ChromaKey

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Comment by Bill Mecca on April 23, 2010 at 6:55pm

Halogen work lights are harsh and HOT!!! not good in a small space unless your talent is trying to sweat off a few pounds. I have and Episode of Quicktips planned where I will explain how I do it in more detail, but I use some inexpensive flourescent lights, and some flouros in metal clamp lights that you can pick up from Home Depot etc for about $7 a piece (plus the cost of bulb) the flouros are cool and do the job for me. I'll let the keys I pull speak for themselves. I don't light the screen itself, I do have the house lights on, in my room they are overhead cans with CFLs which light the room and that seems to work well for my set up, YMMV. You can see the wrinkled green cloth and the lighting setup, most of it anyway in the pictures I spoke of. You can't see the CFL back light that is the only other light I used besides the ceiling lights.

Comment by Tim Leaman on April 23, 2010 at 6:39pm

Bill- I use Vegas Pro. It has been very kind to me given some of the Chroma Key situations I throw at it. But I'm kinda done with screwing with it and want to really work on mastering the green screen. Everything you, and now Jeffrey, have offered as suggestions are things I've have either thought of or tried before. But I have to say, the lights from Home Depot were really harse and very difficult to soften since they get so hot. I just could not get the hang of them at all. That was a pull my hair out experience. I watch Mark Aposolon on YouTube quiet a bit and first saw that idea through his tips. When he did it, it looked easy. When I did it, I about had a heat stroke and nearly went blind. He didn't mentioned those factors in his piece. Then in editing it still didn't key out completely. I've since gotten rid of the lights. I think what I really need to do is get more photography oriented lights. (My wife's going to love hearing this!) "But just two more lights honey!" I can hear it all now. Ha!

I do want to get a garment steamer though. I know that will help. I wonder if they make a garment steamer with a soft box attached to it?

Comment by Jeffrey Bonano on April 23, 2010 at 1:58pm

Tim Leaman : "With it being cloth it casts a lot of shadows if it's not stretched tight and that's been hard for me to manage too"

One thing you can do since it is cloth, you can get a garment steamer. I have a green screen that is muslin cotton and while it works very well, it get's bad wrinkles. I simply steam out the majority of the wrinkles and the adjust my focus on the camera enough to where the rest of the wrinkles go away. Try that and see if it helps!

If budget is an issue with lights, you can go to home depot or some place like that and buy some work lights too. I simply take off the mettle screen that they mount on the front so I don't get the shadow.

Since I've upgraded my lighting equipment, I do use 2 lights on each side with soft boxes, plus an additional 3 point light set up for the subject. The kits I use I got from tubetape.com, but you can even make your own too!

In respect to a no light key idea, the less light you provide, the more challenges you may find when doing some of the keys since a non lit screen creates shadows and a color that is closer to your subject and unless you have a lot of time and patience, you might be pulling your hair out in some of your shots. Remember, the key idea to green screen is to separate your subjects colors completely from the background color. So that you can tell the computer to completely isolate and take out one entire color. A brighter green is not in our skin pigmentation so it will be easy to pull out.

Comment by Bill Mecca on April 22, 2010 at 3:33pm

At work I use a 5x7 collapsible blue/green photoflex backdrop. At home I have used thumb tacks to attach my green cloth to the wall. I have plans for an actual "studio" in the garage, some day and plan either a pull down, or a PVC frame. Not sure what software you are using to key, I have used Vegas 9, Avid and Video Pro X. In Vegas I boosted the green chroma before keying and that seemed to help. If you check my soon to disappear NING site www.meccavideopro.ning.com there are some behind the scenes pictures my 10 year old daughter took of the session with my oldest (on the video I linked to) real guerilla stuff that I plan on posting about when I get chance. Even that was a simple lighting set up as you can see in the pictures. Ifyou watch to the end of the video, I kill the key so you can see what I was working with.

Comment by Tim Leaman on April 22, 2010 at 3:15pm

Well with those distances will probably end up outon the porch shooting through my window. Ha! In my situation I have NO overhead lighting where my green screen. With it being cloth it casts a lot of shadows if it's not stretched tight and that's been hard for me to manage too. I know there is an answer I just have to find out what it is. Your input though is very helpful and I appreciate it very much.

Comment by Bill Mecca on April 21, 2010 at 8:07pm

Tim, just to clarify, in my office situation the flourescent lights in the ceiling happen to light the screen evenly so I can do it with just two lights, the soft box and the hair light. I don't have a lot of space so that helps. :-) I also did one with my daughter last summer http://www.billmecca.com/television-news-a-look-behind-the-scenes/ in our family room with a simple green cloth, some flouros and did not light the screen either. But conventional wisdom is to have the talent at least 6 feet from the screen, and the camera at least 6 feet from the talent (more is better to eliminate spill) and light the screen and talent seperately. I just don't have the space for that and have been able to pull some pretty good keys with my method.

Comment by Tim Leaman on April 21, 2010 at 10:50am

Thank you Bill. I am intriqued by the don't light it at all concept. I'm very interesting in trying that. I have the large soft boxes for lighting the green screen, but they are also my subject lights in some situations where I also happen to want to use the green screen. So you can see my dilemma. I never even imagined not lighting the green screen up with extra lighting. Shows me again how we just keep learning about our craft. Love it. Thanks again!

Comment by Bill Mecca on April 21, 2010 at 9:09am

to add, light the background and the subject seperately, so the lights for the screen would be behind the talent.

Comment by Bill Mecca on April 20, 2010 at 7:38pm

conventional wisdom is two large soft lights from the side to give it an even coverage. I have had good luck with not lighting it at all, leaving the houselights on and using a soft light on the talent and a hair light, sometimes with a magenta gel to kill any spill. That and keep the talent a good distance away from the screen.

Comment by Tim Leaman on April 20, 2010 at 5:48pm

I've been experimenting a bit with a 10'X20' cloth green screen and have had a horrible time getting the lighting right. Part of that is because I don't have nearly enough light to cover 10X20, but even scaled down I have a bad time with getting it lit evenly so it keys out completely. My question is...where is the BEST place to light the green screen from? Overhead? From the sides? Behind the subject? And how much lighting is generally needed for shooting one person in the shot? Help!

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