Green screen video effect is amazing. You stand in front of a green background and press record on the video camera. Then you drop the footage into your video editing software, select a new background, apply the chromakey filter, and it’s instantly transported to a new location. You can be in a shiny new office, standing on a high–technological virtual set, on the beach or even on the moon. At least, that’s how you imagine things will work.
Very often, the first attempt you make with the green screen effect produces disappointing results. When you try to remove the green background in your editing software, you can’t get all the color out. You play with the settings to make more green disappear, and suddenly half of your shirt is gone. You make more and more adjustments until things look better. It has lost all the fine detail around the edges, but the green is gone. But, when you hit play, the edges of your footage dance like lightning. You go back and blur the edges until they turn to mush.
After hours of tweaking and tweaking, you have created a bad green screen video.
Creating a bad green screen video is easy
The secret that most people selling green screen video effect tools and software don’t tell you is that it’s really easy to create bad results. YouTube is alphabetized with examples of horrible chromakey videos. But, there is another secret. It’s not much more difficult to produce fantastic chromakey videos.
You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars or hundreds of hours of effort to create videos that you’re proud to share with the world. An important key to success is how it lights up the screen.
The lighting myth of the big screen
There is a huge misconception about shooting green screen video that comes from companies that sell screens and lighting kits. Search online and you’ll see an endless list of options to purchase a kit that includes everything you need to shoot green screen video. The list of included items is always the same. You get a green muslin shade, a stand to hold the shade, and three lights. You always have three lights, and that’s the problem.
To get the best results from the process, you should light the screen separately from the subject. An ideal green screen lighting kit includes five lights. Two lights are dedicated exclusively to illuminating the screen itself. The other three lights are used to illuminate the subject.
The best lights for your green screen
Flat, even lighting is the goal when lighting a green screen. Any variation in brightness will make it difficult for your editing software to remove the background and preserve edge detail. In a home office video studio, space is often at a premium, so you can afford to use large soft boxes or place lights away from the screen. The easiest way to get good results is to use fluorescent or LED bench lights.
A bench light is nothing more than a large, flat (usually rectangular) lamp. Professional versions look like fancy fluorescents on their side. In fact, you can make your own with inexpensive parts purchased at your local center. There are a few things to keep in mind when making your own. But once you know what to buy, it’s easy to do.
LED bench lights are more expensive to buy, but they last forever, don’t have a glass tube to break, and can usually be dimmed to dial in the perfect amount of light.
putting up the lights
Lighting up your screen with bench lights is easy. You place a light on each side of the screen. The lights should be oriented vertically so that the light shines evenly from top to bottom. Adjust the angle and distance from the screen until the entire surface of your green screen is illuminated with a uniform level of brightness.
Once your screen is properly lit, you can use the other three lights that come with your kit to illuminate your subject. Make a few critical adjustments to your camera settings and you’ll quickly be shooting amazing green screen video to share with the world.