supersaturate a greenscreen

[Ian MacLean]

I'm setting up a small greenscreen studio (room is only 12' x 14'), and doing research on the best way to light the greenscreen backdrop.

I think I'm going to use Kino Flo Visual Effects fluorescent lamps for this, but would like to find out as much as I can before I purchase. I've looked, but haven't found a lot of discussion on 'supersaturation,' on this or other forums. I actually got booted off the Creative Cow trying to ask about the technique, and getting shut down by 'experts' who'd never used it and didn't want to hear about it perhaps being a useful tool.

I wrote up a summary of my research and posted it on another forum, http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=176163

but would also like to hear the opinions here. John Brawley, in this topic on this forum, http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=10896
had good things to say about supersaturation, and so I thought I'd start a new topic just for this technique.

Just did some extensive green and blue screen testing both under daylight and tungsten settings. (over 100 setups with all the variables !)

We found we got the best results lighting with supergreen kino tubes on digi green screens, with daylight balanced FG/

Even under and overexposed shots could be pulled on tungsten and regular (not supergreen kino's) but they weren't as nice.

Every little bit helps.

jb

There is a perception that the super green and super blue tubes increase spill and contamination. I usually find the biggest issue is that people don't use enough separation from the key surface and FG and expose it properly. They are simply too close to the key surface.

The supergreens are very intense and I will often turn tubes off to bring the level back to base exposure or just under.

jb

Btw, One of the best sources of information I found on supersaturating was the following, highly recommended article “Greenscreen Primer Part 1,” by Alex Lindsay (March 01, 2009):
http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/alindsay/story/greenscreen_primer_part_1/

 

[Ian MacLean]

Hmm, I've gone over my notes, and can't find where I got the 'supersaturation' name. I thought I took it from the Kino Flo visual effects page, but now I can't find where I got the term. It's not used in Alex Lindsay's article either.

If it's not an accepted industry term, then I should change the topic title. On the other hand, if there's no term for this yet, I think it's a good one.