LED Lit Green Screen & Halo Effect

[Mark Suszko]

I think I would prefer to do the chromakey in the native format you got out of the camera, then bring that element into your DV25 workflow if you have to do DV 25. DV25 sucks for graphics quality and especially for keying, as you’re working in just a 4:1:1 color space there. Try the Primatte again on the footage in a high rez codec and I bet your result looks better. Another tip based on my own experience keying in Dv25 is, you can apply multiple passes of the keyer, so first of all concentrate on sampling the key right along that fuzzy edge by the body. The rest will be easier to fix later on a second pass.

[Todd Terry]

Hey Jonathan…

For what it’s worth, I took your still and was able to pull a pretty perfect key off of it using Ultra2 matting software. Now, that doesn’t always mean the key would stay as perfect when dealing with real moving video, but my guess is that it would. Keying the still cleanly wasn’t challenging at all.

Have to agree with Dennis, too… irrespective of the background, the lighting on the talent is just god-awful. I know you are a thousand miles from where the actual shoot is, but yell at them about that if you can. It will make your job easier and give you a better end result.

T2

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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Jonathan Clauson]

Hey Everyone!

Thanks so much for all the feedback and ideas. I still have a lot to learn and I appreciate the candid responses.

I found the manuals and everything for the LED rig and will pour over them tonight and make sure the lighting setup they are using matches what their setup.

As for the key, I think I finally nailed it so all should be well after I encoded it at its native HDV format and then dropped it down to DV after that.

Thanks again all!

[Dennis Size]

Much like the physician who can’t prescibe medicine — or do surgery — based on a phone call with a patient …. I’m not about to relight anybody else’s work, or make suggestions, without seeing the space — or a graphic representation ( or for that matter, payment).
The sad thing is, you say a D.P. is actually lighting it. I will reserve my harsh judgement for that D.P.’s work and merely say, if he’s calling himself a D.P., then he surely must know the best ways to light something — and must have consciously chosen exactly how he wanted his talent to look.
DS

[Jonathan Clauson]

Hi DS,

You make a good point and I’m sorry for any offense.

I say DP only out of habit for the person who sets up the camera/lighting/etc. The person on this shoot is new and not a DP and does not claim the title so there it is. 🙂 He is from a live/theatre background and bought new toys and I think is learning how to use them (this was his 2nd time giving me footage with the LED green screen rather than the traditional set up which never had the issue).

I am going to go back to the books and do as much research as I can on lighting for LED setups and when I visit the set next month hopefully we can make something work better.

Thanks much!

[Mark Suszko]

Tell the DP that the ring light for the chromaflex backdrop can’t be the keylight for the talent as well: you still need to light the talent separately.