How to take photos with a green screen?

Photos with a green screen or Chroma Key have several peculiarities and complications that, if you’re not aware of them, you’ll spend hours and hours in the editing phase later. That’s why today we’ll give you some tips for taking these photos with a green screen.

How to set up the green screen?

To start, you need to ensure that the background is as smooth as possible, without textures or wrinkles. In these cases, the best option is a cyclorama, which you can find in professional studios. A lthough you can also use a green Chroma cloth background or a paper background, ideally in Chromagreenn 33 color from the Colorama brand. For these last two, it’s important that they are as smooth as possible, without wrinkles or stains and completely taut.

How to light a chroma key?

The next step will be lighting. On one hand, the background of the type we have chosen, and on the other, the person/model or object to be photographed. You should always start by lighting the background, so that the light is uniform and as diffused as possible. The ideal is to illuminate with LED screens with a diffuser, and in the case of using non-continuous lighting such as flashes, the light must be diffused and uniform. To check that it is correctly illuminated, you should use a light meter to measure the light reflected by the different areas. It should give you the same measurement at all points. In the case of video, with a cinema camera or an external monitor it’s easier because some have the False Color exposure tool. In this case, the False color should be in medium gray.

After properly lighting the background, you should light the subject or object to be photographed. This lighting will depend on the style or final effect you want to give to the photo. The most important thing to keep in mind is that it does not affect the background with shadows or more light that could alter the green. Good lighting will ensure a faster and more successful background removal or replacement process.

At AVisual STUDIOS you will find a Chroma set equipped with the necessary lighting to capture photographs with a green screen thanks to our suspended LED light grid included in the price, with 9 Velvet Light 75W LED panels to illuminate the Chroma, plus 2 Dedolight 90W LED spotlights and 2 Dedolight 40W LED spotlights as frontal and back lights for the subject. Additionally, you can control the temperature and power via DMX board.

Now that you know how to take photos with a green screen, it’s time to take the photo and use your creativity!