Lighting for interviews with green screen backdrop

S

sbryan

Well-known member
I was going to flood the green screen with a set of work lights, but I wanted something better to light the person being interviewed.

Any suggestions?
 
Doesn't it depend upon the effect you want? Is it a man or woman? Older or younger? Would they look better with a soft key or would a harder one be more appropriate based on the subject matter being dramatic? To me, it really depends upon the person, the topic, etc. If they're older or in general for women I would tend to use a soft key and a lower intensity fill or reflector. If the subject matter is dramatic I might use a harder light with less fill. Lots of things to think about and they all influence the answer to this.
 
Okay, in that case, its probably best flat too. You can use either a fluorescent unit or a tungsten softbox to achieve the key and reflector/bounce board for fill. You can use a small pepper 150w fresnel or one of your smaller worklights in back as a hair rim light to help with separation of the subject from the screen. A magenta gel is used by some on this backlight but not always necessary these days with modern keying software. Of course move them as far forward of the screen as possible to keep green spill to a minimum. Hope this helps...
 
Did you have any suggestions for a Tungsten softbox? Are those the ones that get so hot that they pose a fire hazard?
 
Personally I turn to ebay first for a softbox but you do need to make sure of the rating that it will handle whatever bulb you're going to put in it. Many of the softboxes are only rated for flashes which is nothing at all practically. You need one really rated at 500w to 1000w of continuous lighting.

Otherwise, the ones not rated at that are fine for CFL use. Don't be afraid of fluorescent. It's being used routinely by many and there aren't flicker, color or buzz issues with many of even the simplest ones you can get now. Like the Home Depot N:Visions that many here are using in Chinese Lanterns. Or the monster 200w bulb like this:

http://www.teksupply.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&storeId=10001&productId=65629&langId=-1&division=TekSupply&pageId=ItemDetail&parent_category_rn=&top_category=&breadcrumb_trail=Lighting+Fixtures+%26+Bulbs%7CLight+Bulbs&breadcrumb_categoryIds=35044%7C35054&isDoc=


You'll get 800 watts worth of light out of that for only drawing 200w so you're not heating the area up like you would be with a real 800w solution.

Otherwise, I noticed you posted that you found an E27 3200K incandescent bulb. You would just need something like the triple head displayed in one of your links to go in a well temperature rated softbox of 1000w or so. Like this one that actually lists the rating:

http://cgi.ebay.com/24-x-36-Softbox...ryZ30082QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I've used that one before and its fine.
 
I agree with Mr Cool Lights. I am a HUGE fan of flouros, especially for green screen stuff. its a great way to get an evenly lit background. look for some magenta (minus green) gels if you are going to backlight.
try to get the subject as far away from the green screen as you can to avoid the reflected green hitting them...
as for a soft key, if you dont have a soft box or some diffusion, bouncing light into a large white card looks pretty good

good luck!
 
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