Digitally adding background image on Chroma Key backdrop

[scott_stone]

Hey Gang:

 

I've just ordered a new Chroma key backdrop, and I'm looking for a good

software special effects program that will let me digitally drop an image into

the background behind my subjects. Do I just need to get the latest version

of Photoshop? Or do I also need plug-ins like StepOK's Recomposit? I don't

really have a lot of applications (yet!) where I'll be using the Chroma trick,

so I'm looking for a reasonably easy-to-use, inexpensive alternative at this

point.

 

Of course, chances are I'll end up liking it enough that I'll figure out some

other blue-background tricks that I'd like to try, so the high-end feature

route isn't out of the question.

 

Using a WindowsPC at this point, so please don't suggest I go BUY a Mac to

make this work.... Any other help, though, is greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

[steven_clark]

You could use an HSL seperation and curves of the Hue component (or a number of other techniques) to generate a mask and use that to control the trnsparency between two layers.

[d_gillespie]

http://www.seanet.com/~bradford/bluscrn.html

 

Google is a beautiful thing. There are tons of sites this was the first one that looked to have some of the answers you seek.

[midnightumbrella]

I do recall Digital Anarchy's Primatte Chromakey as a program I tried while experimenting with a greenscreen. The page for the program is: http://www.digitalanarchy.com/primatte/primatte_update.html .

 

But, I'm convinced you can do a fairly decent job in Photoshop using the color range tools, especially if your screen if evenly lit. The most central problem is having some of the screen color bleed onto your subject, which even the best programs have trouble dealing with. Hope that helps!

[emre]

You just use a keying application like Primatte, zMatte, or Ultimatte to knock out the background for you.