Tips for Shooting Greenscreen

This popular method for shooting a fantastic interview or adding some effects to your shot is a great way to inject some life into a video project, however, shooting it properly will save you time, money and frustration when you get to the post-production stage. Here are a few tips for shooting great-looking, easy-to-process greenscreen.

1. Try to avoid dressing your subjects in anything green or in reflective colors like white or beige. Since the process ideally involves removing all the green from the image, you should try to minimize anything that will create a conflict in post. Entire portions of green clothing will want to come out with the background and white or beige tends to reflect the green surrounding it.

2. Try to put as much space between your subject and the greenscreen as possible. The further away you can get them, the less likelihood for green spill onto their shoulders or hair.

3. If possible, light your subject and your greenscreen separately. You want nice, even lighting on your greenscreen (even if you’re trying something different with your subject) so try to use separate lights for each. This will also help cut down on hard-to-remove shadows.

4. Try shooting with a narrow depth of field by pulling your camera further away from the subject. It’s hard to setup and light a perfect greenscreen. Green curtains often have noticeable creases in them and not every shoot will allow for dual lighting setups. A great way around some of these pitfalls is to try and blur out the background by shooting in a narrower depth of field. Pull your camera back and use the zoom to frame your shot, keeping the focus on your subject and a lot of those imperfections in your screen will disappear.

Again, these are just suggestions. Not every shoot will allow for these techniques, but being aware of them will help you create an amazing effect that’ll be sure to widen eyes!