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06-13-2012, 01:54 AM   #1
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To Chromakey Or Not To Chromakey....

That is the question, as in how many of you like to do the green screen thing? I wouldn't want to overdo it. Using a green screen for every shoot would be annoying but I must admit I'm having some fun with the green screen thing so far. I like to do a lot of fantasy portrait shoots and boudoir stuff so being able to put an antique backdrop behind my subject or being able to shoot a kid in a fairy princess costume on a mushroom in a fairy forest or whatever is cool. Its working real well for my darker shots and for my kids. Even for regular portraits, popping in an interesting grunge background can make a portrait really pop. So far my clients are enthusiastic and I can see how doing this right could really help my bottom line. The kids seem to love it in particular. I put a little boy right into a scene with a train and when he saw the pic he was so happy and excited he just about burst himself smiling. His Mom got a backdrop with girly makeup stuff which really pleased her to no end because she's an Avon lady by trade.

They got the standard Mom and kid together with a solid background too, but it was the off the cuff green screen stuff that really made them happy with the session. I hadn't planned it at all. I just got my green screen that day and wanted to try it out a little. It got me to wondering if you all are going there of late and how you feel about it. Is it too "fluffy" for you? Do you find it amusing? Just curious.

FYI there are tons of CD's out there with all kinds of backgrounds. I have about two dozen at this point. I've been collecting them for a while now. I'm also making my own all the time because I want to be able to offer some scenes that are just mine, and that feature things that are local to my people. I'm trying to learn to do some 3D too so I can make some simple room backgrounds that maybe I can sell eventually. A lot of what's out there looks like it's for video games, and that's a bit too fake for me most of the time. There are a couple of areas too that I can see where there's not a lot of options for people. I'd like to make CD's covering that. Got graphics skills. Might as well use them. It could pay for some new gear, maybe even a certain sexy Pentax camera coming out soon.... :P


Last edited by magkelly; 06-13-2012 at 02:02 AM.
06-13-2012, 01:29 PM   #2
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I don't know what it is. Sounds like what the movies do to add background.

If you like it do it. That is my motto.
06-13-2012, 04:22 PM   #3
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It is basically. Some people use a green screen others a blue. You just key out the green background in an image editor like Photoshop and put in whatever you want. It's much easier I think than having 20 background screens you have to lug out and change out all the time. You do have to be careful about how you light it because you can end up with hot spots that make it difficult to key but I don't find keying out the green screen all that difficult actually. Mostly I've used it so far with grunge paper backdrops. I like that look behind portraits. (See example below.)

But I've also done the train pic with the little boy and the cosmetics one I did with his Mom. I've got everything from tartans to spooky backgrounds at this point to play with and I'm making some things I haven't seen. I have a cloth black, white, green, standard screen muslin set up and I've actually made a tie-dye spiral and a gray velvet one as well. I have some wide olive green, emerald green, and brown velvet I may make into backdrops too eventually but with the digital backdrops I've pretty much got an unlimited number of background choices at my disposal.

The CD's aren't too expensive. I think the most expensive ones I've seen are $15 and usually there's at least 10 backdrops on them. There's quite a few free use ones out there too. I got a bunch on DevArt. I would imagine that for holidays, kid's birthdays and stuff I could be quite busy doing stuff like this.

This pic is a demo pic that I've seen pop up quite a bit whenever people start showing how to use a green screen. I used this particular one to show you what a bad green screen pic actually looks like. Whoever originally took this pic was very casual about it. They didn't light the back screen very well and there's a pronounced green halo around the guy. I've actually edited out about as much as I could using the selection tools in Photoshop and put him on a backdrop where it's not too noticeable but even so you can still see the halo just a bit. FYI, it can be very hard just clone out the halo when it's there. I could eventually do it 100% but it would take me a lot longer than I'd like just to show you what I mean. This is me doing a somewhat lazy job. It's actually two faux muslin screens layered plus a warming filter.

But this is what you can do even with straight portraits and a green screen, maybe a quick filter. I kind of like it. It's like the old painted muslin style but it's nicer, warmer, but I only need one screen for many, many looks.



See the faint halo? That's bad. In order to get a clean selection you really have to light the screen evenly. This shot wasn't lit well at all. You can really tell. Even with me doing a quick job of trying to select it out and on a green background it still shows.

Last edited by magkelly; 06-13-2012 at 05:41 PM.
06-13-2012, 04:35 PM   #4
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Would you be kind enough to post a couple of examples?

06-13-2012, 05:18 PM   #5
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I just did. (See above) But not mine, sorry. The Mom and the boy I did don't like having their pics online, shrug. Next time I do a client for a fantasy shoot I'll ask and get a release if I can and show you shots that have more of a theme background thing going on. I'm supposed to do a goth shoot soon actually. That should be fun. It's for my site and I've already got her agreeing to a release so I can post those when we're done. Here's someone else's demo shot. One boy many different backgrounds and this guy did a clean select and remove.

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=green+screen+backdrop&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1288&bih...3&tx=191&ty=55

You can do basically anything with a green screen. You can pop in Christmas scenes, have a kid waving from a train car, which is what I did with Ethan, put a little girl into a castle shot as a princess. All you need is a green screen, a little imagination and the right background. It's a gimmick thing and it's easy to overdo it, but even for basic portraits it can be useful. Painted muslins are expensive and a lot of people like something besides a solid color behind them. For me the 3 basic screens, G,W,BLK plus some CD's with stuff like this is a very practical alternative to a closet full of pricey muslin screens. I like playing with the theme screens sometimes but the muslin thing that's where using a green screen will pay off most I think. I've priced those screens. Short of making them and painting them myself, which is just way too much work, having a decent selection of them would cost me a fair bit. There are some cheap ones out there for about $25 but most of the better ones are a lot more than that. Plus you have to have the space to store them all, which I really don't.

Last edited by magkelly; 06-13-2012 at 05:45 PM.
06-13-2012, 05:51 PM   #6
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On what side is your feather edge selected, this will determine which side the blend will occur and how much.

I.E. (what it looks like to me) you have selected the subject with the feather blend on the outside with wide blend. this will cause the green background to 'blend' through the new background.

first suggestion - feather blend to the subject side of the selection with a very small blend.

second suggestion - select the green colour and change the colour to something darker, closer to the new background. again ensure the you selection feathering (blend) happens on the subject side and not on the green side. then blend in the new background.

when blend on the subject side the new background will blend into the subject, this is also suggested as to remove the colour case that occurs on the subject from (whatever) colour.
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