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5 Green Screen Shooting Tips You Can’t Afford to Overlook

Using green screens to produce video content can be tricky, especially if you’re a beginner or if you’re just relatively new to green screen shooting. While it’s not the most complicated process, it’s certainly not the least complicated, either. In fact, ask any filmmaker what they think are the most important green screen shooting tips to remember and you’ll probably get a bunch of answers, mostly relative to your lighting. So, in addition to lighting, let’s take a look at these 5 green screen shooting tips you can’t afford to overlook!

Beverly Boy film crew green screen

1. Know how to Light a Green Screen Shot!

It’s not that difficult, but you’ve got to know what you’re doing! Without diving too far in, the most important things you can do when lighting for green screen is:

 

– Make sure that your green screen is evenly lit. Avoid shadows and make sure it’s all even in order to get a good key.

– Use your light to create separation between your green screen and the subject.

– Use soft light that is equally spread so that your green doesn’t appear to spill off your talent.

 

2. Use Contrasting Colors

Team Beverly Boy green screen

Many green screen shooting tips fail to actually deliver insight into what kind of clothing or accessories a subject may (or may not) reasonably be able to wear on the set. If you want a crisp image of your subject, you’re going to have to make sure that the subject is dressed in contrasting colors — NO GREEN! A green article of clothing is going to make it difficult to key your subject.

But, what if I want my subject to wear green? Then you can “green screen” with another color, such as blue! That’s right, you can use other colors, besides green, to produce green screen techniques. So if you want your subject to wear green, consider using blue screen and make sure that all other colors worn by your subjects contrast with the blue background (or the green background) or whatever background you’ve chosen.

3. Use High Shutter Speed to Prevent Motion Blur

Want to prevent any motion blur when shooting green screen? You’re going to need to set your camera shutter speed higher. In fact, for low motion shoots, most green screen shooting tips call for setting the shutter speed to double what your normal frame rate is. So if you’re shooting at 24fps, double it to 1/48.

For action sequences that are taking place in front of the green screen, make sure to set the shutter speed even higher. This will reduce any motion blur that occurs when making fast, abrupt, moves in front of the green screen.

4. Make ISO Adjustments as Needed for Your Camera

One of the best green screen shooting tips that we’ve found is to know the ISO or sensitivity of your camera and be prepared to adjust the native ISO in order to achieve the best exposure even in low-light conditions. If your camera’s native ISO is too high by default, your footage could appear grainy and the chroma keying process will be more difficult. If you’re not sure whether your native ISO is too high, simply Google your camera and green screen, and see what comes up.

5. Separate Your Subject & Your Background

Although we stated this with the lighting tips, consider how you can achieve better green screen results by taking steps to separate your background from your subject. This is one of those green screen shooting tips that you really just can’t afford to overlook! But how? How do you separate your subject and your background?

Allow several feet between your green screen and your subject. Do not place your subject immediately in front of the screen. Adding some distance will reduce shadows on the screen.  All of these green screen shooting tips will help you to produce quality green screen shots for your film!

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