Green screen, red clothes don't mix

Ethan Winer wrote on 8/15/2007, 1:56 PM
I'm having a problem with green edges showing up around people wearing red colored clothes in front of a green screen. The same lighting works fine with other color clothes, so it's not the lighting. I know that red and green are opposites, but I can't see why the Vegas Chroma Key plug-in can't filter out the green when it's adjacent to red. Is this a known problem? More important, is there a solution for footage that's already shot, or am I hosed?

--Ethan

Comments

Coursedesign wrote on 8/15/2007, 2:03 PM
They've probably been standing too close to the greenscreen, so green light has been reflected back and shows on the edges of people.

Not super easy to rescue after the fact, takes a lot of handiwork.

Are you shooting NTSC DV?


busterkeaton wrote on 8/15/2007, 2:47 PM
Try using a secondary color corrector before the chroma key. Use sec CC to make the red really, really RED and then try to pull a key. You may want to try chroma blur in there too
farss wrote on 8/15/2007, 2:53 PM
DV samples red very badly. Rather than blur all the channels applying blur to the red channel only might give better results.

Bob.
jrazz wrote on 8/15/2007, 8:36 PM
Check this tutorial out.

j razz
Ethan Winer wrote on 8/16/2007, 9:28 AM
Thanks very much! At first I thought the problem was only with red clothes, but now after reading your replies I realize the green edges happen with other color clothes too - it just doesn't show as much. The tutorial jrazz linked looks like exactly what I need. I've never used ANY color corrector tools before, but I'll work through the tutorial and report back on my success. Just seeing the screen shots in the tutorial gives me much hope!

--Ethan
goodtimej wrote on 8/16/2007, 9:40 AM
Keylight is the only keyer that I have worked with yet that is worth a damn. I haven't worked with many "pro" options, but keylight is freaking amazing.
deusx wrote on 8/16/2007, 7:59 PM
Even in that Sony tutorial, you can still see green in guy's hair.

So maybe another color corrector after all these steps to turn green spill into the color of the hair, or red clothes in your case.

Better keyers have spill suppression and color controls for matte border / outlines / spill, etc.......
Ethan Winer wrote on 8/17/2007, 12:14 PM
> The tutorial jrazz linked looks like exactly what I need <

Alas, it's a bit over my head. I wasn't able to get results even as good as the regular Chroma Key plug-in.

Are any of you experts here 1) available for consulting, and 2) anywhere near me in Western Connecticut? I've been working on this project for more than a year, and a few hundred bucks to hire a pro to show me how to use these tools would be well worth it to me.

--Ethan