Art-ology

Have you gotten to the point of being sick and uninterested in photographing (plus viewing) the identical old pictures, over and over again? You have heard rumors that “blue screen” is a way to go, however you do not truly understand it or even know a great deal about it? This is all it’s essential to understand to use it as a photography background!

Firstly…What is it?

You will hear the expressions “green screen”, “blue screen”, and “chroma key” thrown around and used to mean the same thing when discussing a photography background.

Chroma key simply could be defined as working with a background that is one un-patterned, uniformly lit color. The blue and green are the most common colors. Actually, you can work with ANY color – however blue and green are easiest. I’ll explain why that is the case in a moment.

Blue screen procedures can be utilized within both video and still images. You shoot someone in front of the green screen and then we later (or simultaneously using high quality video cameras) you eliminate the solid color and replace it with anything you wish!

That is the way the local weatherman/woman does the weather report. They’re just in front of a blue screen and the camera digitally strips it out and puts in the area weather map. They’re just watching themselves with a television monitor to find out where to point and so on. It’s confusing and more difficult than you may think in order to be a weatherman/woman!

Secondly…Why green or blue?

Typically we have a tendency to employ blue and green since they’re the farthest from the colors present in skin coloration. The technique was initially accomplished by blue, however as the quality of cameras improves, green seems to work better. It can be less difficult to strip from the background, so nearly all studios are switching to green. But it doesn’t hurt to own both.

An added advantageous advantage for green is that it results in less apparel conflicts.

Since the color is mechanically eliminated and replaced, if the model has on a hue of that color (blue) as part of their clothing…it’s always replaced. You’ll often see shirts and ties that turn out to be humorous looking holes in the model – showing through to the brand new background.

It has even occurred among blue eyes!

Green tends to make not as much of a apparel conflict, it can be less difficult for the cameras to work with also it’s simpler to light uniformly.

Smooth lighting is vital since shadows on the background will show in the ultimate effect. This can destroy the realistic effect of the photography background. Plus, using irregular illumination, you’d get altered hues of the color…a few of which may not get deleted correctly.

The 3 main sorts of chroma key backdrops are: paper, fabric and paint.

Paint is useful when you have a studio which includes a cove and you do all your shooting there…it is actually useless in the event you ever would like to shoot on location.

Paper comes in huge rolls, but is easily ripped and frequently needs to be replaced. This may get costly in a hurry.

Fabric tends to endure longest and is movable. Plus material is simple to wash (soiled chroma key backdrops won’t work well).

Any material supplier can provide some material that can do the job. Obtain some and do some testing with your photography background, any photo editing program is able to strip out the color. Experiment with it, you will enjoy it!