Green Screen Studio and Lighting
Dec 17, 2009 Advertising
One of the toughest issues of successfully working with a green screen studio is uniformly lighting it. The screen itself requires its own lighting ; independent from your foreground subject lighting.
The key’s to uniformly light your screen, while avoiding the creation of shadows. You ideally need your screen to represent a single, consistent colour. Remember, because you’re trying to utilize the narrowest colour range as you can, shadows broaden the range, and are a contributor to diminished effects. If you have shadows ( darker colours ), they won’t be picked up by the camera, and as a consequence ; those areas won’t be replaced. If you’re working with a low-budget setup, shadows become harder to stop thanks to the less expensive, less specialized materials used.
This is the reason why it is even that much more important to make sure your lighting is as even as practicable, especially when working with lower budget setups. Using a minimum of two lights ( the more the better ), you need to direct light inwards from either side, and from below ; alter till you get the maximum even lighting. Using diffusion filters makes a big difference in this step. They seriously decrease the frequency of shadows. Next, when you add your subject, you may notice the subject’s foreground lighting casts shadows on the screen ; you will need to re-adjust your screen lighting and filters for your screen color evenness again.
When choosing a material for your green screen studio, always consider the lighting. Shiny materials yield bad results, as they reflect light and make replaced areas seem paler. At the same time, glossy materials will cast shadows, causing darker areas to not get replaced in the result. What you want to go looking for is a matte surface. Matte surfaces will diffuse light ; causing even lighting across the entire material, and therefore , a narrower color range. That is, there will be less reflected light ; paler outcomes, aand less shadows ; non-replaced outcomes. Some of the cheaper options when starting out are solids such as cardboard or wood, painted green. Another option is a fabric such as canvas painted or dyed green. Defects like creases, bumps or divisions in your material are an enemy as they create shadows, and therefore imperfections in your ensuing pictures. If you select fabric, ensure it is adequately thick or dense, and doesn’t let light or its resting surface show thru.
When shooting with your green screen studio, your subject is also an important factor in your lighting call. You wish to make a value difference between your subject and your green screen. Sometimes a 2 stop difference ( green screen is two stops higher or lower than the topic ) between the green screen studio and the topic is preferable as a lighting difference.
There are so many other sites giving different forms of advice on how to use green screen but a lot of them are not very detailed or precise. Before following these, make sure to check my own articles and reviews on Green Screen Studio and Green Screen, You can also reach me at 1-323-851-3825 or phillipguy@hotmail.com
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