lights for greenscreen

Our office has some end of year money that we have to spend on equipment, so we're going to purchase some lights to use with our digital camera and green screen that is on order.

We mostly do talking head kind of shots, so it's not full body stuff.

I know that we should set up three point lighting (3 lights) and some type of lighting for the screen itself. Any recommendations? We're looking for lights that we can possibly pick up at a Home Depot or Lowes.

Any help/suggetions would be appreciated.

 

For lighting a green/bluescreen you want to get something that can be easily diffused, and can be situated between your actor and your screen... I found that a couple of Halogen floodlamps works a treat... It's easy enough to find a pair that sit on a metal "T" stand (like you'd see used outdoors)... Then you can make a diffuser that can be clamped or bolted to the frame...

I'll let everyone else decide what's best for a diffuser - but I just used a REALLY large sheet of white butchers paper on a wire frame...

Oh... and if you set it up correctly, the white paper makes for a pretty good reflector too... adding to the backlight...



p.s. If you do use paper, make sure it's far enough away from the lights that it doesn't burn... not that I would ever make a mistake like that...

 

For lighting the bluescreen, use what the pros use: flourenscents. They create no heat and as a result don't burn things, and create a naturally super-diffuse and even lightscape.

 

I just wanted to say thanks for all of the information. We ended up buying 4 Regent 500 watt lights with stands. (they're single lights on adjustable yellow stands and you can remove the lights and they have little stands built in). We also picked up several packs of 500 watt replacement bulbs and two packs of 300 watt replacement bulbs. Finally, we bought some pvc to make a frame for our greenscreen.

We found some great dimmers that were rated for 500 watt, that you plugged in an outlet and then the devise plugged into the dimmer switch. The problem we encountered was that the lights have a 3 (ground) plug and the dimmer doesn't. We discussed getting a 3 plug to 2 plug adaptor, but the electrical department at HomeDepot discouraged that, since there wouldn't be a way to screw down the grounding tag on the adaptor.

 

I light shows for my university's television station, and so: general advice for lighting a green screen:

-I don't use 3-point lighting as often, in the standard sense, because weather people, etc, tend to move around in front of the screen

-I put a light or two aimed from the side at the screen behind the person being screened. With a weather map, a shadow can be made to look cool. Not so on a landscape.

-and perhaps the most helpful tip I can offer, since I'ven't seen it around here, is that I gel (that is, put a colored sheet of plastic (or real geletin) on/in front of the light) the backlight. If you're using a actually green screen, red works pretty well here. This doesn't need to be very bright (lest you get red light on the shoulders for no reason), but it can take care of common problems like green showing through hair, and light outlines.

Also worth pointing out that, especially with After Effects, for example, chroma key effects don't NEED official chroma-green or blue colors to work. It just has to be high-contrast. White smoke in front of a black sheet worked just fine for me a couple weeks back. Almost anything can be removed with this trick, which also led to making a jacket like Stan from the monkey island series. That should really get online sometime...

 

and perhaps the most helpful tip I can offer, since I'ven't seen it around here, is that I gel (that is, put a colored sheet of plastic (or real geletin) on/in front of the light) the backlight.

I keep thinking of a big mold of Jell-O in front of a light.





Mmmmmmmm, Jell-O....

 

the red gel is a really good idea, it will help to cancel out green spill on your subject. Try to find a film supply store, and ask about gels, and while you're there, ask about getting some sheets of diffusion. Both are fairly inexpensive (at least where i got them, around $5 for a 2' x 2' sheet) Of course i live in San Francisco so my price quote might be way out of wack with the rest of the country