Autonomous Lights for Installation Art

March 2, 2007 9:24 PM

I'm looking to do an art project that involves photographing a bunch of lights, 25-50 lights, spread throughout a small area of a pine forest. What would be the best, really cheap, way to make these "independent lights".

I have several criteria that I'm trying to find a good balance between:
--the brighter the better, but since I can take long exposures and the forest will be pitch black otherwise, it's not a big deal.
--must be battery powered, preferably by conventional (C or D) batteries
--must be less than five dollars each so I can have a fair number of them
--must remain on for 1 to 2 hours, but it'll be okay to kill the batteries outright.

The basic idea is to take yard long wooden stakes or poles, and rig each of them up with some kind of battery powered light to it with tape, stick 25-50 of these into the ground, photograph them, and pull them all back out and either throw them away or save them for another, similar, project.

I know enough about wiring to light a bulb from a battery, so that's not so much the issue as what bulb and what battery to use.

Any ideas or suggestions will be, of course, greatly appreciated.

posted by ztdavis to technology (21 comments total)

Not sure what your goal is, but if it's a long exposure, could you just use one light and move it around after turning it off?
posted by odinsdream at 9:42 PM on March 2, 2007

Oh, and as for wiring, you can get a package of loose LEDs and just crimp them on to a watch battery. Optionally wrap in tape.
posted by odinsdream at 9:44 PM on March 2, 2007

How about making LED Throwies?
posted by Cog at 9:48 PM on March 2, 2007

I just want to say that I can visualize a really cool photograph coming of this, and would be interested in seeing the result. Email in profile if you're keen on sharing some low-res goodness.
posted by zhivota at 9:51 PM on March 2, 2007

You can also always rent a portable gasoline power generator. There are rental places all over for stuff like that. A lot of U-Haul rental centers will have them.

You might also look for battery powered xmas lights, which are very common.
posted by smallerdemon at 9:55 PM on March 2, 2007

Get some low-wattage bulbs—cheap store-brand 40W 8-packs or similar—and a big passel of batteries, some electric tape, and a good length of insulated wire.

Build each unit as such: two short lengths of wire taped to each terminal of the battery; tape one far end of a wire to the small terminal of the bulb, and apply an extra strip of tape loosely to the larger screw-face terminal. Don't connect the wire yet, obviously—don't want to run the batteries down.

Find a good way to attach the bulbs quickly to the poles, but don't attach them yet because bulbs are stupid fragile things.

Go to the location. Drive the poles into the ground, or stand them however else you intend to. Attach all the battery units. Set up the camera. Tape down the open wire to the screw-face terminal on all the units. Shoot, shoot, shoot; move, shoot some more, until finished.

Disassembly should be easy and nondestructive—just go backwards.

It's been since childhood that I've played with wire and batteries and lightbulbs, so I can't honestly say if AAs will have enough life or if you should go with Cs or Ds. And, perhaps obvious, but consider if you want glowing bulb-shapes or just bright points of light and pick up soft-white or clear bulbs accordingly.
posted by cortex at 9:55 PM on March 2, 2007

How about something like the Eveready Lantern Flashlight or Eveready Trouble Light from here. It uses a 6V lantern battery, so it will last several hours, and it costs less than $5 if you buy more than 24. If you want to alter the appearance (perhaps you'd like just the bulb at the top of the stake) the Eveready Lantern Flashlight would be very convenient. Just unscrew the top, discard the reflector, remove the bulb and solder a pair of wires as long as you need from the bulb to the handle containing the battery and switch.
posted by RichardP at 10:00 PM on March 2, 2007

As bright as possible? If it's a still photo, and not a video, you could simply walk around with a flash, setting it off in 25 to 50 locations.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:42 PM on March 2, 2007

sounds interesting ! ikea ?
would love to see your work also - email in profile etc
posted by sgt.serenity at 3:05 AM on March 3, 2007

You don't happen to be near some high voltage power lines by chance? Would solve all your problems.
posted by strawberryviagra at 3:35 AM on March 3, 2007

Several kinds of stick up bulbs are available. Here's a selection. None are under $5, but the Sylvania 3-pack for $16.95 are getting very close (#11 on the list), and there are "new and used from $7.99" Westinghouse and Telebrands ones (#2 and 3) if you decide you could spend more.
posted by daisyace at 4:50 AM on March 3, 2007

This sounds awesome, I too would love to see the result (if you're so inclined, please add me to your e-mail list of the result, please).
I'm pretty sure there are commercial flashlights out there that'll do the trick - that EverReady Trouble light looks promising, especially for 3.50 a pop. You might need to alter the diffuser or something - take off the guard at least - and perhaps for a more general glow than direct beam of light could duct tape something like a translucent tupperware container over the bulb. Just a thought - not sure what kind of effect you're going for but in my mind it already looks magical. Good luck.
posted by Flashman at 4:57 AM on March 3, 2007

(On second look, the same page does also have some multi-packs for <$5 per light.)
posted by daisyace at 5:01 AM on March 3, 2007

something like this was created using simple xmas lights
posted by seawallrunner at 9:58 AM on March 3, 2007

...or are you looking for this kind of effect instead?
posted by seawallrunner at 10:02 AM on March 3, 2007

(the second photo is very famous "After the Invisible Man" by Jeff Wall
posted by seawallrunner at 10:02 AM on March 3, 2007

LED Flashlight for $4.50. I have two very similar to this and they're super bright. They last a long time on the AA batteries too.

Although your question does have me scratching my head. I'm not convinced "the brighter the better" is necessarily true, but then again, I don't know what your goal is. From the description, I'm kind of imagining an "X-Files alien ship on the other side of the trees" image, where you don't actually see the ship, you just see the trees being back lit by incredibly bright light.

If, however, you're going to actually point the lights directly at the camera, they will pretty much instantly overexpose their position in the image. (This may be what you want, too.) In other words, I'm curious (like others here) what you're actually trying to accomplish.
posted by knave at 10:57 AM on March 3, 2007

I'm going to agree with the others in the thread pointing you at LED lights, for cheap, bright, and long lived, they really are about perfect.

Bright is a relative term though. For a long exposure night shot, an LED will provide a huge amount of light. But for actual illumination (eg, you want to spotlight a tree for a fairly fast exposure) it might not be enough.

If you are just looking for lights to help define the shape of something, LEDs are the way to go. If it doesn't need to be lit for more than a couple of minutes, the absolute cheapest trick you can go for is the LED throwies linked above (which are basically the same thing that odinsdream suggested as well.)

If you need more oomph, I would suggest you look into cortex's idea of prewiring the area and using incandescents.

And Nth me as someone who would love to know what you are trying to do/ like to see the final product.
posted by quin at 1:25 PM on March 3, 2007

Have you ever seen the totally amazing work of Sato Takihiro ?

He creates his effect by taking super long exposures and running around the scene being photographed, and flashing a flashlight (or mirror) at the camera. The exposures are so long that he becomes a ghost, and all you see are the lights and the landscape.

Obviously you need a camera with a "bulb" setting to do this technique, but it is very inexpensive way to get to where it sounds like you want to go.
posted by extrabox at 1:57 PM on March 3, 2007

Probably the wrong season for this, but right after the holidays you can usally find battery-powered "electric candles" for cheap. They're the sort of things people carry around in lieu of actual candles in children's christmas pageants, etc. Usually they run on AAs, I think, and usually use little christmas-tree bulbs. No idea what the bulb life is like, and I can only assume that there must be LED ones available now. Maybe hunt around "holiday" stores (the kind of places that always seem to be selling tree ornaments and fake pine boughs and tinsel, even when it's really out of season...) or surplus/salvage stores, maybe even $1 stores. Might take some hunting but they have to be around.

On a slightly more up-market note, I have seen little mini-flashlights that are nothing more than a bright LED and a resistor, that clip on to the top of a 9V battery. Some of them are flashing-only, but others have a continuous function. I think they last for a pretty long time. They were originally designed for the military, and I see them in Brigade Quartermaster and other similar catalogs from time to time. Might be worth checking out. (OT: I've heard that the original blinky version was designed during Gulf War I for tankers to duct tape onto their radio antennas as a "don't shoot here" indicator. They use IR LEDs and are typically called "Budd Lights.")

This is an example of one of the 9V lights, but there are other similar ones around. Other people have made DIY versions, and if you want, you could build one, too.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:28 PM on March 3, 2007

Sorry everyone, I shouldn't have asked this as I was going out of town for a few days.

Regarding LEDs:
The LED throwies don't seem as if they'll project enough light onto the surrounding environment. An LED on the ground won't do much for branches 20 feet in the air.

Regarding setting a flash off 25-50 times:
The project is an installation art class, so some kind of installation needs to be installed, even if it's just for a few hours. Also, it would be difficult to not have myself show up in the picture 25 times.

Re: Gas Generators
Not cool with the park rangers at the park I'm using.

Re: What look I am going for
this (self-link warning!) times 50, taken from a much greater distance away. That image was taken with a remotely fired flash, but has about the same effect I'm going for. With 25 lights or so I would want it to be more varied, with some of the lights casting light downward, some directed upward, some just points with no direct light at all. They would not, as a general rule, be pointed directly at the camera.

I think I am going to try the idea of cheap flashlights, as they should do everything I want (or close enough to) for a cheap price. And they involve a lot less construction.

I'm still open to ideas, though, by all means.

Thanks for everyone's help. Anyone that wants e-mails of some of the results will get them, although this project is still a week or two off.
posted by ztdavis at 12:14 PM on March 5, 2007