Lighting issues...

JPuffy001 wrote on 9/30/2008, 4:15 PM

Ok so I came into some money a little bit ago so I was able to afford an actually blue screen. It's fairly decent but I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to lighting it properly so that I can use chromakey. Any suggestions on the best lights to use, where to set them up, how many, etc.? Any cheap but effective ways would be the best. Thanks in advance!

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 9/30/2008, 4:23 PM

I have these and work amazingly well:
http://www.adorama.com/SVKT500U.html
Get these if you need more light:
http://www.adorama.com/SVKT1000U.html

The important thing is to make them light towards the ceiling so they overcast a nice soft light to your subjects rather than lighting directly to your subjects. Place them left and right, there is no reason for complicated "master" and "secondary" light arrangements at this point.

One more thing important for chromakey: place the lights AND your subjects in a way that there is no shadow in the green screen behind them.

JPuffy001 wrote on 9/30/2008, 4:29 PM

This is the blue screen I purchased...
http://www.tubetape.net/servlet/the-15/Green-Screen-and-Support/Detail

So it's about ten feet tall and ten feet wide, which would you suggest is better for lighting this, the 500 watt, or the 1000 watt? And two would be enough right? Thanks again!

Eugenia wrote on 9/30/2008, 4:38 PM

Yes, two are enough. The 500W that I have are enough for the kind of things I do. If you do have the money, go for the 1000W, but remember, when these bulbs are gonna go out, they will be more expensive than the 500W ones, so that's something to take into account.

JPuffy001 wrote on 9/30/2008, 4:39 PM

Okay, well thank you for the help!

Eugenia wrote on 10/1/2008, 12:20 PM

Here's another way, but you don't really need to do it that way:
http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/aadams/story/i_decide_anatomy_of_a_no_budget_hd_spot/P1/