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 Strobe lights are often seen in commercial haunts but
you can use the for the same effect in rooms, hallways or even outdoors to frighten and
disorientate your trick or treaters. If done correctly, strobe lights can add a great
effect to your Halloween haunt, display or party, but if done poorly it will annoy your
visitors and take away from the overall atmosphere.
Strobe Light units come in a variety of shapes, sizes and power
ratings. Prices range from about twenty dollars to hundreds of dollars
or more. Choosing one that
fits your particular need depends on what effect you will be using it to create. Those
manufactured by Visual Effects Inc. are high quality and reasonably priced.
There are many things you can use strobe
light for, such as enhancing the effect of Sci-fi or alien type displays. Place a small
strobe light inside of a large foam pumpkin. Don't use a real pumpkin because of their
moisture content. If you have tall trees near your house you can place a strobe light on
the roof pointed up towards the trees. This looks very strange, it makes
the trees appear to be moving.
 Strobe lights can be aimed into the
fog generated from a fog machine to make a creepy and disorientating effect. For best
effect you should aim the light either up or down through the fog, not directly in the
direction your visitors will be coming from. Or, place a strobe light at the end of a
hallway that trick or treats have to walk down.
As with any electrical device, care must be taken to protect
against electrocution. Make sure that the cord is hidden from view and not where it can be
tripped over or snagged on.
Safety - Make sure as you use your strobe from year
to year to check the electrical cord for frays or open places on the wire that
could cause a short or electrocution. Discard and buy a new store light
unit if this
occurs. Strobe lights can cause seizures in persons with epilepsy so
please post a warning sign if you are using them in your haunt.
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Recently, we've seen a lot of LED based
strobe lights appear on the market. Before
buying one, you need to know that these do
not have anywhere near the power of a
regular xenon strobe and even with multiple
LED's, produce much less light. In our
opinion, there only use is where you need a
very small amount of strobing light for a
specific effect, such as inside a fireplace
or plastic cauldron. |
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