Haunt Lighting

A popular haunters mistake is poor or improper lighting. The best haunt lighting not only focuses on what is lit, but more importantly, the dark areas between props.  What typical haunt designers overlook is that the theatre community has a wide variety of inexpensive products that are perfect for lighting "haunted" props.

This article talks about the most common of those lights, the par can.  Par cans come in a variety of sizes as determined by their diameter.  Without getting technical, the higher the number the brighter the lamp.  Par Lamps are also designated by their beam width, which can be pin spot, narrow spot, spot, medium flood, and wide flood.  Readily available gels give you an almost unlimited variety of colors.

For haunters, you will probably find yourself sticking specifically to the Par36 Pinspot (pictured on the right).  This light, when placed across a yard can brightly light an area about 3 feet in diameter.  They are a bargain at approximately $10 each.  As you can see, they come ready to be hung or mounted and they come with a real 3 prong power cord instead of bare wire.

The trick is to use a group of cans to light different parts of the scene with different colors.  This gives serious depth and variety to your scene.  I typically use two par cans per prop.  In a trail, you should also use par cans to light the path.

Unlike flood lights, pin spots don't illuminate the whole area. While they brightly and clearly light up your props, they leave plenty of shadows and darkness to give that haunted feel.  Since there is a heavy contrast between the lighted and unlighted areas, the unlit areas are perceived as extremely dark.

Position

To not distract from the scene, par lamps should be positioned so that the guest will not typically see the bulb itself.

I often hang 4-8 par36 cans from a 12' light bar (pictured at right), which only costs $42.  I typically use cable ties to attach an inexpensive surge protector to the top of the light bar so that I only have 1 power cable coming down.  If using light bars I suggest using safety cables to a local tree or structure and keep them way away from the general traffic of visitors.

When ordering your light bar, do not order additional clamps.  The cans will mount directly to the tree with included hardware.

If you want to mount your cans to trees or 2x4's, then I would suggest that you purchase clamps.  Speak to the supplier for recommendations.

If your scene is in front of a house, you can place the par can on the ground to create shadows of the props on the front of your house.

Another trick is to place par cans near the ground and aim them up into the trees.  This works especially well in a front yard scene if the trees are behind the house.  You should consider a Par38 or Par56 for this purpose.

For most props, I usually place a par36 can at a 45 degree angle from the left and a second par36 can at a 45 degree angle from the right.  In each can, I use a different color gel.  This creates a 3 color 3-D effect.

For example, when using red and blue gels:  The left side of the prop is lighted in red, the right side is lighted in blue, and purple is in the center where the lights overlap.  The color shadows really bring a prop to life.

Gels

Gels, or color lenses, come in a variety of colors, and I personally suggest that you use as large of variety as possible.  Reds give the feeling of blood. Dark blue often gives the feeling of being in the dark.  Blue gives the feeling of water or coolness.  Green and Yellow offers a happier feeling.

Brightness can be altered by using multiple gels in a single fixture.

Color Mixing

A common mistake in lighting happens when mixing two colors.  When mixing paints, you are working with reflected colors as the paint is absorbing certain wavelengths of light.  Therefore, when mixing two colors, the new colors are created by the wavelengths not absorbed by the original two paints.  What you see is all of the reflected, or non-absorbed light.

When you are mixing projected light you are seeing the wavelengths of the two colors added together.  To determine the resulting color, you use an "Additive Color Wheel", whose primary colors are Red Green and Blue.  The color wheel to the right was found on http://www.devx.com/projectcool/Article/19954/0/page/4

Dimming

Any light that uses a transformer can not be dimmed using a standard power dimmer.  In fact, use of a dimmer can potentially damage the light.  Par36 and smaller cans typically use a transformer.  There are expensive dimmers for this purpose, but they are typically outside of the typical haunter's budget.

Power Cables

People often overlook the power consumption of their scene lighting.  Not having the proper gauge power cord or service is bad for the lights and most likely will also blow fuses.  There is an amazing website and calculator that covers this subject in detail at http://www.lightshow.cc/explorer/Calculators/Power_/power_.html

For the safety of your family, make sure that you have at least one GFCI device in each outdoor circuit.  It can be located in the fuse panel, at the outlet, or in some of the newer extension cords.  Also, make sure that all of your extension cables and other components have a ground wire.  This will keep you from literally getting shocked to death or burning down your house in the case of wet electronics.

I personally prefer Chauvet brand lighting fixtures.  Their very informative website can be found at http://www.chauvetlighting.com

I typically buy my fixtures from Cheap Lights.  They are inexpensive and very helpful.  They can be found at http://www.cheaplights.com

If you found this article helpful to light your haunt, then please consider putting a link to it from your haunt webpage.

The author of this article is not a professional and has no affiliation with any of the companies listed.  If you would like to support his business, you may want to check out the Glow in the Dark Paint at Glow Inc.