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Keylight and Shadows
Hello. A few months back I had a studio shoot that involved shooting a lot of animals (dogs, cats, birds, hedgehogs) on a green screen and then keying them against a white/light-grey background. Now, since they’re smaller and full-screen, I want their shadows to be in, but when I try to key, the shadows start looking noisy and messy. The footage is pretty good greenscreening, well-lit, and even, with high and low fill lights, so it’s not a question of video quality (it is DV, but what isn’t, these days?) I’m looking to send in the spot in to a competition, but I’d like for the shadows to look a little higher in quality.
Television Producer
KTVF-11 Fairbanks, Alaska
video.ericbarker.com -
3 Replies
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Are you able to key or mask out the shadows and then add your own shadows?
Duplicate the animal layer, apply Hue/Saturation and turn the lightness down to -100, and position/rotate it where appropriate. Then apply some blur and turn the opacity down to 20-30%, and change the transfer mode to multiply.
I guess the catch is if you’re able to key/mask out the shadows.
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Ooops, I should have explained, these are FLOOR shadows, not back wall drop shadows. Yeah, adding wall shadows is easy enough because you can simply use the shape of the keyed subject (either by using a simple 2D drop shadow, or adding a light to a 3D project). But floor shadows are not possible to synthesize since they’re created by overhead lights and take into account the depth of the subject. Many of these shadows are created by hair lights, so the shadow is actually in front of the subject.
Television Producer
KTVF-11 Fairbanks, Alaska
video.ericbarker.com -
If you really prefer to use the existing shadows, you might look into Key Correct from Red Giant. Its Deartifacter tool can work wonders when it comes to cleaning up DV artifacts. Key Correct also has a Denoiser tool, which might help. You might also find its Smooth Screen tool of some use.
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