lighting tips for your halloween graveyard scene


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Online Catalogue > Articles > Halloween Articles > Lighting Your Halloween Graveyard

Lighting your Halloween Graveyard - opening

The second article on creating the perfect Halloween Graveyard, this article should be read in conjunction with 'Create a Halloween Graveyard'.

There are a number if ways of illuminating your Halloween scene and finding the right plan does take time, but the rewards for getting it right make the effort worthwhile. Mood lighting is often overlooked but used correctly, it can add significantly to the overall effect created This often over looked ingredient can greatly add to the feel and impact of your Halloween haunt.

The most obvious starting point in any Halloween lighting scheme is the placing of your 'Jack o' Lanterns'. These are carved pumpkins with small candles inside. Sometimes used singularly they are best used in groups or along the pathway to the door. As with all candles and naked flames make sure that they are positioned where there is no risk of catching the clothing of any trick or treaters.

Jack o' Lanterns produce useful spots of light and are a necessary essential but what about the bigger picture. (See our related article on carving the perfect Jack 'O Lanterns).

To meet the demands of illuminating a graveyard scheme you need something like colored outdoor floodlights. Make sure you only use external floodlights and bulbs. These are a great way of illuminating either the whole area or a single Halloween prop. Illuminating a single Halloween prop - gravestone, hanging skeleton etc should always be done indirectly rather than full on. This adds to the spooky effect as it creates shadows and where there are shadows the imagination runs riot - less is truly more. Hide the light fixture as much as possible to avoid the glare of the bulb spoiling the overall effect - place them behind trees or gravestones or even create a box to avoid it being seen - make sure the ventilation is sufficient as outdoor floodlights are typically 100 watts and produce considerable heat.

Each of the available colours of outdoor floodlights can be used to illuminate your Halloween scene however; it would be unusual to see more than two at any one time. A quick rundown of the most popular colours and where they would typically be used;

Lighting your Halloween graveyard - part 2

Lighting your Halloween graveyard - part 3

Amber Good general spooky light producing eerie effects and deep shadows. Great way of flood illuminating something like a Pumpkin patch scene - group the pumpkins on the grass and add a few handfuls of hay close to them to make it look like they've been growing there all year. Some should be Jack 'o Lanterns.

Green The colour normally associated with Alien Encounters and other creepy monsters from outer space. Green flood lights are useful for illuminating swamp and marsh scenes especially when used in conjunction with a fog machine.

Blue The best colour flood light to illuminate graveyards and haunted houses. Through the fog of a fog machine blue lights gives a really spooky feel which would illuminate a graveyard scene perfectly. Blue light produces the subtlest lighting of individual props.

Red Like blue red can add a real dramatic effect to your lighting display. The colour of blood, red can be used to best effect with Vampire themes or Devil / Hell themes. If space permits, using blue light to illuminate a grave yard and red to pick out individual pieces above the ground works well.

These are some ideas for you to consider, but as with any outdoor lighting scheme the planning process has to be unique so as to take into account your own local conditions so some experimenting maybe required before you get it right. The general use of strobe lighting externally is to be discouraged due to the medical issues it can create. Changing the bulb in a porch light to a black light bulb can produce some great effects.