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01/05/2013 09:38:03 AM · #1 |
Hi guys,
I've been interested in playing around with green screens for some special effects I'm thinking about. I'm using Photoshop CS4 and when looking about the web, I found several plug-ins for CS4. There is also a tutorial on using green screen techniques within the standard CS4 package.
Any help with this would be great. I don't mind spending money, but I'm kind of trying to keep this on the cheap until I figure out if I want to continue with it - which I think I will, I'm just being "conservative". Standard array of questions - if you use green screen, what do you use, recommend, what not to use, etc.
Thanks.
Tom (aka Teafran) |
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01/05/2013 09:42:24 AM · #2 |
You might try the Topaz product "Remask." You don't actually even need a green screen for it... it'll help you chop people out of a background very nicely. It works as a Photoshop plug-in, too.
Here's a link:
//www.topazlabs.com/remask/
Message edited by author 2013-01-05 09:43:40. |
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01/05/2013 09:52:47 AM · #3 |
AFAIK there are two keys (pun intended) to doing stuff like this:
• make sure the background is a color not found in the subject(s)
• make sure the BG screen is evenly and brightly-lit so that the pixels are all as close to the same color as possible
You are basically using the Magic Wand tool and Select > Similar command to create a mask or saved selection out of the BG screen. Once you have the selection saved in a new channel you can touch it up with the painting tools if necessary, feather if necessary, and then you can use the Edit > Paste Into command to drop in any other image(s) you want.
The screen does not have to be green (blue was the old standard), but just a color not found in the subject. |
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01/05/2013 12:35:37 PM · #4 |
| I always wondered if the Green can cast a nasty hue on the subject if its too close. |
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01/05/2013 03:07:55 PM · #5 |
Green screen is not the way to go for this. They're great for video and they totally SUCK for photography. The best color to shoot on for extraction is white or light grey and don't light the background -- you want that light grey color.
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01/05/2013 08:46:35 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by mike_311:
I always wondered if the Green can cast a nasty hue on the subject if its too close. |
yes. I tried it only once with a squirrel -- the squirrel turned a nasty green hue and with all the tiny hairs it was impossible to separate him from the background. That being said, it was just a green piece of fabric that I bought from the fabric store. It was such an incredible failure, I've never pulled it out again. :( |
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01/06/2013 10:27:05 AM · #7 |
Thanks guys - I really appreciate the advice.
@kgeary - Yeah - that was one of the issues I was curious about. I'll admit, I don't know much about it and the web seems to be full of programs for it - just wasn't sure. |
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01/06/2013 02:38:21 PM · #8 |
| Green screen and flashes/strobes don't go well together as you get too much color spill as Wendy indicated. Much better with continuous lighting. If you could light the background separately and have 20 feet (an educated guess) of distance between the subject and background you would probably avoid the spill? |
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01/06/2013 07:22:12 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by MarkB:
Green screen and flashes/strobes don't go well together as you get too much color spill as Wendy indicated. Much better with continuous lighting. If you could light the background separately and have 20 feet (an educated guess) of distance between the subject and background you would probably avoid the spill? |
If it's full body, there's no hope to avoid the spill.
Besides, green matches almost no background that you'll be compositing to, so extraction is a nightmare for making the resulting composite look real.
Message edited by author 2013-01-06 19:22:25. |
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01/06/2013 08:03:26 PM · #10 |
if you are serious about removing backgrounds, upgrade to cs5 or cs6, the refine edge tool is worth it by itself. makes very, very believable pulls. the more i use it the better i get at it.
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