Ext Daylight scene on greenscreen

[Kenny Keeler]

Hey all,

 

I have done some greenscreen work in the past but have a question regarding color temp. Im shooting an interview pick up the backplate is a day light exterior scene. I did not shoot the backplate and dont have much info other then I know the plate was obviously balanced to day light. The green screen stage Im shooting on is pre lit with image 80s with tungsten bulbs. For lighting a situation like in the past my normal go to would be balance my camera to 5600k and key Light my talent with daylight and light my greenscreen with daylight balanced lights as well. However in this situation I cant change the greenscreen lights which are tungsten.

 

My question can I balance the camera to 3200 and light the subject with tungsten units and will this sell and match my daylight backplate? Theoretically as long as everything is balanced I should be good correct?

Or can I leave my greenscreen tungsten and balance my camera to 5600k and light my talent at 5600k and still be safe with the greenscreen? I know this will throw my greenscreen out of balance and have a heavy blue cast.

My gut tells me to balance everything to tungsten and I should be fine. Thoughts? Thanks in advance for all the input!

[Aapo Lettinen]

greenscreen lights should generally be neutral or slightly cooler than the key... warmer is not optimal but depending on your noise levels and front/background color separation it might be good enough.

one of the reasons of lighting greenscreens with daylight balanced units is to avoid too much blue channel noise on the screen, by raising the absolute color temp of the screen lighting (by aiming of having equal amounts of blue,green,red on the light to avoid too much blue channel gain when balancing the colour temp in camera or in post). this is separate from the subject/foreground lighting however and it depends on the subject and camera model if you can live with the too warm screen or not.

 

I personally would either change the greenscreen lights to daylight (just light it separately with daylight units and switch off the original tungsten lights) OR go with the tungsten greenscreen lights and light the subject with tungsten as well.

If your camera has lots of blue channel noise (like the original Red One) then I would definitely go with a daylight color temp lighting completely and forget the pre installed tungsten units. but current cameras should handle the situation OK and if having problems you could go with some intermediate temp like 4000K

[Bruce Greene]

greenscreen lights should generally be neutral or slightly cooler than the key... warmer is not optimal but depending on your noise levels and front/background color separation it might be good enough.

one of the reasons of lighting greenscreens with daylight balanced units is to avoid too much blue channel noise on the screen, by raising the absolute color temp of the screen lighting (by aiming of having equal amounts of blue,green,red on the light to avoid too much blue channel gain when balancing the colour temp in camera or in post). this is separate from the subject/foreground lighting however and it depends on the subject and camera model if you can live with the too warm screen or not.

 

I personally would either change the greenscreen lights to daylight (just light it separately with daylight units and switch off the original tungsten lights) OR go with the tungsten greenscreen lights and light the subject with tungsten as well.

If your camera has lots of blue channel noise (like the original Red One) then I would definitely go with a daylight color temp lighting completely and forget the pre installed tungsten units. but current cameras should handle the situation OK and if having problems you could go with some intermediate temp like 4000K

If one is so worried about blue channel noise, I think it would be far easier, if the light is bright enough, to put a blue filter on the camera rather than change all the lamps. If, the light is bright enough:)

 

That said, shooting tungsten, color wise, should look the same with the correct white balance set. It will not be an issue matching to the background plate. If concerned about noise, shoot at a lower ISO and that should fix it enough.