Follow

Getting Perfect Green Screen Results

The are 3 critical steps to getting perfect results with green key.

1. Even lighting. Make sure your flash lights the entire background evently. We recommend using two flashes one on camera left and one on camera right. If you only have one flash, place it right above the camera. Set your flash to constant power so it doesn't change from photo to photo.

2. White Balance. Set a proper white balance for your photos when you start. We suggest setting a custom white balance with a piece of white paper or someone wearing a white shirt. The way to do this is slightly different from camera to camera but it's quite easy to do. You'll get much better original photos and green screen results this way.

3. Use Green Screen Custom Settings. dslrBooth usually does a good job in automatic mode provided your lighting is adequate and your camera settings are correct. However, dslrBooth will give you much better and consistent results if you take 30 seconds to adjust these settings.

To do this:

For Windows: 

  • Click on Green Screen and choose Yes or No for Using Flash. Then Choose to Adjust for Flash or Live Preview during countdown.
  • When using Flash and adjusting for flash, click on Take Test Photo. Then choose Manual to manually change the sensitivity and smoothness sliders.
  • When not using flash, your live view image will appear in the Green Screen Settings. Choose Manual to manually change the sensitivity and smoothness sliders.

For Mac:

  • Go through a session with dslrBooth to get a test photo with a person in front of your green screen.
  • Click on Green Screen, it should auto-load your test photo, if it doesn't, click on Change Sample Photo and find the original photo you just took.
  • Click on Manual. Click on Key Color, and click anywhere in the middle of your green screen background.
  • Finally adjust Sensitivity and Smoothness till you get perfect results. Doing these steps tells dslrBooth to use these settings for all future photos which will give you much better and consistent results.

Green Screen Live View

If you're using live view, you'll need to do similar steps to get the best results. This is because lighting for live view will be different than lighting for the photo if you're using flash. The color of your background will be different and you'll need to set different settings for live view. dslrBooth lets you setup two sets of green screen settings, one for photo and one for live view to support his.

For Windows:

  • Live View will automatically appear in the Green Screen Settings. 
  • Click on Key Color, and click anywhere in the middle of your green screen background.
  • Finally adjust Sensitivity and Smoothness till you get perfect results.

For Mac:

To setup Green Screen liveview settings, go to Green Screen:

  • Press on Live View, liveview will start, click on Manual.
  • Click on Key Color, and click anywhere in the middle of your green screen background.
  • Finally adjust Sensitivity and Smoothness till you get perfect results.

 

Was this article helpful?
1 out of 1 found this helpful
Have more questions? Submit a request

2 Comments

  • 0
    Avatar
    Eyenigmaimages

    These are great instructions.  At my last event, when the dance floor opened they completely turned off the lights, which killed my Live View.  I will remember to bring my LED lights next time so that I have adequate lighting for Live View. 

    This really is a great software with great customer support.

  • 0
    Avatar
    Joel Albertson

    Question, with Christmas coming, I have my first gig set up and I was very excited about using the green screen. I just realized that I am in trouble if the guests are wearing green, and anything green on them is subject to be left out.  Does the software offer me anyway to check the prints before printing, and any way to manually overide the replacement of green in small areas.  That probably didn't make sense, I'm looking for a "correction" feature that can be applied to single area's.  I know that I can use a blue screen if needed, but I'm worried about that too.  Maybe orange screen since we can choose the color to replace? Does anyone have any suggestions, the event is Friday, 12/08...

Please sign in to leave a comment.