What color do I use if subject has to wear green?

YesMaestro wrote on 12/7/2008, 7:38 PM
I have a video I have to do on green screen but the client needs the subject to wear green scrubs. I understand blue is the other color of choice to do chromakey work. But never having used blue before, does it pose any keying problems (if any) with my subject having to wear all green?

I am using an EX1 and tungsten light setup.

Paul

PS. Thanks Bob and Glenn for the help in the other thread. I've ordered the filter and a florescent light kit but they won't get here in time for the shoot.

Comments

goodtimej wrote on 12/7/2008, 7:57 PM
Blue. Shouldn't be a problem. Shoot a pad first just in case.
musicvid10 wrote on 12/7/2008, 8:09 PM
FWIW, the reason green and blue are used as primary chroma key colors is because flesh tones are in the red-yellow part of the spectrum. I've seen weathercasters in the distant past whose clothing became invisible, but having the same thing happen to faces and hands would be psychedelic, to say the least.

But hospital scrubs are a little to the cyan side of green, and will worsen if the cotton fabric flouresces, so you might have an invisibility problem in spots. Shoot a test first before you commit. In that case, you may want to go a bit to the magenta side of blue with the screen to compensate.
Gary R. Brown wrote on 12/8/2008, 11:51 AM
Hey don't sweat it! Just do some testing. I pulled wonderful key off an off-white gym wall. Vegas has an Eye dropper selection that will allow you to key just about any color, as long as it isn't in the subject shot.

Keep your background color different AND keep good separation between the subject and the background. You can use a complimentary color gel on your backlight to neutralize any spill, but distance is the best solution for loss of lighting bounce. If the background ends up being less that perfectly lit ,the mask tool in Pan/Crop can help clean up bad spots around the edges.

PS- Green was traditionally used in TV and Blue in Film as the respective color spaces had a larger dynamic range for their respective media.

GB-)