How to use "Green Screen"?

I used to work as light tecnician/VJ for a band, now they asked me to do an image for a cover - them leaving a exploding house, carrying their equipment (jezz, couldn't you think of anything just a little more challenging, lol).

The exploding house we will buy from Stock Photo, and then do the band members one by one, in front of a green backdrop in the studio.

I can read, its important to 1: get light on the green backdrop so it will be as easy as possible extracting the guys, and 2: do the lighting with the final image in mind, so it will look real.


Thinking to use 4 lamps in the studio, 2 lighting the green backdrop from each side, and then 2 lamps from behind the band member, each side, as if there really were an exploding house, this would be where the light would come from, right? But I guess I need to be careful not to get the light to straight towards the camera?

And what about shadows? Is this done in PP or should I have this in mind too, when doing the studio pictures?


What do you think about this setup, and do you have any other tips?? I only tried green backdrop once, and didn't succeed very well....

(At the same time, we'll do a headshot of everybody (some I want to do), so if the above fails, I can use those).

Wouldn't it be easier just to blow up a house with them standing just close enough not to get hurt??

Mike d90 said:

Wouldn't it be easier just to blow up a house with them standing just close enough not to get hurt??

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Would love to!, but its pretty hard to get permission for blowing anything up here, even just a doll house.. darn.

Wud, check your pm.

The idea of the green screen is to make it as easy as possible to remove the background. As was mentioned make sure that the lighting is uniform. I'm sure others will have personal experience with it, which I don't, but from the videos I've seen I'd also recommend keeping them a decent distance away from it to avoid a green color cast on anything - I suspect it's not a color you expect in front of an exploding building. Otherwise you'll be doing some unwanted color fixing.

You do not want shadows casting across your green screen (the talent should be far enough away from the screen to prevent this) and an even cast of light across the green screen. You also have to be very careful of colors that might be anywhere in the neighborhood of the green color.

Here is a good read and technique - Add Any Background To Your Photos: How Green Screen Photography Works

Green Screen Photography Quick Tips

Thank you! True, distance to the backdrop. And I wrote to them, not to wear any green.

About the shadows, I meant shadows in front of them, as there probably would be, if walking in front of an explosion.

I'll read your link when I get home from work, Scott




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Scott Murray said:

Here is a good read and technique - Add Any Background To Your Photos: How Green Screen Photography Works

Green Screen Photography Quick Tips

Click to expand...

Good articles but I must say, thats really not a good image he ends up with, in the first! Light looks so weird, and he got green around several places...!

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