GREEN SCREEN
PHOTOSHOP TECHNIQUES - Green screen composting
This is a very cool technique whereby you can easily extract a subject from its background. You shoot your subject against a bright green (or blue) paper or material background. You light the screen independently from the subject. The screen must be lit evenly but with slightly less intensity than the subject. It’s easy to take with you on location and set up. In this set up (c) I have just used daylight, so there was no need to have any lights.
In post production (Photoshop) you simply select the green and delete it, leaving your subject on a transparent background. This way you can add any background you want. Problems occur when there is ‘spill’, that is reflection off the screen onto the subject, but this can be overcome in post production. So it is a quick and easy way to add that extra dimension to portraits, product shots, in fact anything, and gives you a lot of flexibility as a location photographer.
Click here for a tutorial on how to extract a location shoot of a ‘Shoe’.
Click here for a tutorial on how to improvise a green screen shoot.
All photography and information © Jon Davison 2022.