Green Screen Photography

[Trethowan]

Hey folks, what's up? I bought a green screen a year ago and I'm finally breaking it out for use! Aren't I fancy.

Do any of you guys use green screens for photoshoots? Any tips on noob mistakes I can avoid? So far I've done a bit of basic research on lighting to avoid shadows. Getting my camera steady in low light has been a bit of a challenge so I got a tripod.

I still need to learn how to use Gimp to place the doll pictures onto the backgrounds. It's a free program but there are enough tutorials online that I've learned quite a bit so far. It's how I made the Race Day winner photograph with Richi. ha. It only took me a zillion tries to get the size right but I finally figured it out. Getting the lighting of the photo to match up to the lighting/settling/mood etc. of the background picture will be difficult. I have no idea how to do that. Yet.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

I will be following this with interest. I've used a blue screen a couple of times (because I already had one as the reverse of a neutral grey photo backdrop), but the results have been so-so at best! The pic here is probably the best

[Trethowan]

I will be following this with interest. I've used a blue screen a couple of times (because I already had one as the reverse of a neutral grey photo backdrop), but the results have been so-so at best! The pic here is probably the best

I think that looks fantastic! And that's exactly what I have in mind, too. I'm just looking for a way to add realism to the shoots. I bought a few backdrops but they're small, too limited, and the shadows are hellacious. XD


http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to- ... tography-/

Found this nice tutorial.

[Trethowan]

So, fiddling around removing green with Gimp is frustrating. I've been screwing around with this thing, following specific tutorial instructions for the past twenty minutes, and I'm getting nowhere. I watched the tutorial, I'm doing what it said to do, but when Gimp isn't crashing it's just ... GAH! I'm going to pull my hair out.

I downloaded the free demo for PhotoKey 6. I put my green-screen image in and it just automatically removed the green, so no wasted time selecting. Also, the tools needed for moving and adjusting were pretty easy too. Within three minutes I had a photoshopped image finished. Three minutes! That's amazing, especially since I squeeze out my photostories during baby naps and/or late at night. Especially compared to the impossible nightmare that was my first Gimp attempt.

When I did the photo of Richi winning the snail race I didn't have a green screen so I just erased everything that wasn't wanted. It took forever. I don't want to resort to erasing all this green mess.

I sadly can't USE the image because the demo version is plastered with DEMO DEMO DEMO! /cry. The "Lite" version of the software is $149. I might buy it?

Edit: Hubby says that PhotoKey 5 is only around $50 bucks. Even better!

Edit Edit: Hubby found something called getpaint.net that he thinks I might like, as well.

Does anyone else out there have a program or method they have tried?



EDIT #3 I downloaded getpaint.net and the additional plug in required for chroma key. It was okay. I still ended up having to use the eraser to get rid of extra green and the overall layering and resizing tools were just like any other photoshop program. I think it's exactly the same as Gimp.

It was really irritating for me and once I figured out all the tools I did a "start from beginning run-through" and it took me about ten minutes to finish a single photograph. Compared to the ease and speed of PhotoKey there's no contest. Honestly, you get what you pay for.

The hardest part for me was trying to figure out how to resize one layer while not messing with another. I looked online but there weren't answers? But that seems to happen often enough I think I just don't search well and/or miss things. I stumbled across it by accident.

Edit #4: Because I have the technological prowess of my mother with a VCR, (it runs in the family) I can say that after a lot of fiddling and some cursing I finally got it down pat. I can finish a green screen picture using paint.net in 7 minutes. Ha! That's my best time.

I've discovered it's way easier to shrink everything down to 20% in regular old paint first.

I've also discovered that the size of the background file is a really big deal if you want to zoom in for close-up shots.

Lighting is important! I will have to learn how to do better lighting next. Yay for progress and learning new skills.

[Trethowan]

So, now that I know what I'm doing with paint.net and the ChromaKey add ons, I can finish a picture in under five minutes. Anyone can do this if a Luddite like me can figure it out. XD

I've discovered that it's easiest to set the dolls in the middle of the "greenscape." It reduces shadows. I usually have to lean my dolls against things for pictures. In some of the most recent photos you can see that a lot of the green shadows remain like halos around the pictures because I've got the dolls leaned against the back of the green screen. I tried positioning them in the middle but everyone is so floppy lately they won't even stand. I do need to wire everyone.

I've erased what I could of the shadows but it's impossible to get the eraser tool in tiny nooks like inside hair curls, etc without zooming WAY in and then it's just a bunch of pixels. I don't have this problem when they're positioned away from the backdrop a bit.

One thing I noticed though, is that some of the shadows actually work for me. The ChromaKey thing pulled the green out of the picture, and it pulled the green out of the darker shadows, leaving a really nice normal shadow behind. It actually worked and looked really natural. It's the very last picture. Very cool and unexpected.

I've also discovered that it's easier to resize all of my pictures first before I start doing anything else to them. Originally I was just working with the pictures as they were but my camera takes insanely large image files. So when I would open the file to pull out the green and make it smaller the thing was SO HUGE that an eyeball would take up the entire monitor. It was REALLY hard to find the corner to even resize, and while it could be done, using paint.net makes it a bit difficult. You can't just use the "resize" tool because that resizes all layers equally so you end up with a background the size of a peppermint.

Every tutorial online I found didn't address this but ONE, which finally clued me into the sad fact. So I resize everything to 20%, or a size that's manageable. Then I open everything up for the work. It makes it so much easier when you pull out the green, and copy/paste it onto the background. Everything I post is the 500 medium size anyway, so there's no need for high-res work.

In my most recent story I did three layers. I feel so fancy! XD Abe has a dart in his butt. I had fun with that one.

I still want to build a set but this background stuff is insanely fun. K2 has inspired me to work harder and create better stories. <3

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=11270 <---- pictures.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

They're looking good! I really must practice...