Lighting kit for Chroma keying

[John Sharaf]

Dan,

You are thinking clearly; you’ll really need five lights total. Two for the backing and three ()key, fill, backlight) for the subject.

My favorite method of lighting the backing is two Kino Flo 4’Twobank or 4’Fourbank. If you added these to the ARRI kit you’d have it made.

JS

[Daniel Boza]

JS, thanks for the answer. However that’s a little way out of my budget. I would like to buy maybe something less expensive. Any suggestion?

[Richard Crowley]

Ordinary fluorescent lamps from vendors like “Home Depot” are not normally suitable for decent videography because of their prominent green-color spike. However, for lighting green (not blue) screens for chroma keying, they are rather nice (not to mention cheap).

I have taken ordinary 4-foot “shop lights” and fastened a “baby nail” (https://www.filmtools.com/6banaonpl5di.html) on the back so I could use a regular Century stand and knuckle to position the fixtures.

IMHO, it makes an ideal way of lighting a green screen on a the cheap, leaving the majority of the budget for a proper light kit for the foreground (and for other uses).

[James Weinn]

Hey nice to be here..,

The DataVideo CKL-100 Kit is an inexpensive and efficient kit for chroma-key applications. It is based around a dual-color (blue/green) ring light that can be mounted on a variety of still or video cameras with the included adapters. The light ring can switch from green to blue manually, or with the use of a Datavideo DVK-100 chroma-keyer (not included, but recommended.) The intensity of the ring light is controlled with a variable brightness power supply.

The ring light is accessorized with a 10 x 8′ (3 x 2.5 m) cloth retro-reflective screen that is a clean backdrop for chroma-keying. This backdrop can be hung by a bar, or with hooks by using the grommets in the corners.

• Light ring switchable from blue to green .

• Dimmer control included.

• Make beautiful chroma keys with minimal attention to background.

Hope this may help us.. Be stick to basics.. will fetch us rsults for sure..

Thanks,
James.

.
tower light || portable tower light

[Hunter Mossman]

Richard has the right idea. Go cheap on the lights for the Green Screen and spend the $ on the ARRI kit for your foreground subjects. The Home Depot shop lights are a good idea. I’ve taken high watt construction lights and used blackwrap and diffusion and made makeshift softbox’s in a pinch before. Anything with some good punch you can soften up will work.

As for the ARRI kit. The 1K Open Face with chimera for your key. 650W Fresnel with some diffusion on a dimmer for your fill and a 300W Fresnel boomed off a C-stand for your backlight and your good to go. I like to have a couple flags to cut any spill of the background.

Good luck!

Hunter Mossman
Director of Photography
http://www.huntermossman.com

[Mark Suszko]

Google up the keywords “Graff Lights” and Walter Graff: he shows you how to adapt domestic flos into passable softlights for backgrounds as well as a key source.

When I do chromakey shots, I use a pair of Rifa 88’s on the green, and then 3-point light my talent separately.

[Richard Crowley]

Indeed, Walter Graff’s website is: https://www.bluesky-web.com/
It is a gold-mine of lighting ideas. I have liked his “Building A Compact Lighting Kit” for many years. Recommended.

[Roger Hobbs]

Hi everyone,

I’m in a similar situation, and I’m really curious about what kind of shop lights I should get to pull this off. I’m getting an Arri kit with 1×1000, 2×650, 1×300 (I’ll use lights from this kit to light the subject). Down the road, I plan to get a Kino kit for the chroma wall, but that’s not possible right now with the budget. So then I read this thread and the shop lights idea piqued my interest. I have zero experience with these consumer flos, so I have no idea how many to purchase or exactly what kind of 4′ shop lights I should buy. Here is a link to a comparison of some I found on Home Depot’s website, but if there are other lights that would work better for something like this on the cheap, please let me know:

https://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/THDProductCompare?errorURL=ProductAttributeErrorView&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&prodComp_0=202052422&prodComp_1=202192989&prodComp_2=100427185&keyword=shoplight

The chroma wall is 13’3″ across, 9′ ceiling to floor. I was thinking of putting the chroma lights on either side since there’s not an ideal height ceiling to floor. The room has about 27’7″ length from the chroma wall to the rear wall, so I’ll be able to get the subject a decent distance from the wall and away from the flo lights. There will usually be only one person who will be the subject for these shoots. There’s not a lot of room on the sides, so I’m painting the side walls black to avoid lighting headaches (I know that alone is something people like to debate and a topic for another thread).

So my question for the people in here who have more experience than me with this sort of setup is: how many shop lights should I purchase? Or perhaps, how many lights should I start with — I’m okay with buying more if the first set is not enough. I was thinking 2 (one for either side and adjust for even lighting), but please let me know if you have a better suggestion.

Also, specifically what kind of shop lights do you recommend, and what kind of bulbs? I see various kinds of fixtures, so I don’t know what kind works best in this situation.

Again, this is a temporary cheap solution until I can get the pro lights for the chroma wall. Also note — I will be using these lights for the wall only, not for the subject.

Many thanks in advance for your help!