Lighting A Large Greenscreen

G

GWPGearWorx

Active member
Hi peeps;

In my current project I require the use of a somewhat large greenscreen. The floor is also green for high shots. I can not afford the light kits needed for such a huge task. (See below image)

gs-stage.jpg

I am looking at DIY lighting. Work lights or other? I know video loves soft light so I am looking into making some soft light filters. (Smoked glass / Clear / Other)

There will be 3 actors on the stage at any given time. They will be in white suits. The cromakey paint I will be using will almost be flourecent, which as you know is somewhat self lighting. Any white lights would be great as I know that work lights depending on the watts can emit a yellow light. I need as white as I can get.

Any information on CHEAP solutions for lighting would be a great help.

Thanks.
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

I would suggest using Flourecents instead of work lights, as you will need very soft light to evenly light the entire stage. with 3 actors you are going to need to take care of shadows, and its gonna be trickey. Try lighting the stage first evenly (walls most importantly) from an angle that the talent wont block.
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

I think Jarred means Kino Flos...www.kinoflo.com...not too sure how much/little money you have but you might want to look into them. How big is your wall/cyc? Another cheap option might be a row of photofloods with some diffusion. Lights and bulbs are relatively cheap.

I'm gonna be doing the same thing in the next month. I have limited experience with lighting g.screen but I'm planning on renting kinos. Will probably use 4 foot 4 banks on the left and right side and rig a goal post setup with pipe and hang probably 2 4 foot 2 banks from above the wall off of the pipe. I don't know how big my wall is going to be yet. Will probably light the actors with some Tunsten Fresnels with Chimera soft boxes...(you could very well use some softened work lights at that point.)

Have started testing some consumer flourescents for use outdoors shooting night scenes with mix results. The single bank 18 inch in almost pitch black don't really throw the light that far.

Keep me posted on what you discover.

Thanks.
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

The Florescent lights at hardware stores are not quite the correct color temperature. This might not matter for your application. Buy one light (they come in different lengths and color temps, look for 3000k if you are shooting with tungsten lights) and test with your greenscreen if it is not close enough you can return it. Assuming the color works this test should also give you an idea of the number of lights you will need in the end.

I assume you have to shoot all three actors in the same shot?
If not you can limit the area that is lit. Are the actors interacting with each other? If not, you could shoot them separately and paste them together in post.

Here are some other green screen tips:

You only need clean green around the subject the rest of the frame can be cleaned up easily with a matte.

It is better to have the subject fill the frame in camera and shrink to fit in post.

Is your subject of a vertical orientation (i.e. a person)? Turn the camera on its side and reorient in post.
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

So 3000k Flourecent work lights ?

Any brand names come to mind ? Local hardware stores ?

Thanks
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

I was referring to florescent light fixtures. Most hardware stores will offer these in a variety of sizes. The trick is to find tubes that have the color temperature stated. They come in colors that are close to daylight (5500k – 6500k) or close to tungsten (3200k). In this case the “k” stands for Kelvin which is a scale based on the color of a particular filament (tungsten or carbon?) at different temperatures. As the filament heats it changes color from red and orange (colors we think of as warm) on low end of the scale to blue than white (cool colors) on the high end of the scale.

And for extra credit the amount of correction needed to get from one color temperature to another is referred to as a mired shift.
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

Now that I’ve rambled on a bit I went back and re-read your last post. Seems I skipped over the word “florescent” and thought you misunderstood my suggestion to mean 300kw work lights. Sorry.

Now to answer the question as asked.

Work lights will work. The fixture is not as important as the tubes. Find the tubes first then see what your options are for the fixtures. Think about how you are going to mount them in the studio. I first heard of these lights from Walter Graff, he uses a small under the cabinet type of fixture and attached a couple of clips (the kind that would hold a broom handle) to the back where the mounting screws go. The clips are the correct size for clipping the light to a light stand or C-stand arm.
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

I needed to light a greenscreen, so i bought some $10 fluorescent boxes that hold 2 bulbs
(the plug in ones). I also bought some daylight fluos for like $5 each. I then mounted them vertically on some pvc pipe, and stuck the pipe into one of those patio umbrella holders. The pvc pipe had a threaded end on it, and for some strange reason, screwed into the umbrella holder perfectly. I then spraypainted the bulbs with some green stain glass paint. Just enough to tint it green. It works really good. I'll post a pic of the setup one of these days. The light holders already kinda have barn doors on them, so it worked out pretty good.
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

A cheap option here guys, are to use several Blondes (2kw) up in the celing, put diffusion (216) in front, and there you have a cheap and even greenscreen. Do not think about kino flos, too expensive.
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

But that depends on where you're shooting... some of these guys are trying to shoot in a garage, and a single 2k instrument will tap out ALL the available power in the garage!

If you're in a place that has a lot of power, diffused tungsten can certainly do the job well and inexpensively. If you don't have access to multiple 20-amp circuits, fluorescent is probably the only way to go to get enough even, soft light.
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

I just did a big green sheet shoot for Paramount. It was a digital still shoot and we ended up using 10K and 5Ks through diffusion, mainly because we were rating the camera at 100ASA to get clean images.

Flourescents won't give you enough output unless you have lots of them.

I'd rent some 2K open face lights, say some mighty moles, and slap some diffusion on them for your greenscreen. Remember to keep your talent far away from your green walls to avoid green spill and shadows.

If you have to buy lights then you could try those 500 watt work lights and put some diffusion in front of them. Not a perfect solution, but if you're low on money, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Scott
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

Why not a bunch of those old sky pans? The ones that look like a big-ass frying pan.

I worked on a big blue-screen shoot years ago at MGM/Disney, and they had a good number of them, a row at the bottom on the floor (mounted on apple boxes) and a row up on the grid.

Of course, that was about 17 years ago, which maybe answers my own question. :P
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

Just how big is this green BG?
A few 1K fixtures may be just fine for BG. Flous don't have much throw so you'll ned a lot of them and they spill everywhere. The 1Ks can be doored off the subject.
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

But 1k's will probably be very spotty, and you want even light for a greenscreen. Fluo's are great for greenscreen lighting because they put out even, soft light. I've used Britek softboxes to light a greenscreen, they worked very well also. The key is to get distance from your subject and the background, that way spill from the background lights won't affect your subject anyway and you can use soft light to wash the whole screen evenly in light.
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

..i was using some flouros last night to greenscreen a care bear in a test my wife and i were doing while out on a date. ..

yes.. we were greenscreening stuff during a date.. it was a dual purpose date.. business and pleasure. lol

anyway, they do work awsome.
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

[quote author=GWPGearWorx link=board=lighting;num=1085275743;start=0#0 date=05/22/04 at 18:29:02]Hi peeps;

In my current project I require the use of a somewhat large greenscreen. The floor is also green for high shots. I can not afford the light kits needed for such a huge task. (See below image)

gs-stage.jpg

I am looking at DIY lighting. Work lights or other? I know video loves soft light so I am looking into making some soft light filters. (Smoked glass / Clear / Other)

There will be 3 actors on the stage at any given time. They will be in white suits. The cromakey paint I will be using will almost be flourecent, which as you know is somewhat self lighting. Any white lights would be great as I know that work lights depending on the watts can emit a yellow light. I need as white as I can get.

Any information on CHEAP solutions for lighting would be a great help.

Thanks.[/quote]


Whoa... You are going to have an awful amount of green spill all over your actors, especially since they are standing on it and wearing white suits. I highly suggest you don't do it. Also remember your green screen should exposed the same as your key light, which is usually on your talents faces, and with white suits that reflect 5x's more light then 18% gray... your going to have a huge problem with this especially with shooting on video. Your suits may come out over exposed. I wish I could offer a solution but I'm not sure it would help you. I hope what I said helps; I don't envy your situation.
 
Re: Lighting A Large Greenscreen

[quote author=troll link=board=lighting;num=1085275743;start=0#10 date=05/27/04 at 16:09:06]A cheap option here guys, are to use several Blondes (2kw) up in the celing, put diffusion (216) in front, and there you have a cheap and even greenscreen. Do not think about kino flos, too expensive. [/quote]

Is that 216 a Lee or Rosco gel?

What about placing something like a collapsible diffusion panel in front of the light? I have a 60" photoflex that might work but now that I think about it, my stand for it has an arm behind it so it wont work as a shoot through. Maybe someone makes a stand for just this purpose.

Greg
 
greenscreen outdoors

greenscreen outdoors

I'm doing experiments for greenscreen outdoors. What I'm trying to do is have person walk from point 1 to point B on flat surface with green screen wall beside him and below him. I've already taken recomendation to keep greenscreen far enough away (for wall) to prevent green spill onto actor. For low budget lighting I'm considering shooting on an outdoor tennis court which already has outdoor lighting. Does anyone know whether this will likely work?
 
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