Matching the lighting, including angles, and colour balance in the green-screened shot with whatever video you're going to put behind it, so it just looks like the same place!

> "Matching the lighting, including angles, and colour balance in the green-screened shot with whatever video you're going to put behind it, so it just looks like the same place!"

This is the key (no pun intended). It's not the green screen effect that looks amateur, it's little cues that tell our eyes that something isn't quite right. Light temperatures need to match. Sources of light and shadow need to match. Getting the ambient light to match in both the foreground and background so that they look like they are part of the same scene. That's what "sells" the illusion, not how clean you can key out the background.

That's why I like the "Light Wrap" plug-in in Boris BCC because it blends the edges of the background with the foreground to make some of the light and color from the background affect the foreground object as if it were really there.

~jr

The problem I have not figured out how to solve is "floating people". If I include actors' feet in the shot, it looks like they are floating against the background. I have taken to cutting them off at the knees, as it were.

Any ideas?

The problem I have not figured out how to solve is "floating people".

If you've ever watched any of the "making of" scenes from big budget movies, a lot of green screen work matches the scenery exactly. That means building steps, stairs, etc. for the talent to walk up and down on. Expensive and lots of work but that's why it looks so good.

Mike

To add to the other good advice given:
In addition to the issue of lighting the bottom leg and feet appropriately to match the reflectivity of the background plate surface while eliminating green spill (which is difficult in itself in a semi-pro green screen studio), the brain can detect subtle errors in positioning.

If you're in a smaller GS studio, you're probably shooting at 24mm or less to include the feet. Was the background plate shot with the same focal length? Distance from subject to camera same as you would expect on the BG plate? Height of camera the same for both?

Texture in the shadow thrown by the subject? Concrete would need subtle noise treatment to the shadow. Grass, even more. The brain will pick out these errors without being able to identify exactly what's wrong. I think shadows are extremely important. I've gone to the extent of creating a matte/shadow model of the background surface in 3d max so I can get a proper texture and light fall-off in the shadows.

Basically - it ain't easy to do right with the budgets and resources I assume most of us are usually working with. I try to limit my GS work to talking heads on Photoshopped background plates.

Edges are king:

One big advantage that high level production has here is shooting in 444 color space. Usually amatuer stuff is 420 and it looses color information at the edge. However cameras that have 444 are usually expensive (it is possible that the soon to be released GH4 will shoot 1080p in 444 color).

If you have 420 footage use a pre-blur on the source on the chroma channels. Usually am stuff uses an erode on the edge (which makes it look terrible) because of the blockiness without doing the pre-blur.

As mentioned earlier lightwrap on the edge is important to.

Very good green screen work is tedious and the idea of having a single plug to pull a great mask is somewhat fantasy.

BTW, go and look at the greenscreen work done in the 80s, it's terrible for the most part, shimmering edges and such. Tools have come a long way. I recently watched the latest Tron release and saw many shimmering edges.

Someone shared a link to an excellent video that used green florescent lamps to enhance the green screen "green" and even out the background. Forgot the thread and the link tho...

Search for green screen didn't bring it up.

ByronK, was it this one?

G

My post doesn't have anything to do with how to do a decent green screen instead it's a post about a place to get inexpensive lights with which to do it. I have bought a number of florescent, tungsten and LED lights from these folks and the quality is surprisingly good for the money.

http://www.videolighting.com

John, are you happy with the LEDs you bought? Which ones in particular? The 1024 series looks promising to me, but I've put off my LED purchasing for a long time waiting for a good middle ground between the overpriced high-end and the eBay imports.

[I]" I've put off my LED purchasing for a long time waiting for a good middle ground between the overpriced high-end and the eBay imports. "[/I]

Not that I'm John but we're sort of in the same boat. Nothing has changed, your options are:

1) Buy Chinese designed and manufactured units through eBay
2) Buy the same thing through a local bricks and mortar business.
3) Buy something engineered outside of China which may or may not be still made in China.

From our experience 1) is your best option when it comes to value for money.
2) Sounds attractive but to be blunt we've had better service from the Chinese suppliers than when there's a local vendor in the supply chain. Forget about getting spare parts from either.

For sure the kit engineered outside of China is considerably more expensive but if at the moment if you want quality light that's your only option. The Chinese are using better quality LEDs these days...mostly, just avoid the uber cheap units as they're probably new old stock from the days when the LEDs had a huge green spike.

For a green screen LED light the Area 48 remote phosphor light looks very promising as you can buy a green phosphor panel for it. On the other hand you could buy several Chinese KinoFlo knockoffs for the same money and fit KF green tubes.

Bob.

Thanks, Bob. That's the best clarity I've heard on the LED subject.

I've been eyeing the lighting kits over on tubetape.com. I haven't purchased any lights from them so I don't know about the quality, but they often have pretty good sales in their email newsletter, if you have patience to wait for just the right sale.

They offered Hitfilm 2 Ultimate for about $340 during a sale last year.

I kind of hate doing greenscreen, but I have done quite a bit of it.

Here's what I do (for whatever that is worth):

1/ Two diffuse soft lights on the greenscreen: one from each side.

2/ Two LED lights making a narrow strip behind the talent and lighting him or her from behind to avoid spill.

3/ Two equal keylights, one on each side. I have given up on subtle shadows on the face. All that has ever given me is one edge that is a PITA to key.

My greenscreen work doesn't look anywhere near as good as LOTR or any of the other Hollywood stuff, but at least it keys.

I really hate greenscreen, but people ask for it regularly so I do it.