How do I best take pictures against "green screen" background?

Question

I've been asked to take head-and-shoulders portraits of some people against a "green screen" — presumably to make it easier to then paste those shots into another picture.

I've never done this before, so I'm wondering if anyone can offer any advice. This will probably be done indoors, under florescent lighting. I'm planning on using a tripod, and have some reasonably fast lenses available.

Should I use a flash, or use the "natural" light? Would it be better to do it outdoors? (The temperature will probably be in the -10C range (15F).

Is it better to have a shallow depth of field, or a wider one? Should the subject be right up against the background, or out in front of it?

Anything else I should know?

Answer 1

I use in my studio separate lights for the greenscreen and the subject, the right way to do this is to have a uniformly lit greenscreen and no shadow of the subject on the greenscreen.

You can find more on youtube from the video guys, almost same rules apply to all.

More info:

http://www.5min.com/Video/Avoiding-Green-Screen-Mistakes---Chromakey-72086812 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6brdwY-dvU

Answer 2

With a big green background it'll be reflecting the light and potentially messing with the color cast of the light on the subject. You'll definitely want to either set a custom white balance in-camera or use a gray card and set the white-balance in post (be sure to shoot RAW).

Answer 3

Well, on the "anything else I should know" front... Make sure your subjects are not wearing green or something close to it. I know this sounds obvious, but you'd be very surprised at how many people miss the obvious there, thus creating the disappearing body part syndrome.

Beyond that, as others have noted, ensuring that the background is evenly lit and that your subject isn't casting a shadow on it are the other big ones.