I'm about to purchase a chroma key backdrop system and would enjoy
hearing opinions on choosing blue or green before my order is placed.
BTW editing is on an Intel iMac employing FCE HD with footage shot on
HDR-FX1.

Thanks ...

<tobeok@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1169325753.015061.9710@s34g2000cwa.googlegrou ps.com...
It depends on whether the subject wears blue or green ties.

There are reversible backdrops available, blue/green.

Luck;
Ken

<tobeok@gmail.com> wrote ...
With zero information about what you are shooting and
what kind of effects, etc. you want to do, might as well
flip a coin.

OTOH, if you wish to fill in the missing information, there
may be some people here who can share some valuable
experience.

For several reasons that are relevant to my situations, I
would go with green, but we have no idea if any of them
apply to your case?

FWIW, I went with green -- but just as a seamless chroma green paper
roll. I can always pick up a chroma blue paper roll if the need
arises. I like the reversible options but the seamless paper seemed
less expensive up front, plus I can cut off pieces for smaller needs
than a complete backdrop.

--
S. Whitmore
[Remove -bounce to reply]
View my photos and over a million more:
http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery....5132&rid=65132

On Sat, 20 Jan 2007 16:05:28 -0600, "Ken Maltby" <kmaltby@sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

Shoot against red/grey/black ;-)
--

What you are trying to achieve is to provide your keyer with a color
channel that is as distinct as possible. Since human skin tones and
lips tend to be red, that leaves blue and green. So which one to
choose? That depends on a couple of things...

Green chroma screens have become more and more popular in recent years,
largely because green provides a brighter color channel that tends to
have less noise than the blue channel. The relative brightness of green
makes it a bad choice for shooting blonde hair though, which is a lot
easier to key against blue backgrounds.

The bluescreen has some distinct advantages. When you can't avoid a lot
of spill (for example when you have to put the foreground very close to
the chroma material) you can take advantage of the fact that we tend to
find blue casts less disturbing than people walking around looking
sea-sick with green faces. Also, when shooting for something that will
be composited on to outdoor backgrounds and water, a slight blueish
cast won't be a problem.

So if you are shooting a blonde with jeans, you'll have to settle for a
compromise!


Brian Alves

Listen to the new podcast
for DV creators- The DV Show!
http://www.thedvshow.com

On 20 Jan 2007 18:32:53 -0800, "theDVshow" <brian@thedvshow.com>
wrote:

Or make her remove the jeans....

S. Whitmore wrote:
Green paper roll! (smacks head) Thats a darn fine idea! At least for
studio work.

Sometimes local cable access stations have a green screen, and often
enough lights to use them decently.

I bought from Ebay a small 8ft blue/green reversible fold up screen that
can go anywhere. Its not recommended for really critical chroma work
cause it has creases in the fabric, but a garbage matte helps gets good
results.

Ray S wrote:

And if you're looking for another cheap way to do it, go to your local
discount flooring store and buy the cheapest roll of linoleum you can find.
Flip it over, prime the back side and apply a coat or two or very bright
green paint (flat, please). The advantage to this is that it can (if it's
long enough) be rolled out onto a floor. It can be hung by stapling it to a
2 x 4 and, when you're done the shoot, roll it back up and store it.

Mike

In my opinion green works a little better because a lot of the
"green" information is in the "Y" part of the signal so it
doesn't mush up quite as badly as red and blue. Green is
easier than blue to keep out of a wardrobe. However there
are issues with green too.

As was mentioned by the other poster, the spill from green can
cause more problems with the "look" of the image than blue.
Spill being the light that bounces off of the colored surface.
It tends to wind up lighting your subject with the background color,
and green just doesn't look very nice, especially on people, but then
neither does blue. Modern chroma keyers (hardware and software)
have what they refer to as spill supression. It looks for green in the
subject and tries to filter it out. If you do very much of it you bet
black and white in areas that have spill. Blue is farther from flesh tones
than green is. Flesh tones will start to go transparent if you usee too
much.
Putting as much distance between the subject and the background will
help a bit.

Blue is a more pleasant color to be imersed in than is green.

There is no win/win solution.

David

"David McCall" wrote...
All of which are quite valid. But in the absense of ANY
deails from the OP, we have no idea whether ANY of
them apply to his situation.

OP checking in ...

Thanks for all the discussion, my primary projects are life sketch
recordings enhanced with an 24" iMac displaying photos shot in wide
screen. The talent controls the picture flow in Keynote (think
PowerPoint on a PC).

Anyway, considering your posts as well as some advise on "help" on the
iMac, I ordered a 10X15 GREEN backdrop with support frame for $200 from
http://www.backdropsource.com/ as well as a non-key 2nd drop as well.
As one previous post points out, being immersed in blue is tolerable
while the green basically forces you to go with chroma key.

BTW, the iMac's light output (even turned low) is so high that the
talent must be flooded as too not be lost in shadows, for this purpose
two 24X32 light boxes w/eggshell grids are employed. Keeping the iMac
in square-plumb alignment plus the lighting are the biggest challenges.
Vortex Media's "Setup, Light, & Shoot Interviews" is a great resource
but messing with the background is just too much grief so I personally
take the easy cop-out route with a huge bed sheet (bed sheet routine
ends once backdrop order arrives).

Thanks again for all the input ...

<tobeok@gmail.com> wrote ...
A piece of neutral-density gray gel over the screen
would seem to be a lot easier and cheaper than
dumping so much light on the talent?

Build your own greenscreen:
http://thedvshow.com/faq-pro/index.p...id=207&lang =