Thread: How to light up a large area without using a lot of lights

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So next year i am going to make light posts to light up my Graveyard. The lights will be 10ft in the air shining down on the graveyard as if it were moonlight. Only thing is i don't think my average 100w flood lights will do the trick. Does anyone have any other suggestions for what i could use that will be powerful enough to light my front yard up while being 10ft in the air.


Thanks

At 10' high, how big of an area are you trying to light? length x width? Also what color are you looking for, If you dont mind that yellowish light you can go with high pressure sodium wall packs sold at depot or lowes etc.

I think it will flood the area fine. I use a 100 watt yellow bulb at about that same height and it floods the whole driveway on Halloween.

I have a 400W par 56 that would sure as heck do the job. Heck, it's rated for a 100ft throw for the spotlight bulb. About 50ft for the floodlight bulb, though I don't recall precisely as I was only interested in the spotlight at the time of purchase.

But, my point is, look into stage lighting. They were made for the purpose

If going for moonlight level, I think 100w would be too much, esp when you say light"s".

If using standard floods, get some ambers - colored glass over painted glass if you can find em.

If going for a wild color wash, then yes - look into PAR can lighting. But be aware that the outdoor stuff is insanely $$, so you will have to cover up the units each night using the standard stuff. But a Par46 or 56 lamp is like 300w, add some colored gels and you can go to town. I have used these for large color washes. lighbulbamerica is a decent place to shop around. They do get hot, if possible - try using with a light controller to fade between fixtures. This gives you color changing and mixing, but also lets the units have cooling periods.

Well this past Halloween i used 2 Blue 100W spot lights to light up the front of my tombstones. Only thing though is that they only lit up so much because of the graves towards the fron were blocking the lights from the back. So for Next Halloween i wanted to put the lights up above and use the Blue lights as Moon light. Then i want to make fake candles to put by the graves to add ambient lighting.

Make sure your bulbs are truly "fllood" lights. I have purchased those before, and they come in several beam pattterns- spot, flood, etc.

I use the amber floods. They work really well.

I would save the HID, and industrial lighting for wharehouses and indoor gardens.

Par 38's. or 56's should work. With gel sheet, for diffusion and color wash. Blue for "blue moon" perhaps??? The Par cans can also be used for other holidays, or other purposes. Plus.. you can run the par cans off a controller. the Controller has basic chase, flash to music functions. Alternating the color wash, if desired.

One thing I did which added some extra overall light, was a big fake flame.. Air mover fan, 3/4 yard of orange fabric, one small red spot, and my par 38 with red gel.

Another addition to overall light, and somewhat desirable effect.... Walmart had obnoxious disco light projector thingies {moonflower??} misplaced in the Halloween stuff. A put it on the roof, aimed at the Elm tree. The obnoxious disco'ness is diffused. I called it the "tree entity".. Also when smoke haze was present, you could see it from a good block away.. sort of like a sky lighting spotlight.
YouTube - Entity Tree

I switched most of my lighting over to LED's this year and loved the effect. For moonlight, amber or blue would be best. You'll probably want to experiment during the off season. Minions Web had the best selection and prices I could find for the LEDs.