Lighting for Green Screen

[Paszkal]

I'm building a small green screen studio in my garage. What is the best lighting setup for green screening? Also, I don't already have a set of lights, and so I will have to buy some. I will buy them from BH Photo, and so if you could advise as to which ones to buy from the ones they have, I'd appreciate.

Budget for lights (and so not considering the stands, actual green screen, and ceiling rails) is about $2,000 to $3,000.

Thanks in advance

 

[Cool Lights]

Many are using fluorescent lighting for green screen these days as the most critical thing is that it is well and evenly lit without hot spots. No reason to heat up the room more than you need to. As for the foreground lighting that can be tungsten or fluorescent based on the effects you want to achieve on the talent.

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

Yup. Cool Lights hit it.

ALSO keep in mind that you want as much separation between the screen and the talent as possible to reduce spill.

And you don't need a LOT of light on the green screen, just enough to give you an even color across the frame.

Heres a good resource:

http://www.bluesky-web.com/broadcastvideoexamples-greenscreen.html

 

[Cool Lights]

Yes, as much room as you can between the subject and the screen. Regardless of tungsten or fluorescent. Any spill at all on an arm or hair and you've just increased your work time on trying to obtain a good key later.

 

[Paszkal]

I heard tungsten is much preferred to fluorescent when shooting on video. Your thoughts on that? Also, wouldn't a mix of tungsten and fluo hinder the keying process, being two different types of lights?

 

[Cool Lights]

People are using fluorescent every day for video now with no problems. It's old news talking about using older fluorescent tubes with low CRI and ballasts that flicker. Its pretty easy to find good fixtures that produce a high quality of light. You can even find stuff at home depot which is adequate. There are plenty of success stories on this board if you do a search of past postings.

Although it doesn't matter so much anyway how the green screen is lit with tungsten or fluorescent as long as it is even and GREEN. If you think about it the screen will be green even with a low CRI tube lighting it in any case. The green of the screen overwhelms any problems with the quality of the light as long as it is evenly lit. Personally though I prefer daylight color flo lighting on the screen and then whatever is appropriate for the foreground. Again, white balance won't be a problem because you should be white balancing to the foreground lighting in any case.

 

[Cephalectomy]

i was told using an amber gel for the back light will help with seperation a bit

 

[Cool Lights]

Actually an amber gel for a blue screen and a magenta for a green screen is the proper way but that can help counteract spill if you're getting some. Personally I never use the gels on backlights in green screen but then I try to separate pretty far too. What I understand about this is that you use the color directly opposite of the color of the screen on the color wheel to counteract spill of the screen color. Magenta is opposite green and amber is opposite blue. Another way to remember it is: what is the color of the minus green gel ;-)