% near the front on the ground pointed at the grave yard to create separation.

He's the expert so I'm going to try what he said.

Remember it's 500% not 500watts. You don't want to blind the kids.

I figure a nice 100 watt spot light with a nice yellow or even orange or green with a blue or red gel in front. at about 60 watts each to see how that works.

I'm trying to do this on my shoe string budget and have attempted to use a coffee can as a spot light. Painted the inside black but it didn't work with a bulb. Now I'm going to try using a spot light and see how that works.

Yeah, I definitely don't want a bright graveyard, just mood lighting.

Same here. So I'm just going to have to play with it for a while. I've put a black light bulb in my porch but the light from the house is so bright even with the blinds closed I've got the upstairs windows etal. It's a pain plus I've got the street light that is cady corner from my lawn which lights up the entire area. So I've got to use that light plus some others to set the mood.

I'm looking at a fog machine to put somewhere in the grave site to make it a bit more creepy but I'm really not sure how well that would work. Especially if there's any wind on halloween night. Might be a worthless piece.

Any cheap fog machine ideas?

You could make one:
DC's: Halloween Post #1: How to Build a Fog Machine
the ultimate fog machine

However I find buying an "off the self" unit is normally more stable and reliable. Normally wall mart has them on offer this time of year.