Chroma-Key Backgrounds?

[steve817]

Any opinions on which is better? Blue or Green?

 

[Rob]

A bit more context would help, nobody likes the word "better" without some justification, as it sounds like opinion.

Blue is better than green.

(see what I mean!)

 

[steve817]

Wait!!! I think it was an opinion that I asked for.....Why YES!!! it was.

 

[Rob]

Taken from AV8:

"Blue Screen and Chroma key production techniques have been used in Film and Television respectively since the late 1950's.

The terms Blue Screen, Chroma Key and CSO (Colour Separation Overlay) are commonly used to describe the same process although the techniques differ slightly depending on their origin. The basic principle behind the technique is this - an actor, or an object, is filmed in front of a plain colour background, then using a process described as keying the solid colour is removed from the image and replaced with an alternative image.

Television weather reports offer perhaps the most common chroma key example - the presenter is seen to stand in front of a computer generated map showing moving clouds, sunshine and wind icons.

Here the presenter is stood, not in front of the computer generated images but, against a solid colour screen. A composite image is then produced from the two sources to generate what we see on television.

Blue and green are the most used colours as they are furthest away from flesh tones. The choice depends on skin colour and the colour of any objects to determine the cleanest key. Issues such as costumes and even eye colour need to be carefully observed!"

My point about "better" (which I made badly!) was that I can't give an opinion of value without knowing what you're trying to do in this specific example.

 

[steve817]

In a nutshell....I'm looking into buying some gear for a home studio and space is very limited. Instead of multiple muslin backgrounds I was thinking of a chroma key background so I could remove people easily from my pics using a photoshop plugin called Primatte Chromakey and move them to a digitaly created background.

My original question was aimed towards someone that may have used both screens at one time or another and whether or not they may have found one easier to work with over another. I don't even know if that's the case.

I did read later however that the trend in the industry has been leaning towards the green screens, because the shade of blue often come close to colors in peoples clothes or something like that. Keep in mind that it was 3:30AM here when I posted.

I'm aware that I could probably do it in photoshop on almost any solid color background. But if one of the chromakey backgrounds would make things any easier then that's the way I would go.

 

[Rob]

You should be fine with either colour to do that, but you may have bother with any objects which have fine detail like hair.

 

[steve817]

That Primatte Keyer software makes some pretty big claims in that area. I'd like to try it to see for myself. You can read more about it here.

http://www.digitalanarchy.com/primatte/primatte_main.html

 

[Rogue Monk]

Chroma-key is mainly dependant on what colour the subject is (of cloths in the case of people). If people are wearing a similar colour to the background, parts of their body can vanish (I'm sure you knew this...just making sure others that read this know too).

Green is more popular at the moment because not alot of people where green (esp. lime green) plus it throws more ambient light into the scene (lighter colours reflect a bit more).

If you can, you should borrow, rent or fake (any solid colour sheet can make a decent background for this) the different colours to see what works best. Then, select the one that works best for you.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

Some TV companies in the UK used a shade of yellow in the 80's. Don't know if it is still in use but the video technicians said they had less trouble with 'break through' using it.