[tragicmonsters]

Hi Everyone!

I'm trying to make an outdoor display this year using black painted plywood and backlighting to create a silhouetted display for our front yard. The idea is to create something dramatic and reusable that doesn't require a lot of setup or breakdown time year after year.

Will post concept pics soon, but basically it's the backlighting of the gravestones that I'm still unsure of. I think I'll need some kind of outdoor waterproof spotlights with gels to backlight them, but haven't quite found the right light to use.

Would love any advice or recommendations!

 

[kindo]

I use led outdoor RGB lights. there pretty cheap and work well for the most part. And you can change there color to pretty much anything you want. Just be careful if you do get some. the ones linked work really well and I've had no problems with but i have ran in to some more cheaply made ones that have messed up on me and i had to replace.

click here to find on amazon

Here they are in action. click here for more.

 

[matrixmom]

Here's some ideas for ya - https://youtu.be/PgnNCFR_MU4 ,, and also my pal at rutherford manor had some silhoutte photos too that she did- https://www.facebook.com/pg/rutherfordmanorhaunt/photos/?ref=page_internal

 

[tragicmonsters]

Thanks for the link, kindo, that's just what I'm looking for. Order placed! There are so many similar lights with spotty reviews, it's super-helpful to know which ones are working out - thanks again! Also your Halloween showcase looks awesome!

 

[tragicmonsters]

Thanks for the inspiration, matrixmom! I've been having trouble finding good examples of what I'm going for. Definitely more ambitious than what I'm planning, but ya gotta start somewhere and it's great to see how others are making the silhouettes work!

 

[kindo]

Thanks! glad i could help. Did you get the 15 watt or go for the 30? Another thing to keep in mind with these things is to keep an eye on the cord near where it goes in the light. the casing can ware down pretty easy and split. i haven't seen it happen to the ones i linked but its happened to 2 similar ones i have had longer. Doesn't take much to fix but its a pain cause there not water proof when there's wires showing. lol!

I,ve been wanting to do some silhouettes for a while. Gonna have to do that at some point. Looking forward to seeing yours set up.

 

[eightcircuits]

I tried a silhouette graveyard last year. It was hard to light it just right. I would have needed a light behind each stone.
Here is one stone

I changed my mind and lit it from the front. i just had to throw some quick grey dry brush on them.

 

[tragicmonsters]

Thanks for the warning, Kindo! I went with the 15 watt, judging by your pics that seems like it should be about right. In fact, they came in the other day! I've only had a little time to play with them, but so far they seem really sturdy. Pretty impressive, especially for the price! I'll probably tape up those bolts as well as wherever I need to plug them into extension cords as an extra precaution.

 

[tragicmonsters]

Good point, eightcircuits, that's exactly what I was afraid of! I was hoping to get at least two tombstones per light. I was also thinking about creating some kind of diffusion behind the tombstones to help catch the light if they weren't working out. That said, your tombstones look pretty great front lit, so clearly that's not the end of the world!

 

[tragicmonsters]

Almost forgot, here's a quick concept sketch of what I'm planning. I'll keep things simple this first year so I can troubleshoot the lighting. The five tombstones will be backlit plywood standees (not sure what I'm using for ground stakes yet). The ghost upstairs will likely be foam core. For the porch I just plan to swap out the bulb and if I can make it onto the roof I'll run some kind of LED string lights to give the house itself some presence in the night.

Fingers crossed!

 

[eightcircuits]

Almost forgot, here's a quick concept sketch of what I'm planning. I'll keep things simple this first year so I can troubleshoot the lighting. The five tombstones will be backlit plywood standees (not sure what I'm using for ground stakes yet). The ghost upstairs will likely be foam core. For the porch I just plan to swap out the bulb and if I can make it onto the roof I'll run some kind of LED string lights to give the house itself some presence in the night.

View attachment 557381

Fingers crossed!

Use 1x2 furring strips they are only $1 for an 8' and cut them pointy, stake them in the ground, then screw your plywood on.

 

[tragicmonsters]

I'm starting to make some changes based on the advice I've been getting and the research I've been doing on the forum. I decided to switch material to the Formular 150, drilling holes in the base for a pvc sleeve and sliding that on two rebar posts. So far that seems to do the trick.

As suggested, silhouetting is a problem. Here's my test:

Not bad, but not quite what I'm after. The top half of the tombstone disappears in the dark. And what you can't see in the photo is that if you move left or right you end up staring directly into the light.

At this point, I'm thinking of trying black light paint instead.

On a positive note, the foam is working great! So much better than my original plan of using plywood!

 

[J-Man]

Yep, that's the problem with backlighting. I've never tried this but I think the best approach would be LED strip lights glued directly to the back of each stone around the perimeter about 2" from the edge. That would backlight it with no chance of actually seeing the LED's.

 

[ZombieRaider]

Maybe try lighting objects (like your house) in the background of the tombstones....If they still look too dark, try very dim lighting on the front of them....As long as the lighting behind them is brighter, it would still be silhouetted.....Don't be afraid to try different lighting sources and placements....I've used lighting as small as a single LED to get the desired effect....A single LED shining on something is much brighter than complete darkness....Work your way up in brightness until you see your desired effect....For the blacklight glowing effect, I really like the result of holding the spray can pretty far back from the prop and lightly misting...It gives a better dimension and shadowy effect to the prop......If you spray it directly on, it becomes very bright to look at....Good Luck.... ZR

 

[tragicmonsters]

Thanks for the great ideas and tips, J-Man and ZombieRaider! I may try out a few different lighting setups. My goal for today is to keep developing my foam-masonry. If I go the black light route I'm thinking of using two colors, one darker and one brighter (like blue and orange) so that the tombstone sticks out as a whole and that the details really pop.