One of the biggest challenges of successfully working with a green screen is evenly lighting it. The screen itself requires its own lighting; independent from your foreground subject lighting.
The key is to evenly light your screen, while avoiding the creation of shadows. You preferably want your screen to represent a single, consistent colour.
Remember, because you’re trying to utilize the narrowest colour range as you can, shadows broaden the range, and are a contributor to diminished effects.
If you have shadows (darker colours), they might not be picked up by the camera, and as a result; those areas won’t be replaced. If you are working with a low-budget setup, shadows become more difficult to stop due to the cheaper, less specialized materials used. This is why it is even that much more
important to make sure your lighting is as even as possible, especially when working with lower budget setups.
Using a minimum of two lights (the morethe better), you should direct light inwards from either side, and from below; modify till you get the most even lighting. Using diffusion filters makes a huge difference during this step. They greatly decrease the occurrence of shadows. Next, when you add your subject, you may notice the subject’s foreground lighting casts shadows on the screen; you will need to readjust your screen lighting and filters for your screen colour evenness again.
When choosing a material for your green screen, always think about the lighting. Shiny materials yield bad results, as they reflect light and make replaced areas seem paler. At the same time, shiny materials will cast shadows, causing darker areas to not be replaced in the result. What you want to look for is a matte surface. Matte surfaces will diffuse light; causing even lighting across the entire material, and therefore, a narrower colour range. That is,there will be less reflected light; paler outcomes, and less shadows; non-replaced outcomes. Some of the cheaper options when starting out are solids such as cardboard or wood, painted green. Another option is a fabric such as canvas painted or dyed green. Imperfections such as creases, bumps or divisions in your material are an enemy as they create shadows, and therefore imperfections in your resulting footage. If you choose fabric, make sure it is adequately thick or dense, and doesn’t let light or its resting surface show through.
When shooting with your green screen, your subject is also a large factor in your lighting decision. You want to create a value difference between your
subject and your green screen. Usually a two stop difference (green screen is two stops higher or lower than the subject) between the green screen and the
subject is preferable as a lighting difference. Im from Los Angeles / Hollywood and I have seen alot of errors. Please E-mail me if you have any questions or suggestions. Please visit my website.www.atomicstudios.com
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