excellent walk through. Thank you.

In the video Mark goes to the bother of explaining that your lighting should match the scene, but the final picture seems to have the shadows on the girl going the opposite way to the shadows on the Parthenon! It wouldn't be a problem for a quick 'ible posting except that he says it looks great :-)

However - I'm not posting to quibble - I'm posting with a tip for what to do in this situation. Try reversing the image of the person! It's much harder to spot a hair parting on the wrong side of someone you don't know than it is to spot a shadow falling the wrong way :-)

regards,

G

While it is easy to quickly change an image's background with a chroma key (not chromakey), it takes a long time to create a lighting setup that will key as easily as the one you use in your video.  With programs like Photoshop, it is much faster to just take any picture, regardless of its background, and use a selection tool to isolate part of the image and replace the background.  The whole process, from placing the first light to finishing the image will be significantly shorter if you don't use a chroma key and you will have the added benefit of not being limited in your use of the original image.

Chroma keys are really only used in the film and video world, where it would be too time consuming to individually edit each frame of film or video (remember there are 24 fps in film and 30 fps in NTSC video) and remove and/or change the background.  In this situation it is much faster to take the time during production to use a green or blue screen.

Also, in your example, the talent is blocked much too close to the green screen.  If she were wearing a white or light-colored shirt, you would clearly be able to see a green hue to her shirt in the original photograph.  When doing a key, this would cause her clothes to become opaque and look like a ghost.  The green screen and the talent should always been lit entirely separately and the talent blocked at least 15 feet from the screen.

Also, the majority of this video seems to just be a plug for the software you're using and a way to increase traffic to your website.

Useful tips regarding Green Screen Photography

Problem is caibooharry...Filmnuts is 100% correct and his comment has added great value to this "ible".

very usefull info, thank you, just what bother me a little bit is at the final image the light sources are opposite. what about using the AG flash Difuser ? It doesn't make any shadows......