Rick Wise
1
COW Coin
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We commonly use Kino Flos for green screen. But your two 1Ks will work fine if you can diffuse them, and also scrim then down enough so that the screen is not too “hot” in relation to the foreground.
Actually, I’d be tempted to key with the 1K through a thick diffusion set well forward of the unit; probably add a double (red) scrim to the light; buy another 650 and light the green screen with the two 650s, and use the 150 for a back light.
That is, unless the green screen is huge, in which case having a couple of 1Ks to light it might be the better idea.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
1) You want to light the green screen with 2 identical units, set at 45º to the screen. You could use Kno Flos, or any other unit set to flood, and back far enough to light the screen evenly. Your talent you want to light with a key, a bounce fill, and a small backlight. The screen and the talent need to be roughly at the same exposure.
2) I have not seen or used this solution. One thing is clear: it’s designed to use with their ring light. Essentially, that light casts zero shadow of your talent onto the fabric. I suspect that for this to work, you must use such a ring light. Otherwise, the light kicking back from the fabric will be uneven. That means, you must light you talent in a full frontal manner. It may be that you can augment the flat front lighting with a side light to get some ratio. However, that will probably require you stop down for the talent, and as a result, your screen may be too dark. This looks to me to be a bad solution. However, I have not used it.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
The more distance you have, the easier it will be for you to control green kick back. However, I see almost no room left-to-right to place your lighting units. Perhaps going at a diagonal would be your best bet.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Unless you a)have enough steady work needing gear and b)really know what you need, renting is a much better way to go.
Most of the manufacturers of off-brand fluorescents do not publish good stats about their units. Kino Flo and Lowel do. As for a fluorescent with “punch”, fluorescents are designed to be soft sources of light. They do not, in general, have “punch”. From their specs, the punchiest of these units would be the Kino Flo Parabeams.
With all lighting units, the intensity drops off at the rate of the square of the distance. Move an actor twice as far from the unit, only 1/4 of the light will hit him. That’s why it’s far easier to have a large unit far back: as the actor moves a few feet closer or further from the unit the exposure varies very little. But a large, soft unit set close to the actor will cause you grief when he/she moves a bit further away. Sometimes, of course, that rapid drop-off is just what you want.
Another solution is to have a series of small units that stack up; as the actor walks, he/she walks in/out of each small unit, usually in a pleasing way.
I was going to write an article for Cow Magazine that would compare the output and other characteristics of all the available fluorescent units that are in the same general league as a Kino 4×4. However, the cost and time became prohibitive and we have spiked the piece.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Todd,
I looked a bit further, found another page at Videoguys with much more information. Ultra 2 does support HD. They seem to claim that in fact it turns SD into HD (hmmmmm…..?). An excerpt:
Twice the Speed, Twice the Resolution
• HDV & HD support The world is going HD and now you’ll be ready with output in 1080i, 1080p, 720p and more.
• Fast, Faster, Fastest The world’s fastest software keyer just got faster. ULTRA’s keyer has been entirely rewritten to take advantage of the power of the GPU chip in your graphics card. Turn on the new “GPU Boost” mode and, on recent generation cards, ULTRA 2 can key HD in real-time and standard definition faster than real-time!
• Widescreen 16:9 & Progressive Scan Support Output standard definition 16:9 video in 480i and 480p.
• Color Correction New improvements help you get more natural keys.
• 32-Bit Rendering Enhancements give you higher quality output.Source of info: https://www.videoguys.com/ultra.html
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Todd,
Do you know if Ultra 2 works with HD or just SD? I vaguely remember that an HD version came out much later, and may possibly be version 3 — and apparently only available through Adobe. (Ebay might have it now and again.)
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
You can get iZotrope RX for $279: https://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/iZotope-RX-Audio-Restoration-Software?sku=703104&src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=152149968
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
What are the dimensions of the room?
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
1) Hang black devetine (cloth) over the green screen that is NOT behind you.
2) A small working place is going to give you lots of grief, because to keep the green off of you, you want to be as far as possible from it. Ten to fifteen feet separation is sort of a minimum. You also want to light the green screen with one set of lights, and you with another. For now, “style” is too grand a word to use. Your problem is to get a clean key.
The first rule of green screen is it must be lit evenly. That means placing at least two lights, one to the left, one to the right, at about 45º to the screen. Since you have only 4 lights, and each one of different intensity, your job is more difficult.
Do you understand 3-point lighting?
Do you have scrims to reduce the intensity of each of the units (a complete kit will have them — round gizmos with wire across them, usually a green rim (1/2 stop or a “single”) and red rim (1 full stop, or a “double.”)
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
1) Any reflective surface is like a mirror. Flat surfaces are relatively easy to tilt so that they are not reflecting any green. Rounded surfaces are a bear as some part of them seems to be always reflecting the green. If the object is small enough, you can hold it in front of your body to reduce the chance of reflection. You need green ONLY behind you. You can black off the rest, then fill in the black in post with green — that helps to reduce reflections.
2) Never backlight subjects in front of green screens with hard, bright lights of any color. However, a light, soft, warm backlight helps reduce green spill by neutralizing the green spilling on you/the objects, a bit.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com