Green Screen Technology

Green Screen technology seems to be an ultimate solution for the people who wish to make the scenes appear as if they were shot in impractical locations, when they were taking place in studio. The process is very technical and produces correct results only if photo or video is shot properly in the front of green screen. Thus, the green screen must appear perfectly in order to provide a clean image. The main thing to be focused on is lighting green screen.

Green Screen Technique Starts and Finishes with Lighting

In green screen technique, the entire production process and final product is going to suffer if the lighting is not perfect. Lighting green screen is not concerned with just one thing. Here, one has to take care of many things, i.e.

Even lightingAvoiding ReflectionBrightness

It is also necessary to check the design and layout of various lights used. The main idea is to preserve lighting throughout.

Even Lighting

The most important part of green screen technique is to get even lighting. Green screen works due to its color… green is a solid color and is easily identifiable. During compositing, this green color has to be replaced by a digital image. However, it cannot be replaced accurately if the entire screen is not of the same lighting and color.

To get same lighting, use soft lights on all green screen areas.

Avoiding Reflection

Green screen reflects light of same green shade as one gets on the screen. If same green is reflected on the subject, the compositing becomes difficult. To avoid this problem, lighting for subject and green screen should be separate. Make sure that subject is far away from green screen by 8 or 10 feet.

4 or 5 point photography lighting system is ideal for green screen.

4/5 Point Photography Lighting System

4/5 point lighting system includes:

Key Light – Main light which angles towards the actor.

Fill Light – Placed at actor’s side opposite to key light.

Back light or hair light – It is needed in some shoots to get more light from above.

Green screen light – It is aimed at background from 45o angle and illuminates the green screen.

Second green screen light – Placed at the opposite side of the 1st green screen light.

Brightness

The green screen should be bright enough. This is necessary to get replacement image equally bright and vibrant. The replacement image will be dull if green screen will be gloomy.