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Green Screen very large, can’t light it evenly…
I have a very wide green screen that I’d like to put a 5 person band in front of.
The enclosed photo shows it “almost” as wide as I’m going to have it, but even at this width, I don’t seem to be able to get all of it lit evenly without hotspots.
So, when I add the center stand for support, and go even wider, what lights might be best for even lighting, especially vertical as I want to include their legs, just stopping though before their feet as I don’t have the floor green (that’s another question I have).
So far, I’ve tried to “stack” matching softboxes on top of each other and putting them on the sides, but then I have high and low hotspots.
I’m thinking a vertical bank of lights on the sides might do the trick, but I will have 4 tungsten softboxes available for the above truss, and am not sure there are vertical light banks that I can put on the sides that can match the color temp of my softboxes, since the few lightbanks I’ve seen are long fluorescent tubes. Can filters on the softboxes make them match the color temp of the fluorescents?
I’ve Googled this subject and just don’t seem to find any info on lighting this type of larger green screen for a band. I’m also having questions about “cutting out” each member with hairlight/backlights. I’m wondering if I need to add more little Lowel Pro hairlights between the above softboxes for the band.
Thanks everyone.
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3 Replies
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Hi, been awhile since you did this post, and wondering if you are still looking for an answer.
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Thanks, but I think I’ve succeeded, almost.
Raised the screen higher, widened it to 20′.
Used to 500 watt softboxes on each side.
Used one 1,000 Lowel DP light in the center with a dimmer to light the middle of the screen (diffused it.)
Use one 1,000 Lowel DP light with a dimmer for a left side hairlight and the same on the right side.
Just painted the floor green to match the muslim screen.
3rd coat of green paint going to the floor tomorrow.
Using an Arri 650 in a softbox for the key, a 500 watt softbox for the fill.
All should be well.
Thanks. -
Sorry you didn’t get responses earlier.
Can’t tell from the photo, but I suspect that your studio has an advantage and a disadvantage: The truss is fantastic, but the studio might not be wide enough for floor-mounted lights, which makes it more difficult to light the screen evenly. The light loss from 10′ to 15′ is over a stop; from 20′ to 25′ half a stop.
For whatever reason, I have generally seen people using broads, long fluoros, or truss-mounted spacelights (not floor-mounted softboxes), to light large green screens. I’d start with long fluoros on the sides and two of your softboxes from the truss. You need not be very concerned about matching the color temp of the green screen lights to your key and hair lights.
re hair lights: You are right to add those! A large green screen can itself become a light source, so some people put “minus green” filters on the hair lights to mitigate the spill from the green screen. Since it’s a rock band, you could even go extreme on the side lights and backlights – anything to overpower the spill that’s coming from all over that green screen. If the band is too close to the green, that adds to the problem.
Let us know how you do! It’s a challenge dealing with a big green screen.
Bob C
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