Thread: Lighting help PLEASE!!

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I know there are other threads about lighting your haunt on here but I just cant get enough light to show my props. I am using 1 100 watt blue flood in the middle front, and 2 85 watt floods on either side in the front. Sadly its just not enough light to show much at all. What am I doing wrong here? I will probably go out and buy 2 more 100 watt blue floods to replace the 85 watters on either side and hope that helps. The 85 watt floods dont seem to throw much light at all.
I was also just on Pumpkinrots website and he seems to use nothing but red for his haunt. If I switch to red would that give me the light im looking for? I am going to have several tea light candles and some other things that are going to glow but it wont help me as far as lighting up anything else.
Help Help Help if you possibly can. It is way to close to the big night for my stupid lights to kill my haunt.

Thanks everyone, audible

First a picture of the lighting would give us some needed help for a recommendation, although I am a bit surprised your not getting any kind of results with three flood bulbs.

Its easy to give a recommendation but it may not be helpful this late in the season. Throw I picture up and I will see if I can help.

Craig

answer : 3 letters L.E.D. ! ditch incandescent bulbs!

I have both red and blue floods and the red ones definitely throw off more light than the blue. I even switched out two blues for red to fix that issue.

While the wattage of the lamp may say 100W or whatever, the actual amount of light that is transmitted is reduced when you use colored lamps. Reds have a higher transmission value than blue.
The choice of colors will depend on the effect that you want. Red will "expose " more of your scene, but using red will wipe out any blood effects you have on your scenery/props, giving them a bit of a greenish/black look to them. Blue lights will keep the area dark and mysterious, but not "expose" very much of your scene.
Because the transmission rate of blue is so low (the actual amount of light that is output) you would have to increase the number and wattage of the blue lights that you are using.
Hope this helps.

The lighting thing is tough. I have spent hours in my haunt trying different colors and positions and seeing what works and what doesn't. I have a huge bin of different lights to show for it. There are so many factors like what kind of props you have and if there are other sources of lights (like streetlights) that its hard to say what is the right answer. Like MsMello, I have found that the blue lights seem to give off less light and they seem to have the least affect when pointing at a prop like a tombstone. I use some blue floods pointing up into the tree in our yard and it gives it a nice spooky feel with the branches. For props like tombstones the red lights seem to work the best as they form harsh shadows. I also use some red lights pointing at some plants that cast large shadows on the side of the house.

I like to use blue and green lights on my cemeteries/graveyards. I usually cast red lights on my props. You don't want a whole lot of light in your cemetery - it keeps it looking creepy. Try moving your red lights to focus more-so on the specific props you want lit up, and use the blue ones on the cemetery. My best advice to you is to move your lights around in different configurations. Keep moving them until you find a position you like. That's how I do it every year.

I bought green floods to replace the security lights over the garage. I love the eeriness of them. I wish I had bought more green instead of blue. (Next year.....)

The blue floods are definitely weaker than other colors. I have four blues on my graveyard this year when it only took two greens to give the same illumination previously. I still like the look of the blue better though. Robzilla is right though, LEDs will give off lots more light.

I go green. havn't had much luck with blue.