Lighting For Entertainment Purposes? What You Can Rent And What You Buy
Holidays, birthdays, bar and bat mitzvahs, "haunted" houses; what do all of these things have in common? If you said "lighting," you would be right. (Of course, if you said "food" or "music," you would also be right, but lighting is key to everything.) If you wanted to make sure there was enough lighting for your party or event location, you can rent most of it. There are a few things, however, you have to actually buy. The following highlights entertainment lighting rentals and the items that will have to be purchased instead.
Spotlights
Spotlights and spotlight dampeners (devices that tone down the brightness of the spotlights so you do not blind the crowd or the person being spotlighted) are available to rent. You can also rent motion devices that cause the spotlights to spin and move in particular ways, like two bat signals crossing beams in the sky and diverging again. These are kind of fun to play with, and more fun to use to draw guests to the location of your party or event location.
Disco Balls
Disco balls never go out of style. They just update to reflect the times. Spin rainbow colors from modern disco balls or stick the rainbow disco ball next to a traditional mirrored glass ball for double the dramatic effect. There are a couple of other light balls you can use to create unique lighting effects, and all of these should be available from the same rental store.
Photography Lights
Want to capture moments in your lens for event guests? Rent the lighting equipment professional photographers use all of the time. If you do not know how to use this lighting, play around with it using a digital camera on a tripod until you get just the right location and just the perfect amount of light cast onto the subject matter in front of you. Then set the equipment up the same way on location on the day (or days) of the event or party.
Things You Have to Buy
If a bulb burns out on the equipment you rent, you typically have to buy replacement bulbs to keep the equipment working for you. (Yes, you can remove and keep the bulbs you purchased after the fact, so long as you put the burnt-out bulbs back in and inform the rental store of the situation when it happens.) Lighting tripods may be necessary if you expect to put the lighting up higher or install it where it cannot be pulled down by accident. Fog machines can be rented, but it is generally cheaper just to buy one and keep reusing it.
