Lighting

chasmcg wrote on 1/14/2010, 4:19 AM
I received my backdrop stands and huge muslin green sheet, which I doubled. I can see from my first attempts at chromakeying that lighting is somewhat important.

After purchasing a new sony camera and the backdrop kit I'm somewhat strapped for cash so I ordered 6 Clamp Lights w/ Aluminum Reflector. $50 for them. So if I can hook them up to the top bar of the backdrop stands (150 watt bulbs) hopefully I will be in business. Comments will be appreciated.

Also, I used a jpg for my first background and noticed that the jpg is taller than my video. I guess my HD camcorder is recording in wide screen mode. What do I do about this? Thanks a lot.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 1/14/2010, 9:51 AM
"lighting is somewhat important"

I wouldn't say that. I would say "lighting is critically important."

The problem with putting the lights on the top bar is that you'll illuminate the top of the backdrop much more than the bottom. If your lights are 2' above the top and 8' above the bottom then the top will be 16 times as bright as the bottom. That's almost the same difference as between medium grey and black.

You'll need to have the lights in front of the screen and evenly spread, with enough on either side of the subject to fill in the shadow behind.

To match the photograph to the frame shape open up pan/crop, right-mouse-button click inside the cropping frame, and choose "match output aspect".
richard-amirault wrote on 1/14/2010, 11:16 AM
Yes, lighting is very important ... more to the point .. even lighting on the background is very important.

Also, you really should not use the same lights for both the background and your subject. In other words, you should have lights that *only* shine on the backdrop, and then have seperate lights set-up for the subject.

You can "get by" with one set of lights but two sets are better.

Did I say that you need even lighting on the backdrop?
chasmcg wrote on 1/14/2010, 5:13 PM
chienworks, I was being facetious on the 'somewhat important' statement. If I can't get this to work I may get a huge board and paint it. Or just get some proper lights for what I've got. Thanks for your help and the tip on the "match output aspect".

brighterside, thanks for your tips. As soon as I receive my clamp lights I will see where I stand and what I need to do to get proper lighting.