Steve Laramie
Veteran
can someone give me some tips on lighting a green screen. heres what i have to work with. croma key paper alot of it, 2 lowll tolta lights and 1 vip light. I have 3 stands a ton of jells lots of diffusion and 1 umbrella.
green screen
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Cool Lights
DVXuser Sponsor
Indeed good questions. What comes up for me instantly as I look at your post is that if its a large area you could have some problems with even lighting on the screen with that kit.
This is my first post, so hopefully I won't be stepping on anyone's toes...but we've done a fair amount of greenscreen, so there are a few things that we've sort of learned over the years, if it helps in any way:
1) If you're going to have talent in front of the greenscreen, it's a good idea to keep them several feet away. We usually have the talent 6-10 feet away from the greenscreen, and the camera another several feet away. It keeps shadows out of the way.
2) If it's a large area, I'd light it with kinos or some kind of flourescent light bank to keep it even. You want a softlight for sure. You can do it with tungsten and diffusers but I find flourescent softlights tend to be more even. Or, if you can, try to backlight. This way it is less likely to cause spill. Trying to pull a key from a screen with hotspots really sucks, and chances are you'll have a lot of roto to do. Not a lot of fun, especially with DV's unforgiving compression.
3) Use a chroma smoother in FCP or whatever NLE you use, if you're using DV. It'll help immensely in pulling a decent key.
4) If you can, get an amber coloured filter. It helps eliminate spill. Though it works better for blue, if you're using green it probably won't matter that much.
Hope that helps.
1) If you're going to have talent in front of the greenscreen, it's a good idea to keep them several feet away. We usually have the talent 6-10 feet away from the greenscreen, and the camera another several feet away. It keeps shadows out of the way.
2) If it's a large area, I'd light it with kinos or some kind of flourescent light bank to keep it even. You want a softlight for sure. You can do it with tungsten and diffusers but I find flourescent softlights tend to be more even. Or, if you can, try to backlight. This way it is less likely to cause spill. Trying to pull a key from a screen with hotspots really sucks, and chances are you'll have a lot of roto to do. Not a lot of fun, especially with DV's unforgiving compression.
3) Use a chroma smoother in FCP or whatever NLE you use, if you're using DV. It'll help immensely in pulling a decent key.
4) If you can, get an amber coloured filter. It helps eliminate spill. Though it works better for blue, if you're using green it probably won't matter that much.
Hope that helps.
Cool Lights
DVXuser Sponsor
I second the vote for fluorescent. Now here's a place where Home Depot shop lights or some of the other less expensive fluorescent fixtures can actually come in handy--even the 4 foot tube which is not really my favorite can be well used as a green screen light. This won't cost you a lot and will add a useful item to your kit, allowing you to use the "hot" lights for foreground elements and talent.
Back light for blue screen is amber, magenta for green screen. But moving the talent away from the screen usually alleviates the need for this type of back lighting--at least in my experience.
Back light for blue screen is amber, magenta for green screen. But moving the talent away from the screen usually alleviates the need for this type of back lighting--at least in my experience.
Steve Laramie
Veteran
thanks alot guys. But "cool lights" what are you talking about by the flourescent fixtures do you know specifics on what to buy to set something ilke that up
Just make sure they're even; any flourescent light, like Cool Lights says, will do so long as they are evenly spaced. Even more ideal would be putting them in banks. Home Depot, Rona, Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire, Home Hardware...they all have this stuff. Of course Kinos are properly calibrated, which is why you pay 30 bucks a tube, but as I say, any light is good.
Cool Lights
DVXuser Sponsor
Ah, but even HD has daylight tubes (sometimes Phillips) in high CRI. That's more than good enough for green screen. Even if you used the worst tubes though, as long as your screen is evenly lit and the lights aren't flickering, it should just be very green--how important can color rendering be when lighting a green screen? Its the foreground that needs more attention to good quality dramatic style lighting.
You can get 2 and 4 tube fixtures at your home improvement store with electronic ballasts. My original ones I got were in the $48 range. They may be a bit more now. Get as many as you need and either hang up above the screen shining down at a 45 degree angle or have some to the sides on stands facing the screen at a 45 degree angle behind the foreground action. Then foreground lit with your other lighting. White balance to the foreground lighting area.
You can get 2 and 4 tube fixtures at your home improvement store with electronic ballasts. My original ones I got were in the $48 range. They may be a bit more now. Get as many as you need and either hang up above the screen shining down at a 45 degree angle or have some to the sides on stands facing the screen at a 45 degree angle behind the foreground action. Then foreground lit with your other lighting. White balance to the foreground lighting area.
Cool Lights
DVXuser Sponsor
Don't worry, I meant it.
It's an old trick and has to do with choosing the color opposite on the color wheel from the color of the screen. It's magenta for green (remember, what color is a minus green gel?) and amber for blue. Cancels out the green or blue with the opposite color. But, if you do your other stuff right like separation, modern keying software has spill suppression algorithms which do pretty much the same thing.
It's an old trick and has to do with choosing the color opposite on the color wheel from the color of the screen. It's magenta for green (remember, what color is a minus green gel?) and amber for blue. Cancels out the green or blue with the opposite color. But, if you do your other stuff right like separation, modern keying software has spill suppression algorithms which do pretty much the same thing.
