Eager to get better

[Barry Bishop]

First off I stopped filming with RED for a few reasons but now I'm back shooting with it again. I have a file, and I would appreciate any help or advice you could give in regards to shooting green screen.
Doing a quick test I noticed was that the image appears soft and not very sharp. (I'm using the canon 50mm lens the $125 in this test and thats probably why it looks soft...but I could be shooting wrong).
Here are my questions and feel free to provide some feedback like your shooting at the wrong iso, shutter angle...your color temp is off...you need to do this....

File:
https://riministreet.sharefile.com/d/sb5b9841da384eeb9

1) Is the talent to bright, too dark?
2)Why aren't my whites that white?
3)Are the blacks too black, is there too much noise?

I've been reading and applying as much as I can. Thank you all in advance.

p.s. The talent just happened to wear green...I was shooting a test...but never the less, any advice is welcomed.

 

[Eric M Hurt]

Tint

Tint

It looks like you have a ton of green spill from the green screen. As far as sharpness goes, the reason is very hard to tell from a clip. A bit of work with the tint and temp and you can get the skin tone to look better. Will that change how the key goes? I have no idea since I don't really edit green screen, but it will change things. You could mask out the subject etc. My guess is that you need to get your subject away from the green spill.

 

[Ryan Sauve]

Great start and I agree with Eric. Your subject seems a bit too close to the backdrop. Besides the spill giving that away, I can also tell by his shadows on the screen when he moves. Put a little separation then you could have a backlight hit him (unless you plan on using a white background in post). How close was the backdrop behind the subject?

But yeah, a little fiddling and REDCINE-X and you've got something pretty decent. And don't underestimate the nifty fifty, you can get some pretty nice stuff from that lens.

By the way, your first shot at green screen is much better than mine was.

 

[Clint Lealos]

I applaud your desire to improve your images. Not a lot of folks would post something they weren't happy with in order to get constructive criticism from the community. I hope the little bit of knowledge I have about green screens will be helpful.

I agree with the others. Move the subject away from the green screen and backlight him. It doesn't have to be a strong hard back light either. Whatever the shot calls for, but even a little soft backlight goes a long way on green screen stuff. The footage does look a little soft, but its impossible to say why. Were you shooting wide open and say an f/1.8? Try to set your aperture to an f/4 and light to that stop.

1. No, the talent is neither too bright or too dark. Actually, you did pretty good with exposure on both the subject and the green screen. I usually light a green screen about one stop under the subject. Your ratio is perfectly acceptable.

2. If your whites aren't white than your white balance is off. That is easily fixed in Redcine X.

3. No, the blacks aren't too black and I'm not sure there is such a thing. If the shot calls for super dramatic lighting than you may want really deep black shadows. Its simply a preference. I don't notice any excessive noise.

Good luck Barry!

 

[Paul Russell]

With a shirt that colour a blue screen might have been a better choice.
Looks like your lens was too wide open. You have no DOF. This is one of those instances where it might have been better to allow a little bit of noise in so that you could shoot ISO1280 and gain 1.5 stops of DOF.

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Yup... Separating your subject from the screen with lights, aperture and positioning (which I guess you could do pretty freely with this kind of shot) would help you a lot.
More lights wouldn't hurt you at all...

 

[David Battistella]

Just a quick note.

If you know the talent will be wearing green, then sometimes blue screen is a better option.

The green needs to be far away from the subject. Depending on the room you might need to adjust your Lens choice to compress the background more than a "normal" setup. Always look for a long room where you can place the blue or green a good distance behind the subject, leaving space for your camera and subject placement.

If you have a meter, see if you can light the green screen evenly. I usually walk the meter around the green to check for hotspots and light falloff. Even lighting is key and a meter helps a lot.

Remember, you are lighting two separate things, the green screen itself and the subject appearing in front of that green screen. Light your talent correctly, the way you normally would, then adjust the lighting for the green screen evenly with separate lights.

A 1/4 yellow on the backlight can sometimes help cut the hair in th key a bit better.

Battistella

 

[Barry Bishop]

Thank you for the feedback, and please continue with them.
I just grabbed a coworker and said sit (who happened to be wearing green..kind of funny). I just wanted to get an image posted to get some feedback
i have shot a lot of green screen videos I just haven't used the red as much. I'm hear to learn and get better with this camera.

i will post tomorrow an updated shot with all of the suggestions. I'm limited by how many lights I have... but I will see what I can do.

-Barry

again thank you for your feedback.

 

[David Battistella]

No worries,

Just offering a kind of green screen checklist. Many people are here to learn, just like yourself. I'm still learning.

Keep posting tests. A 50mm lens at 4 or 5.6 should be tack sharp. Are you using the magnify tool to zoom in to 1:1 to check your focus?

Battistella

Battistella

 

[Barry Bishop]

OK here is what I got. Again thank you for the feed back. The image looks sharper...just bland probably my lack of light as well as light positioning.
I need more light on his face....should I decrease the Shutter to let more light in and boost the IRE levels. Its only coming in at 60% and it should be higher.

Here is the file:
https://riministreet.sharefile.com/d/s22928cc2adc49c3b

4096x2160
23.97
Redcode 6:1
ISO: 400
F4.9
Auto White Balanced Returned: 3281K
Shutter: 96

Here is when I dropped the shutter to 60, got the face to 70% IRE, the skin tones, he looks too pale...im going to try and turn off the green screen lights and see if I can use those to light the talent.
https://riministreet.sharefile.com/d/s730eb9e42ca4524b

Here is a file with the green lights turned off and shutter at 40:
https://riministreet.sharefile.com/d/s554cdaca51f4c5ab

Also what are the best Keying software in town?

 

[Carey Lee Coffey]

Try backlighting your subject with 1/4 minus green (magenta).