chromakey photography

[carole moore]

I am starting to shoot with chromakey. I am working with a few karate schools. I need help with the proper lighting...can I use strobe lights?
I have a studio and use strobes for all of my portraiture. I have never shot chromakey. I really need all the help I can get...please!!!!
Also, I would like to get software to batch images. I have heard of Green Wizzard and Photo Key Batch. Any sugestions on these two or others available?

[Mike]

While shooting:
Make sure the background is VERY evenly lighted. Make sure that there is no spill from the background onto the subject, keeping your subject several feet away (maybe 8 or so) will help. Make sure that none of the lights you are using to light the subject falls on the background. If the background you are inserting behind the subject has a light direction to it, make sure the light direction on the subject is the same. Yes you can use strobe lights.

My questions:
Are you posing these folks in static poses? If so this should not be too much of a problem, but if they want to do an action type pose, that is quite another story. You will need a much larger background (harder to light) and you will have to set up your subject lighting so they will still be properly lighted while they are moving and you are trying to capture them at just the right moment.

I have no experience with the two software programs you mentioned, I always used PS.

[Frank Lopes]

I'm far from an expert on the subject, but I came accross this piece on how to do chroma key photography:
http://www.imaginginfo.com/print/Studio-Photography/Chromakey-Photography-Secrets/3$3940

This site cover the equipment required:
http://www.chroma-key.com/

Originally Posted by carole moore

...I am starting to shoot with chromakey...

[Mike]

Thanks Frank, I was just trying to condense all of that into a paragraph or two!

Carole, why use chromakey? Especially if you have a number of students to do? And if you have to do a group shot, how big a background will you need? Seems to me that you just might be setting yourself up for some serious computer work here.....

[carole moore]

Hi Mike!
Thank you for your reply. I have to shoot chromakey because I am taking over for their original photographer. He did beautiful work. He shot green screen because he added their logo and gave them a choice of 4 backdrops.
They were very satisfied with him but he left them and they can''t get in touch with him to complete his commitment to the parents. Needless to say they were looking for a new photographer.
I will be shooting some action shots (like a jump) and the two software products I mentioned will do batch photography. This is a big undertaking but I know I can do it. The contract consists of three karate schools so if I do this well, I will have the chance to take on other schools.
I hope I can find someone who shoots chromakey so I can find out a little more about the proper software.

[carole moore]

Frank, thank you for the information. I will check out the websites.

[HuBBa]

there is one member here that does a lot of blue/greenscreen photography, pellepiano

his website is at http://www.studiobild.com/ and allthough its mostly in Swedish im sure you can drop him a pm here or send him a mail.

Otherwise Primatte (http://www.digitalanarchy.com/) and Ultimatte (http://www.ultimatte.com/UltimatteMain/Software.html) are fairly industry standards for this.

And flash works fine, but as been said you need very even light at least near the model. (if you have some vignetting outside the model it can easilly be painted over) and make sure that the light does not bounce back (spill) onto the model.

[wybnormal]

I have tried both the mentioned software and Photokey worked MUCH better all the way around. I made my own green screen and while it worked OK, I ended up buying a much larger and lighter screen. Photokey is pretty forgiving about the lack of even lighting. My test case was the worst case, way too close, no backlighting and using strobes. And yes, it still pulled the image very well with only a little bit of spillover.

here is a sample using Photokey, worst case shoot with a magazine overlay and replaced background. Total time was less than 5 minutes to do all of it.

[carole moore]

Thank you for the info. I have loaded a free trial of both softwear and trying them first. The picture is great.
I am also working with a lot of images so I do need a program that will handle batching.