Have you ever tried filming a green screen video segment
only to have it fail miserably when you went to edit it?
what seems like should be a really
simple process becomes incredibly difficult
Parts that you didn't want to be removed are disappearing
and areas that you did want to be removed are still visible.
Sometimes the edges around the main subject are really fuzzy or
sometimes there's this greenish glow around the person in the foreground well
today I'm gonna teach you how to set up your shot to get great green-screen
results with the help of my friends at Valera screens who are sponsoring this
video and providing the green screens I'll be using are you ready let's do
this now there are four things that I believe you need to understand to create
perfect results the very first is the backdrop itself if you're actually using
a screen make sure that you're using a material that's reasonably non
reflective and wrinkle free in this case I'll be showing you two different Valera
screens keeping your background screen as smooth as possible is your first step
to success in this shot I'm using the Valera Explorer 90. it goes up quickly
and creates a super smooth backdrop that doesn't have wrinkles which can cause
shadowing or uneven color areas this is one of my personal favorite screens not
just because of its large 90 inch corner to corner size but because of how
quickly I can set it up and how little space it takes to store once I break it
down I can slip this right back into its case and under a better in a closet
without any problem whatsoever now the second thing you really need to pay
attention to is lighting one of the biggest mistakes I see creators make is
they just put themselves in front of a green screen throw some light on
themselves and assume everything will work out in the Edit that's the fastest
recipe for failure what you want to do is treat the background and the
foreground which might be you standing in front of the green screen has two
very distinct and separate subjects try to use fill lighting from multiple
directions designed just to illuminate your green-screen backdrop evenly using
light sources from multiple directions will help keep that backdrop a more even
green color by reducing the amount of shadows you're actually reducing the
amount of difference in the color green you'll be removing from your shot in the
edit way your editing software is really only
trying to remove one shade of green so the more consistent you can make that
color green while setting up your shot the better the chroma key feature in
your editing software will be able to remove it now remember just lighting the
backdrop isn't enough make sure you properly like the
foreground subject as well or that person will look lost in their own
shadows in this case I'm enlisting the help of my son Jonas if you can light
both the green screen background and the subject in the foreground you're gonna
have a much better final product when it comes time to edit the third thing you
really need to keep in mind is distance the distance between the subject and the
background is often a huge factor a lot of times if the subject is too close to
the background you'll either get shadows cast against that green screen which we
know is a huge problem or you might get some green reflected back onto that
subject that's something we call spill or the color spilling on to something
else other than just staying in the background in this case avoiding any
shadows being thrown onto your green screen is so vitally important as you
can see here when I put my hand too close to this valera Explorer 90 green
screen it starts creating a shadow in this case my son was only a few feet
from the valera screen but I had lighted it well enough that his chair didn't
really throw any shadow of its own onto the green screen background knowing what
to look for you can balance the lighting and the distance together to figure out
what works best for your space I took some test shots with my phone just to
see how the chair stood out against the background to help me understand how a
camera lens was seeing my shot this can be really helpful for figuring out if
your distance and your lighting are working well together
now Valera uses their own chroma boost technology ensuring enhanced
green-screen performance every time so that helps out for this shot another
thing that you have to be careful of is that reflection or spill that we talked
about if the subject is too close to the green screen what can happen is some of
the green hue from your backdrop can reflect back onto that person one of the
first places it hits is around the edges and when you go to remove that green
with your chroma key feature in the Edit you won't get that crisp edge around
your subject that you're looking for because your editing software will be
recognizing that bit of green reflected onto the subject and will be trying to
remove it this is where you can get that fuzzy outline look to your footage
instead of a nice crisp edge so really pay attention to any of that green that
might be bouncing back onto the subject another big mistake is having anything
else in the foreground that might have the same color as what you're removing
in the background wearing a green shirt or having green objects in the
foreground can present a heck of a problem if you're removing green later
on now in my home set up my screen of choice is the Valera creator 95 this is
probably the fastest green screen you'll ever see setup and it's perfectly
designed for a vertical backdrop with controlled height the entire unit roles
and unrolls right back into the base eliminating any need for breaking down
the green screen perfect for a creator like myself speaking of creating once
you have your footage filmed it into your editing software you'll just need
to activate the chroma key feature and dial in your edges for the perfect
overlay in my case I happen to use filmora so I'll show you how to do this
using film or a nine but you can do this with any editing software that has a
chroma key feature I'll just drop that footage in place click on it and
activate the chroma key feature to remove the green background I can use
the color picker to select the actual green that's in my shot I can also dial
in the edge thickness and feathering to get a perfectly crisp line around him
and his gaming chair see how crisp the chair edges are see how detailed the
image of my son looks here my son is a gamer and a lot of gamers like to
include their webcams into their streams and gameplay but sometimes using the
complete rectangular webcam shot takes up too much of the screen and blocks too
much of what's actually going on in the game having no background around him
when he wants to include himself in his gameplay means there won't be anything
around him blocking more of the game than absolutely needs to be there just
him in his chair and we can control the size and placement of that using the
film or editing software itself but this isn't just for gamers green screen and
chroma key allows a creator to put themselves into almost any environment
and create any sort of set as a backdrop without having to read
a room or build a new set to do it pretty cool huh if you have any
questions about your green screen setup or valera screens drop them in the
comments below and I'll be sure to answer them I'll also leave links below
to the Valera screens I used in this video if you're looking to buy a green
screen that will really deliver on your next project bass green peace