green vinyl !!
- Thread starter holty
- Start date
Phil V
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 26,303
- Name
- Phil
- Edit My Images
- No
Because a vivid unnatural green is easy to isolate, whereas if using black or white, when you knock the colour out in software, you're likely to also knock out some of your subject.
If you remember the old days, the weatherman used to have bits of the map 'appear' through bits of his tie.
Nowadays Chromakey is usually done with either blue or green, depending on the subject.
Last edited:
itsdavedotnet
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 5,864
- Edit My Images
- No
worth noting that stills almost never uses greenscreen, photoshop's pretty good and you can save yourself a lot of hassle just shooting on grey and cutting out. Chroma green or blue are predominantly used for video
TG.
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 6,905
- Name
- Tel
- Edit My Images
- No
I wonder about this Phil, not saying your wrong, but have heard various answers, I want to actually start doing some decent composites, and wondering if it's worth investing in a green screen, but then I look at Joel Grimes work, which is great, and I've never seen him use a green screen, bit confusing really
mike weeks
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 4,881
- Name
- mike
- Edit My Images
- No
for speed such as at events then green screen is easy because it can be automated, for the best quality shooting as Joel Grimes does is better.
Mike
Mike
Phil V
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 26,303
- Name
- Phil
- Edit My Images
- No
As Mike said, for automation it's the easiest, but not necessarily the best thing, for great quality composites I'm not sure what's best. But if I wanted to know, I'd ask @Marcus Geezer because his composite work is about a thousand times better than anything I could do.I wonder about this Phil, not saying your wrong, but have heard various answers, I want to actually start doing some decent composites, and wondering if it's worth investing in a green screen, but then I look at Joel Grimes work, which is great, and I've never seen him use a green screen, bit confusing really
Marcus Geezer
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 3,522
- Name
- Marcus
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Thanks @Phil V for the mention.
Mid tone grey is yr best starting point. Watch any online tutorial by any of the best photographers who do this, it tends to be grey.
By the way although you can automate the masking process to a certain extent, the only true way to mask properly is by hand. If u haven't got one already, you'll need a tablet.
EDIT: Typed this while on my phone sitting down in a small room if you get my drift.....
On main PC now.
If you are shooting fast whilst running a studio at an event, where you haven't got time to edit then green screen is great using the proper software to just drop the person into a logo'd background for quick print. The green works well, but if you need to be approaching something like pixel perfect or need hair to be masked properly then it isn't the way forward.
If you are looking to do composites where you want to extract a person from a photo and place them in a separate background where your mask needs to bear better inspection then shoot against grey. Why grey? Why not another colour? Well as mentioned either here or in another thread, if you use a colour it will invoke a colour cast on to the subject which you wont want for your final composite and can be a pain to edit out. I've also shot against unlit white or black where I know the end image would either be high or low key accordingly.
As for the processing after you have completed the mask, you have to consider from subject to background the perspective, focal length, light direction, light temp, shadows, interaction, composition, to name some. Plus even when you have got everything right the subject can still sometimes just look 'stuck on' to the background, that's when some of the little tricks and tips you have built up to blend come in.
Composites can be simple such as just changing the background to a different colour, or complex where you want to make a full on action image with crazy explosions and space ships and stuff. If you don't get all these elements right it just looks like poop. I've seen green screens of a corporate shoot where although the subject was masked well, because the perspective wasn't right it looks like they are sat on the floor or have no legs. I've seen crazy full on scenes where focal length and depth of field have just been ignored. If you are going to paint on blur (which is a common tool in composites to create depth of field), you have to do it properly, or it may end up on one of these photoshop fail websites.
I've made a lot of these mistakes in the past learning to complete composites but that's part of the fun of a good development path, and the right attitude is to always know that there is always something new to learn. It's a journey of hard work and sometimes a lot of swearing to be good at these, but an enjoyable one.
Examples of a lot of my comp work here.....
http://www.charterphotography.co.uk/portfolio/digital-art-photography/
Mid tone grey is yr best starting point. Watch any online tutorial by any of the best photographers who do this, it tends to be grey.
By the way although you can automate the masking process to a certain extent, the only true way to mask properly is by hand. If u haven't got one already, you'll need a tablet.
EDIT: Typed this while on my phone sitting down in a small room if you get my drift.....
On main PC now.If you are shooting fast whilst running a studio at an event, where you haven't got time to edit then green screen is great using the proper software to just drop the person into a logo'd background for quick print. The green works well, but if you need to be approaching something like pixel perfect or need hair to be masked properly then it isn't the way forward.
If you are looking to do composites where you want to extract a person from a photo and place them in a separate background where your mask needs to bear better inspection then shoot against grey. Why grey? Why not another colour? Well as mentioned either here or in another thread, if you use a colour it will invoke a colour cast on to the subject which you wont want for your final composite and can be a pain to edit out. I've also shot against unlit white or black where I know the end image would either be high or low key accordingly.
As for the processing after you have completed the mask, you have to consider from subject to background the perspective, focal length, light direction, light temp, shadows, interaction, composition, to name some. Plus even when you have got everything right the subject can still sometimes just look 'stuck on' to the background, that's when some of the little tricks and tips you have built up to blend come in.
Composites can be simple such as just changing the background to a different colour, or complex where you want to make a full on action image with crazy explosions and space ships and stuff. If you don't get all these elements right it just looks like poop. I've seen green screens of a corporate shoot where although the subject was masked well, because the perspective wasn't right it looks like they are sat on the floor or have no legs. I've seen crazy full on scenes where focal length and depth of field have just been ignored. If you are going to paint on blur (which is a common tool in composites to create depth of field), you have to do it properly, or it may end up on one of these photoshop fail websites.
I've made a lot of these mistakes in the past learning to complete composites but that's part of the fun of a good development path, and the right attitude is to always know that there is always something new to learn. It's a journey of hard work and sometimes a lot of swearing to be good at these, but an enjoyable one.
Examples of a lot of my comp work here.....
http://www.charterphotography.co.uk/portfolio/digital-art-photography/
Last edited:
HoppyUK
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 23,200
- Name
- Richard
- Edit My Images
- No
Nice work on the link Marcus
I wonder what you think about this guy's work - Lindsay Robertson's wonderful equine pics http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ackdrop-capture-stunning-pictures-horses.html Thing is, he uses a 3000ft sq background and stage - basically a huge horse-sized mobile studio.
It obviously works brilliantly, but I wonder if there's an easier method these days. Is the technology capable of that level of sophistication and detail? How would you photograph a horse for that kind of result? Cheers.
I wonder what you think about this guy's work - Lindsay Robertson's wonderful equine pics http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ackdrop-capture-stunning-pictures-horses.html Thing is, he uses a 3000ft sq background and stage - basically a huge horse-sized mobile studio.
It obviously works brilliantly, but I wonder if there's an easier method these days. Is the technology capable of that level of sophistication and detail? How would you photograph a horse for that kind of result? Cheers.
TG.
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 6,905
- Name
- Tel
- Edit My Images
- No
Thanks @Phil V for the mention.
Mid tone grey is yr best starting point. Watch any online tutorial by any of the best photographers who do this, it tends to be grey.
By the way although you can automate the masking process to a certain extent, the only true way to mask properly is by hand. If u haven't got one already, you'll need a tablet.
EDIT: Typed this while on my phone sitting down in a small room if you get my drift.....
If you are shooting fast whilst running a studio at an event, where you haven't got time to edit then green screen is great using the proper software to just drop the person into a logo'd background for quick print. The green works well, but if you need to be approaching something like pixel perfect or need hair to be masked properly then it isn't the way forward.
If you are looking to do composites where you want to extract a person from a photo and place them in a separate background where your mask needs to bear better inspection then shoot against grey. Why grey? Why not another colour? Well as mentioned either here or in another thread, if you use a colour it will invoke a colour cast on to the subject which you wont want for your final composite and can be a pain to edit out. I've also shot against unlit white or black where I know the end image would either be high or low key accordingly.
As for the processing after you have completed the mask, you have to consider from subject to background the perspective, focal length, light direction, light temp, shadows, interaction, composition, to name some. Plus even when you have got everything right the subject can still sometimes just look 'stuck on' to the background, that's when some of the little tricks and tips you have built up to blend come in.
Composites can be simple such as just changing the background to a different colour, or complex where you want to make a full on action image with crazy explosions and space ships and stuff. If you don't get all these elements right it just looks like poop. I've seen green screens of a corporate shoot where although the subject was masked well, because the perspective wasn't right it looks like they are sat on the floor or have no legs. I've seen crazy full on scenes where focal length and depth of field have just been ignored. If you are going to paint on blur (which is a common tool in composites to create depth of field), you have to do it properly, or it may end up on one of these photoshop fail websites.
I've made a lot of these mistakes in the past learning to complete composites but that's part of the fun of a good development path, and the right attitude is to always know that there is always something new to learn. It's a journey of hard work and sometimes a lot of swearing to be good at these, but an enjoyable one.
Examples of a lot of my comp work here.....
http://www.charterphotography.co.uk/portfolio/digital-art-photography/
Thanks Marcus, nice summary, and some great composites on your site, I have the green background as an xmas prezzy, I already had a grey one, so I am going to have a go at this in the near future, also just been watching Aaron Nace's video on Creative live, like you say to get it right everything has to be spot on lighting wise, be interesting to see how I get on though, if I get any good results I will post here.