Green Screen Lighting
- Thread starter JackMaht
- Start date
Cool Lights
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Fluorescent is about as cheap as it gets and works fine.
DVXUser "kdawg" did something like this recently which is about as textbook as it gets for smooth keying performance:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=88435
Make sure the material is something that stretches well, stretch the wrinkles out and light it evenly with something like fluorescent (daylight would work well). The fixtures used in the above thread were home depot specials from the looks of them so not very expensive.
DVXUser "kdawg" did something like this recently which is about as textbook as it gets for smooth keying performance:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=88435
Make sure the material is something that stretches well, stretch the wrinkles out and light it evenly with something like fluorescent (daylight would work well). The fixtures used in the above thread were home depot specials from the looks of them so not very expensive.
I have done a few green screeen shoots on low/no budget and just used the following:
1 x 2 - 500w halogen site lights on tripod stand ( approx $35.00)
1 x 300w halogen light ( approx $12.00)
1 x 40w Halogen light with stand (approx $30.00)/ Or any table light will do.
& a cheap light reflector
Have been able to get pretty good results when shooting just one person in front of green screen.
1 x 2 - 500w halogen site lights on tripod stand ( approx $35.00)
1 x 300w halogen light ( approx $12.00)
1 x 40w Halogen light with stand (approx $30.00)/ Or any table light will do.
& a cheap light reflector
Have been able to get pretty good results when shooting just one person in front of green screen.
I just started with video, but I've been a photographer for over 40 years and done plenty of green screen work in that time, using Photoshop for the past several years (which is easier than doing a whole timeline).
Most important recommendation is to light the screen evenly. I use a softbox on each side, angled in at about 30 degrees, with barndoors on the side facing the talent and a single light behind the talent to make sure the center is covered. (The talent is lighted separately.)
It's also important to get all the wrinkles, folds, etc. out of the screen, although this problem can be minimized with really even lighting. I have a 12x17' muslin screen on an overhead track. I found that I have to stretch it horizontally to get it smooth, then I take a steam iron and remove as many of the creases as I can. I also have a 3x5 portable green screen, one of those things that opens up from a small circle. This requires very careful steaming to remove the wrinkles.
Because I get to take the results into Photoshop I get a second chance to clean up the image. My success with video hasn't been as good :-(
Rog
Most important recommendation is to light the screen evenly. I use a softbox on each side, angled in at about 30 degrees, with barndoors on the side facing the talent and a single light behind the talent to make sure the center is covered. (The talent is lighted separately.)
It's also important to get all the wrinkles, folds, etc. out of the screen, although this problem can be minimized with really even lighting. I have a 12x17' muslin screen on an overhead track. I found that I have to stretch it horizontally to get it smooth, then I take a steam iron and remove as many of the creases as I can. I also have a 3x5 portable green screen, one of those things that opens up from a small circle. This requires very careful steaming to remove the wrinkles.
Because I get to take the results into Photoshop I get a second chance to clean up the image. My success with video hasn't been as good :-(
Rog
cardmaverick
Well-known member
Distance, distance, distance....A smooth chroma key can ALWAYS benifit by having as much space as possible inbetween the screen and the back of the subject. If you get too close, you wind up with major green or blue spill on the foreground. Rememer, the chroma key is really just one giant colored reflector! Some people say you should use a magenta or staraw backlight on the subject (the color depends on your screen, magenta for green, staw for blue). I have done some chroma keys without this in the past that worked fine, the key factor was distance, AND you need to also be aware of how much light the screen itself is throwing back at the camera. A technique some use is to light the screen so that its reflective reading is a few stops below what it would read if it were placed under the foreground key light. Since you have a small space, its crucial that you be careful with how much light you put on that screen, you'd benefit from having the light level fairly low, and the key light sleigtly higher, this will let you shoot with a wide aperature, which helps smooth out the green screen even more because its out of focus (yes, thats another rarely sugested tip 
rogar-SunGlass(DBG )
Just for kicks, a lot of people watch movies like star wars being made where actors are literally walking ontop of blue/green screens. They often get the idea that its easy or that you can get really close to the screen.....well, the ditry truth is rotoscoping! Almost all of those shots are touched up frame for frame to get rid of blue/green spill.
Posting
I recommend multiple passes with the key. I use After Effects 6.5 PRO. Often times you can't light the whole screen perfectly and you have a sleight gradient effect going on. When that happens, simply sample one key for the brighter section, and the other key for the darker section. I've used as many as 5 Keys I think (most were very minor keys for areas around shoulders and hair).
Hope that helps!
rogar-SunGlass(DBG )Just for kicks, a lot of people watch movies like star wars being made where actors are literally walking ontop of blue/green screens. They often get the idea that its easy or that you can get really close to the screen.....well, the ditry truth is rotoscoping! Almost all of those shots are touched up frame for frame to get rid of blue/green spill.
Posting
I recommend multiple passes with the key. I use After Effects 6.5 PRO. Often times you can't light the whole screen perfectly and you have a sleight gradient effect going on. When that happens, simply sample one key for the brighter section, and the other key for the darker section. I've used as many as 5 Keys I think (most were very minor keys for areas around shoulders and hair).
Hope that helps!
ilauzirika
Boring Senior Member
cardmaverick said:
sure it is, I was filming a greenscren project where i needed the actors to be standing onto the greenscreen. I had to rotoscope around 1000 frames( i was using a dv camera). it took lots and lots of days an hard work (but worth the experience). So try to further back the greenscreen as much as you can to avoid rotoscoping (if not hire another person for the rotoscoping). A and don't forget to lit it evenly.