the greenscreen challenge

[freddie bonfanti]

hi all

 

it seems that an efficient way to light a greenscreen is to use big silked space lights for an even and overall shadowless lighting. im wondering, however, if this is suitable in a situation where the foreground is supposed to look like a night exterior. obviously using the spacelights would make the foreground scene look rather flat and maybe way bright to look like a night ext. what would be the best solution? reduce the amount of spacelights or switching to different lights set on a rig on the top and bottom part of the screen and blasting trough, leaving the foreground much darker and free to be lit in a different way? im curious to know

 

thanks

[Sydney Seeber]

By simply flagging off some KinFlows, I was able to shoot two actors as complete silhouettes, no light at all on them, only on the screen behind them, leaving you free to light them however you want. Their mark was about 10 feet in front of the green screen.

[Bob Hayes]

You want to light the green screen in such a way that you can isolate the lighting from the foreground. Deal with each separately.

[G McMahon]

I can understand if you only need the BG as a key then you can treat your FG players totally different, but what about when you need contrast on shots where the ground has to be keyed out as well. Flagging off their area would seem to cast shadows on the ground proximity. Do you light them higher and bring down the brightness or contrast in post ? (that would seem to me to lower your lattitude to work with)

 

Any thoughts?