You know you're having a bad day when you take the time to make sure your green screen is lit *just right*......then this team shows up.



Green shirt. Green hat. Green belt. Green logo on the hat. Ugh. My plug in doesn't like these guys at all!

D'oh!

You need to use Chroma Key green, then you won't have any problems. Its more of a bright lime green. Maybe overexposing the backgound would help to give you a better brighter green than the players uniforms would help.

Edited by swampwalker on Mar 25, 2008 at 04:17 PM GMT

ya i thought that green screens were supposed to be like BAM! bunch you in the face bright green

i liek your lighting on the subject though

This is a chroma key green. They're not lime at all, actually.

Oh, and overexposing the background results in bad BAD things. The green bounces onto your subject and you get bleed. Not a fun thing for the software to deal with at all!

I solved this issue by purchasing a second background - chroma key blue!

James,

I was about to say.. you definitely need a blue and a green, not just one or the other.

But also, you can gel your bg light to start to add some other colors to differentiate it a little. And a garbage mask (basically a very very rough mask) helps with pulling a key. I love Keylight in After Effects because it allows for a lot of this on the fly.

Do you use Primatte? I use that for PS and it's very good. I just had to do a green on green, and it did a fine job. History brush is your friend too.

Max

I must say, that is a really cruel twist of fate...

+1 on a different color, just in case...

PShizzy wrote:
Do you use Primatte? I use that for PS and it's very good. I just had to do a green on green, and it did a fine job. History brush is your friend too.

Yes, that's my tool of choice at the moment. I like it, but it struggles with stuff like this. Maybe it's just my lack of knowledge, though. I'm still getting a good feel for what it can do and how it can do it.

But yeah, my two solutions were 1) Blue chroma-key and 2) A hair light. (The hair light is on its way - AB400)

James,

I would love to see some finished photos using the green screen if you care to share.

Tim

I've posted quite a few over the last few weeks, but here is the finished one for the 'evil green' team. (just finished it a few seconds ago)

James,

If you ever want to talk shop about Primatte, lemme know.

Max

James... love your nice even lighting on the subject. Now, from here, will this player put down the bat and face front for the team composite?

Your example has me wanting to change to this pose. I don't like the standard stance shot and I had been going with the pose shown below to some success. But, I think I Iike yours better... more team name showing.



Edited by P Alesse on Mar 25, 2008 at 05:30 PM GMT

P Alesse wrote:
James... love your nice even lighting on the subject. Now, from here, will this player put down the bat and face front for the team composite?

I mark the floor with tape. I ask them to come in, place their toes on the blue line, put their hands behind their back - then I take 2 shots. Then my assistant has them turn towards the fill light, grab the bat with 1 hand, then turn their head towards the camera - then I take the two individual shots (which go on the order form).

So I do the 'team' shot first, then the individual (bat) pose.

Do you think this (making a composite) is less work than doing an actual team photo?

Not to be argumentative, but when I shoot against chroma (green or blue) I shoot with the background +1 stop above the subject. I just move the subject far enough forward to not get any blowback.

Paul, when I pose kids, I have them just turn their opposite shoulder towards me, much like James does. I also tell them to smile and pretend they are posing for the cover of SI or trying to pick up hot girls. The straight on shot is a little too static for my tastes.

So, do you use a similar background for the individual shot as you do for the team? I'm really likin' your style. When I do T&I, I dread the team photos the most. Waiting for everyone to arrive (those on-time get annoyed having to wait), then getting them all organized and in their rows. I end up having to take 6 or 7 shots, for there always seems to be one or more with their eyes shut, or looking away, etc. Many times, I'm copying eyeballs from one shot onto another -- oh yeah, and let's not get started with the horrible backgrounds in most gyms.

The individual shots go so much smoother, so this method has so many upsides to it.

I copied your green screen image and opened it in Photoshop (I've never tried a chroma green background). With the magic wand, and a tolerance of 10, I was able to quickly cut the kid out and plop him into another background. I bet you can put together a team picture relatively quickly.

NickyD wrote:
Do you think this (making a composite) is less work than doing an actual team photo?


No. Doing team photos on photo day is WAY less work. Well, it's less work, anyway. Maybe not way less. If my lighting is right and my green drops like it should, it takes me about 25 minutes or so to create the team picture. Compare that with how long it takes to arrange and shoot conventionally and you can see that doing it conventionally is less time consuming. However, there are intangibles that I like such as being able to control your lighting and being able to add in the 'late' kids or kids that show up only to make-ups. Those are big 'wow' factors for parents.

NickyD wrote:
Not to be argumentative, but when I shoot against chroma (green or blue) I shoot with the background +1 stop above the subject. I just move the subject far enough forward to not get any blowback.


You're not being argumentative at all. My shots with the green at +1 had too much bleed / blowback. I guess I either need to arrange my background lights better or find larger spaces to shoot in. Oh, and the hair light is going to help, I'm sure.

James Broome wrote:
I've posted quite a few over the last few weeks, but here is the finished one for the 'evil green' team. (just finished it a few seconds ago)



If only kids & coaches with glasses all knew how to angle the soft box reflections away, our job would be so much easier...

Gatorboy wrote:
So, do you use a similar background for the individual shot as you do for the team? I'm really likin' your style.


The background I'm using for this league is a shot of one of their nice baseball fields. I dropped all the color out, then colorized it light blue.

For the magazine covers and baseball cards I'm leaving the baseball field in full color.

Here is one of the magazine covers.

NickyD wrote:
Paul, when I pose kids, I have them just turn their opposite shoulder towards me, much like James does. I also tell them to smile and pretend they are posing for the cover of SI or trying to pick up hot girls. The straight on shot is a little too static for my tastes.


Nick, I agree and that's why I'm going to go with the pose James has shown here. Problem will be with the T-ballers though... they want to get in their batting stance and in all honesty they don't read SI because well... they can't read yet....

Oh, trying to get the t-ball kids into a pose that doesn't involve both hands on the bat is a struggle.

Cool stuff James, the team shot looks kind of weird though because you don't see the bodies of the coaches or players on the second row

I like the team pictures done this way. We did this for a youth basketball league and the feedback was mixed. Some parents liked it and some didn't. Have you had any negitive feedback?

Tommy

cogard wrote:
Cool stuff James, the team shot looks kind of weird though because you don't see the bodies of the coaches or players on the second row

I know that I didn't notice that until you pointed it out. I bet the team never did either. I like the shot, by the way. Cool stuff!

cogard wrote:
Cool stuff James, the team shot looks kind of weird though because you don't see the bodies of the coaches or players on the second row

Hmm, just noticed that after you mentioned it. How do people respond to this?

Scott