Sunday November 26th 2016 | SNAPePHOTO Studios
We've always been somewhat reluctant to using a chromakey background, mainly because we felt it had better advantages to those who did video, over stills. Now that we're attempting to create more composite type renders, we've decided it was time for us to yield to the temptation. In this post we'll explain various camera setting, several lighting set-ups, as well as the software plugin used to achieve the desired results.
Lighting
When shooting with a Chromakey background, it's important to consider a few important tips. You should take the time to light the background as evenly as possible (preferably using softboxes), but also to light the subject or model a little more than usual. Avoid overexposing the background, and ultimately, reducing the casting effect of a reflective greenish spill on the model.
We went ahead and used a 5-light set-up (see diagram below)
ChromaKey Green Screen Backdrop
We went ahead and used a 5-light set-up (see diagram below)
We used a 9' x 36' long seamless roll, simply because we liked having the option to unroll the length we need, depending whether we'll be shooting portraits or full-length images. Also, with the seamless, we don't have to worry about wrinkles, that can create shadows, and later becoming a more tedious task in post production.
Software
After comparing the pros & cons of various stand-alone & plug-in type software solutions out there, we opted to go with the PhotoKey 8 Pro. It had features and ease of use that we thought would fit in nicely with our existing workflow. It is primarily conceived as a standalone software, but also comes with a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CC.
After comparing the pros & cons of various stand-alone & plug-in type software solutions out there, we opted to go with the PhotoKey 8 Pro. It had features and ease of use that we thought would fit in nicely with our existing workflow. It is primarily conceived as a standalone software, but also comes with a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CC.
