jpuckett Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 I shoot youth sports photography and was thinking of using green or white backgrounds so I could key out theindividual portraits and drop into a template background. Has anyone found a fairly easy way of separating the subject from green/white keys to a new background and nothaving green color/white color or artifacts in the hair. Or a technique to quickly remove and/or correct hair issues. Reason is I process about 150 individual portrait images a week and to have to spend time removing left overartifacts or color correcting hair for that many is... a bit more than I wish to spend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddes Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 A green screen will do a better job than white. As the light level increases everything becomes white. For example hair is tough to separate because the highlights you want to keep are almost white. Have you ever seen a purple specular highlight? No they are white. You can easily get a background in a green made for this purpose. Good luck Edmond Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garrison_k. Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 "...and not having green color/white color or artifacts in the hair." green screen should be 1.5 stops under from your key light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damon DAmato Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nohodamon/2517218357/" title="Dave and Jennifer On Set by NoHoDamon, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3075/2517218357_0649ba08e4.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Dave and Jennifer On Set" /></a> <br><br> For video, we set the key and the green screen at the same stop. It's very imporant to make sure the background it lit evenly, so we run a light meter back and forth across the greenscreen. On a large stage, specialized lighting instruments are used to get even illumination. On smaller shoots, KinoFlo's are the standard. From the snapshot above, you can see how evenly the background is lit. It take a lot of light to do that. There is also a huge soft source overhead that provides the key. The "china ball" on a pole gives a little fill. <br><br> Make sure you separate your subject from the background several feet to avoid spill, and to throw the green screen out of focus. <br><br> Do not use magenta (anti-green) gels on your hairlight, as some suggest, to separate your subject-- it causes a hard line around the edge. Watch for stray hairs, and use hairspray, if necessary and possible-- this is a lot easier on a video monitor, but do the best you can. Stray hairs, and areas where you see through hair wisps, are what will kill you in post. It also can't hurt to use the best plug-in available to create the matte. <br><br> There's lots of information about greenscreen shooting online, but most of the good info will be in film and video forums, as this is where the vast majority of matte work is done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpuckett Posted August 1, 2008 Author Share Posted August 1, 2008 Thanks for all of your suggestions. Any suggestions on which product works best manuf. for 9ftw. I would think muslim is a definite no no. And I agree Damon I do foresee many flyaway hairs with that many kids at least 50% will have very curly or flyaway hair and too spray them all down would grind shooting to a crawl. I guess the thing to do is test it and see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damon DAmato Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 Give it a try. Have your subjects smooth or comb their hair a little. I figured hairspray would be out of the question. Paint the back of some scrap vinyl flooring or get some fabric. Modern green screens use what's called Digital Green, which to my eye looks like there's a little yellow in there. I think for your use, as long as it's solid, flat and and can be lit evenly (and nobody will be wearing that color) it would work. Avoid spill from the background, and the wraparound effect from a large soft source will help fill the nooks and crannies. My experience is with video, but my best guess is that crisp focus, strobe lights, and the much higher resolution of a dslr compared to video would isolate strays and make them easier to correct/defringe. A blurry or soft photo would make for foreground colors that are contaminated with the background. If it doesn't work out, you can always use a backdrop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpuckett Posted August 2, 2008 Author Share Posted August 2, 2008 Thanks for all of your suggestions. I will test it and see if it is worth it...I might have to stick with the backdrop. JP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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