Have you gotten to the point of being sick and bored with shooting (plus viewing) the same old photography, time and time again? You’ve discovered that “blue screen” is the path to go, however you do not truly understand it or even know much about it? Here is everything you need to be familiar with to put it to use as a photography background!
Firstly…What exactly is it?
You will hear the terms “green screen”, “blue screen”, and “chroma key” thrown around and employed to mean the same thing when discussing a photography background.
Chroma key basically means working with a background that is one solid, uniformly lit color. The green and blue tend to be the most employed hues. In fact, you can make use of ANY color – but green and blue tend to be best. I am going to make clear why that is the case in a second.
Green screen strategies can be employed during either video and still images. You photograph somebody in front of the green screen and then later (or simultaneously with high quality video cameras) you get rid of the solid color and supplant it with any type of backdrop you would like!
This is how the local weatherman/woman does the weather report. They are standing in front of a blue screen and the camera digitally replaces it and inserts the local weather map. They are watching themselves using a television monitor to find out where to point and so on. It can be confusing and harder than you might imagine in order to be a weather reporter!
Next…Why blue or green?
Commonly we tend to make use of green and blue since they are the farthest from the colors found in skin tones. The technique was initially done with blue, however as the standard of cameras improves, green tends to work more efficiently. It’s simpler to strip out of the background, so nearly all studios are switching to green. But it really does not do any harm to possess both.
An added good point for green is that it creates less apparel conflicts.
Since color is automatically removed and replaced, if the subject is wearing a shade of that color (blue) as part of their outfit…it’s replaced. You will frequently see shirts and ties that become comical looking holes in the subject – showing through to the brand new background.
It has even happened among blue eyes!
Green tends to generate less of a apparel conflict, it truly is a lot easier for the cameras to work with also it’s simpler to light uniformly.
Uniform light is vital since shadows on the background will show in the ultimate result. This can destroy the realism of the photography background. And more, with irregular illumination, you’ll get altered hues of the color…a number of which might not get deleted accurately.
The three major kinds of chroma key backgrounds are: paper, paint and fabric.
Paint is good when you’ve got a studio that has a cove and you do all your photos there…it is actually worthless in case you ever must shoot on location.
Paper comes in large rolls, but is easily torn and always needs replacing. This can get pricey in a hurry.
Material tends to survive longest and is movable. Plus material is easy to wash (dirty chroma key backgrounds won’t work well).
Any material supplier can offer some material which will do the work. Get some and do some testing with your photography background, any photo editing program can take out the color. Experiment with it, you will enjoy it!