• Lighting Design

  Green Screen – 3- 3a few questions 8^)

  Posted by Kevin on December 27, 2007 at 7:58 pm

  Hi lighting pros,

  Shooting full body dancing greenscreen music video scenario:

  1-can I use a dimmer with totas?

  I plan on lighting the screen with two Totas in Chimeras hung from a grid. Before I blow my bulbs, can anyone tell me if I can dim the totas so I can experiment with the backdrop, finding the correcct ire value.

  2-I read somewhere that lighting the foreground for daylight was a good trick for increasing the contrast in the foreground subject. I’m not sure I understand this, but was hoping someone on the list might help. If I were to opt for Kinos for foreground, would I be better off with daylight balanced bulbs?

  3-I read about Adobes Location software which looked ideal for Chromakey work. As I am mac based, would anyone be able to share their software tolsof choice for working in a greenscreen scenario. I will be shooting HVX-200. Hopefully I can connect the camera directly to my FCP setup and use the scopes to check the screen and foreground values.

  Many thanks in advance for any illumination.

  Best,

  Kevin

  Dennis Size replied 18 years, 4 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Dennis Size

  December 28, 2007 at 3:28 am

  Quesstion 1 – no
  Question 2 – no
• 

  Dennis Size

  December 28, 2007 at 3:34 am

  Sorry this got away from me before I was done.

  QUESTION 1 – No…. unless you don’t mind the color temperature shift on your greenscreen — otherwise dim away. I always have my greenscreen sources on a dimmer (unless I’m using non-dim fluorescents).

  QUESTION 2 – No … unless you don’t mind the color temperature shift between your subject and your greenscreen –which will result in more aggravation later. My choice is to color correct my subjects backlights to neutralize the green bounce back.
• 

  Kevin

  December 28, 2007 at 8:47 pm

  Thanks Dennis,

  Thanks for posting back. I can dim the greenscreen lights. Hopefully I can get a vectorscope going and see the specific reading of all areas of the set.

  So I guess we light for indoor tungsten. I didn’t quite understand the logic of using daylight lighting on the subject.

  Do you generally use flourecents on the screen?

  Thanks again,

  Kevin
• 

  Dennis Size

  December 29, 2007 at 3:27 am

  Fluorescents, especially IMAGE 80’s, (my instrument of choice) work best when doing any Virtual Reality/Greenscreen work. If they’re not available, I find any Kino Flo (usually Mega doubles) will make the job easier, cleaner, and provide a better “key”.
  That being said I will often use cyc lights, or even scoops. One time all I had available were PAR CANS — which worked great when I diffused them and then stretched a silk across the area in front of them.
  The point is to use a broad based, soft, even, wash of light on your greenscreen..
  Once that’s done it’s equally important to properly light your background — separately from your foreground (which should also be lit with fluorescent).
  DS

  P.S. Rather than dim your Tota’s, reduce the lamp wattage to a 200w or 300w. The greenscreen will require surprising little illumination. The biggest mistake people make is overlighting the screen.

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