Are you sick and tired of shooting (and seeing) the same old pictures, over and over again? You’ve heard rumors that “green screen” could be the way to go, however you do not really understand it or even know a great deal about it? Here’s everything it’s essential to be familiar with to put it to use as a photography background!

First…What exactly is it?

You will hear the expressions “green screen”, “blue screen”, and “chroma key” thrown about and used interchangeably when discussing a photography background.

Chroma key just means using a background which is one solid, evenly illuminated color. The blue and green are the most typical hues. Actually, you are able to work with ANY color – but blue and green are easiest. I’ll make clear why that is the case in a minute.

Green screen techniques can be utilized for both video and still images. You shoot someone in front of the blue screen then we later (or simultaneously with high end video cameras) you subtract the solid color and trade it using anything you wish!

It’s how the local meteorologist does the weather report. They’re standing in front of a green screen and the camera digitally replaces it and replaces it with the local weather map. They’re watching themselves on the monitor to find out where to point and so on. That’s perplexing and harder than you might imagine to be a weatherman!

Secondly…Why use blue or green?

Generally we tend to make use of blue and green because they are the furthest away from the colors present in skin tones. The technique was primarily accomplished by blue, although as the quality of cameras changes, green seems to work better. It can be a lot easier to strip from the background, therefore nearly all studios are changing to green. Nevertheless it doesn’t hurt to have both.

One more advantageous point for green is that it results in fewer apparel conflicts.

Since the color is automatically eliminated and substituted, if the model has on a hue of that color (blue) in their clothing…it will be replaced. You can time and again see shirts and ties that turn into comical looking holes in the model – showing through to the brand new background.

It’s even occurred with blue eyes!

Green tends to bring about not as much of a apparel conflict, it’s less complicated for your cameras to work with also it’s simpler and easier to light evenly.

Smooth light is crucial because shadows falling on the background will show in the final effect. This tends to ruin the realistic effect of the photography background. And more, working with uneven lighting, you would induce altered hues of the color…some of which might not get eliminated correctly.

The three main types of green screen backdrops are: paint, paper and fabric.

Paint is nice if you have a studio that has a cove and you do all your shooting there…it is actually of no use in case you ever must go on location.

Paper can be purchased in large rolls, but is easily ripped and regularly needs replacing. This will get costly in a hurry.

Fabric tends to endure longest and is movable. And material is simple to clean (unclean green screen backdrops do not work well).

Any material store can provide some material which will do the task. Buy a little and do some experimenting with your photography background, any photo editing program is able to take out the color. Experiment with it, you’ll like it!