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Shooting Tips
Audio Tips
/ Editing Tips /
Lighting Tips / Misc. Tips
If you raise the ambient illumination in an area by bouncing the beam from one or more lighting instruments off the ceiling, beware: If the ceiling is painted any color other than white, it will change the color of the reflected light. To preserve the color of the bounced light, staple a piece of white poster board to the ceiling and bounce the light off of it. And don’t worry – when you remove the poster board, the tiny staple holes will likely be invisible.
From: Dick Reizner
If you work in one building, you’ll notice that many of the windows are the same size. Instead of gelling them each time you have a shoot, measure the windows and build or buy frames to fit within the borders. Paint the frames to match the window trim and cover them with 85N6 or 85N9 window gel, such as Rosco Sun, to reduce the intensity of the daylight and change its blue color to match the light of your 3,200 degree Kelvin instruments. The frames can be placed in the windows on a moment’s notice and then removed just as quickly once you’ve finished your shoot.
From: Dick Reizner Virtual-reality glasses are among the latest items from the computer world to cross over to the video market. Small liquid crystal displays "project an image, which appears to float in front of the view. Gordon Emberley of Emberley Productions in Larkspur, California, uses the glasses as an auxiliary viewfinder by patching them into the output of the video camera. He has removed the solid background against which the VR image normally appear, letting him see through the image to walk or operate other equipment. He says that the glasses are invaluable when working with a Steadicam or in any situation where it’s difficult to see the viewfinder. Gordon’s sound technician uses a second pair of VR glasses to see where his boom or shotgun microphone is in relation to the edge of the frame. VR glasses are still a little on the expensive side, but, as with most computer equipment, the price will probably drop as time goes by.
From: Dick Reizner
Those of us who make videos of classroom speakers often find that the brightness of the overhead projector used in the classroom creates an exposure problem. As the screen comes into view, the electronics in the camera or monitor may automatically dim the picture, even if the auto iris is turned of One of the many ways of dealing with this problem is to cover the projector stage with a piece of optically clear, neutral-density window gel. This gel is available several degrees of opaqueness, so it’s easy to get exactly the amount of dimming you want. From: Dick Reizner
Camcorders have a particular problem when it comes to condensation, especially in cold weather or while using underwater video gear. To dry out a camcorder that has ceased to operate due to condensation, place it on a towel inside an airtight container (such as a larger Tupperware bowl or box) atop a bed of silica gel. You can purchase silica gel in craft stores, where people use it for drying lowers and other similar purposes. Leaving the camcorder in the airtight container for about an hour should suck out all of the unwanted moisture.
Gerard Dumuk
Many videographers (beginners especially) suffer from the bad habit of forgetting to turn off the power on the camcorder, thereby depleting the battery prematurely. By placing a small neon-colored sticker on the Record, Pause or Standby button, you can save on battery power by providing a simple reminder for the camcorder operator. Every time you notice the neon sticker, it reminds you to shut off the power when the camera is not in use.
Barry R. Barrera
The next time you’re out shooting video – no matter what your subject is – take a few moments to experiment with different focal lengths. First, move the camcorder up close and shoot with a wide setting. Then move the tripod back about 20 yards (if space allows) and re-compose your shot at the telephoto setting. The difference in the look and feel of your two shots may surprise you.
Chester Orlando
DO learn to control your camcorder's manual controls. The auto focus on your camera can get fooled and search in and out. By using the manual focus you will get clearer pictures. DO use a light indoors. Even a low lux camcorder will give you much more brilliant colors when you use a light. Plus you will get less generation loss while you edit if you use adequate light. DON'T Overuse the zoom. A video that is constantly zooming in and out is difficult to watch. DON'T Pan back and forth. Pan in only one direction for each scene and avoid over-panning. DON'T Center your subject. Think of your TV screen as a tic-tac-toe board and place important objects in the lines of the board, not in the middle. Your video will look much better.
Shoot to Edit The easiest way to make your videos easier to edit is shooting to edit. This means thinking about your final production before and during the shoot. By shooting to edit, you will be able to edit much faster and the results will be fantastic.
Before You Shoot Put a header at the beginning and end of each tape. To do this shoot about 10 seconds of video with the lens cap on. This will eliminate any noise or problems in the beginning of the tape and leave you with a place for your opening credits when you edit. You should also record about 5 seconds of black between each new days shooting. This is especially important if you like to view your videos while you are on the road. The 5 seconds of black gives you a margin of error for starting the tape the next day and will help you locate scenes when you edit.
During The Shoot These next tips are not only to help you edit better, but to help you shoot better footage. The better your original footage, the better the finished product will be.
Keep The Tape Rolling You are going to edit out the bad footage. It's better to cut out lots of bad footage than to miss any good footage. Don't be so quick to cut the camera, especially when your subject is children, pets or wildlife. You never know when something special will happen. It's much easier to find a good 15 second scene in 2 minutes of video, than it is to capture 15 great seconds of video in one shot.
Establishing Shots Start each new location with an establishing shot that identifies where you are or when you are taping. This shot can be a wide panorama of the area or a close-up of a sign or landmark. My favorite establishing shot is to zoom in on the landmark or sign, and then zoom out to the wide shot of the whole area. This looks great, but don't over do it!
Use Different Shots The video should tell the viewer what is going on. Use different angles and points of view. Don't hesitate to use close-ups, half shots and wide shots of the same scene. This makes your video more interesting and easier to watch. By mixing different shots of the same thing, you can keep the viewer's attention.
The Electronic Mailbox
In most cases, changing a lens will not require adjusting the back focus. But when a lens does not hold focus at both ends of the zoom range, you may need to adjust the back focus. By adjusting the back focus, you are changing the distance of between the pick-up device and the rear element of the lens. Technically, it's the distance from the vertex of the rearmost element of the lens to the focal plane, but we'll keep it simple. Note that not all lenses have a back focus adjustment.
The Steps Before starting, put the camera on a tripod and adjust your camera's viewfinder so it is in sharp focus. Ideally, you'd want a test pattern chart (looks like a dart board) to be at least 75 feet from the camera. Otherwise, as far as possible. If you don't have a test chart, Use a page from a magazine.
When it is focused, tighten the back focus ring retaining knob to secure the ring. Note: Most lenses are at their sharpest focus at about a middle iris position like F5.6.
Oak Tree Press by Dan Niccolai When shooting in a foreign country there are many variables and challenges that need to be considered. The following is a list of some considerations that will help you determine the guidelines for your videotape production in a foreign location:
From: Daniel F. Niccolai, Vice President, Executive Producer of MindSight Business Communications, Inc. is an accomplished, award winning producer/director of audiovisual productions for business communications. Dan has extensive international production experience, and has shot on location on five continents in over a dozen foreign countries. Niccolai is also a frequent contributor to the Chicago Chapter of the ITVA. He held positions on the board of directors from 1991 to 1994 as seminar director and public relations director. http://www.mindsight.com/tips.html
We live in the "boonies" in northern Ontario and, consequently, have frequent wildlife marauders (raccoons, foxes, black bears, etc.) wandering around the place at night. We wondered just how we could get some pictures of these fellows without having to get up in the middle of the night on sentry duty. So, we extended the base (using a commercially available adapter) of one of the sensor floodlights on our deck ad plugged our video camera’s AC adapter into it. We located the camera inside the house to have a clear view of the deck and put a piece of tape over the record button so it would start recording as soon as it powered up. Now, whenever the sensor turns on the lights it also turns on the video camera which captures the activities of our visitors. We’ve got pictures of some red foxes, one very large black bear beating the bejabbers out of our garbage can, and one raccoon climbing the edge of the garage door to gain access to our bird feeders which are hung from the garage soffits.
Bill Harnell
I take the lift-off numbers found with the label sheet of a newly purchased VHS cassette and use them to number my camcorder batteries. Since all my camcorder batteries look alike, I also use the numbers to write the date of purchase on the batteries. Using this method, I can easily rotate their use in the camcorder ad identify those that are getting weak due to age.
Richard R. Plum
The infrared remote control unit included with many camcorders is a very handy feature. Many videographers will have likely already figured out that the infrared signal can be bounced off a light-colored wall, mirror or other reflective surface for those times when it isn’t practical for the operator to be positioned in front of the camera. In some applications, such as tripod-mounted macro videography, there is no clear line to such reflective surfaces. In these cases, simply tape a small white card to the camera at an appropriate angle to bounce the infrared beam toward the receptor to on the camera. This will make it easier to shoot without disturbing the delicate framing of tiny subjects.
Gary Venables
One of the first things I like to do when checking out an unfamiliar camera is verify that is properly back-focused. In other words, I want to know whether it is adjusted to maintain sharp focus throughout a zoom; however, because a back-focus chart isn’t always available, I have pasted one to the inside lid of the my gadget case. The chart’s face is protected by a layer of clear, stick-on shelf paper. Now I always have a chart at hand, and the open lid becomes an easel, holding it in the proper position.
From: Dick Reizner
Tired of wasting time looking for the shot you need? Cynthia Bonacum of Jackson & Associates in Hickory, North Carolina, provides this tip: Use the blank inserts that come with new tapes to jot down brief descriptions of footage as you shoot it. Note whether the footage is b-roll or an interview. Then tape the insert to the cassette box.
From: Dick Reizner
A common problem with shooting panel discussions is remembering the names of the participants. Instead of using names, one director I work with assigns letters to the speakers, from left to right. The directors’ call might be, "Camera two, give me A and B, " or "Camera one, close up on C." He doesn’t assign numbers to the panel because they might be confuse with camera numbers or terms like "two shot." When I’m doing a shoot and the director doesn’t have a system, I use a 3x5 card to make a seating chart that I tape near my viewfinder.
From: Dick Reizner
If you’ve always wanted to try the special filter effects that are usually possible only with a matte box, Tiffen may be about to give you the chance – free of charge. The Hauppauge, New York, company has launched a new program in which you can borrow a kit with everything you need – a matte box, a French flag, an assortment of filters and a video telling your how to use them. For more information about the loaner program, contact your local dealer or Tiffen at 800-645-2522
From: Dick Reizner
Anyone can build a convenient camera stabilizer by tying a five-foot length of clothesline to a threaded bolt that fits into the camcorder’s tripod mount. Stepping on the cord and pulling it taut while shooting has a wonderful steadying effect on your shots. However, vibrations from the upward strain on the cord can produce an unwanted shake in the camera. The solution: splice a short section of bungee cord into the clothesline near the camera. It’s easy, it’s portable, and it works quite well.
Glenn Mitchell
Fill the TV screen with shots of family album photos, stamps, etc. using a +3still photography close-up lens accessory attached to your camcorder. Sure, you have a macro function on your camcorder with its very shallow depth of field, but with a close-up lens, you can zoom into photos and pan across the picture while remaining in focus. Make sure the camcorder is on a tripod and us the remote to start and stop. Also, you can use the digital functions on your camcorder to make transitions between images and put music and narration with your album story.
Ken Kearney
After trying stickers, markers and other methods, we found that the easiest way to know the status of our smaller batteries is to use inexpensive sandwich bags. Our rule is, "if it’s in the bag, it’s hot (charged); if it’s out of the bag, it’s not." Bags can be re-used many times; our company’s total price for one year’s baggies was $1.49.
Rudy Casper
Recently, I was able to put an old retired wall mirror to good use during a late winter shoot. We needed to get a shot of a north-facing storefront while including the large sign at the edge of the parking lot. This dark green sign was low to the ground, so in order to include the store in the background, we had to shoot facing the south (and therefore sunward in our northern region). Scheduling the shoot for the early morning hours, we managed to limit the sun to the far left of our camera angle, but the sign was still in shadow. Using the mirror to reflect the early morning sun onto the sign, w were able to adjust the angle and tilt of the light so that no edges or shadows were present. The result worked extremely well, and we used it as an opening shot on a TV commercial.
Warren Gile
Much of my video work involves interviewing senior citizens for a family video history company. In the studio, I used clip-on wired lavalier microphones. Unfortunately, many of my subjects are camera shy, and to relieve their uneasiness, they play with the microphone cables. In spite of my firm suggestions that they suppress this nervous behavior (at least for the duration of the interview), the problem continued. I have since purchased a small variety of palm-sized worry stones from which I let the interviewees choose to hold and fiddle with during the interview. My microphone cables are now much happier, and the stones even seem to put the interviewee at ease in front of the camera, vastly improving the quality of our taping session.
Bryan Konefsky
I am a wedding videographer, so maintaining a strong signal for my wireless microphones is a must. I use an Azden WMS-PRO wireless microphone system, and to make sure that I have no audio problems or interference, I went to Radio Shack and purchased a large rubber antenna designed for a cordless phone (catalog number 43-191). They’re also available at K-Mart, Wal-Mart and other discount stores. After screwing the new antenna onto the receiver unit of the Azden, I noticed a little better reception and less frequent drop-outs.
Steve Ippolito
Suppose you need a controllable lighting instrument with very sharp edges to light a speaker who will be standing next to a projection screen. You don't want you light to spill onto the screen, but you don't have an ellipsoidal spotlight available. What's a video professional to do? Try using an overhead projector. You can trim the edges and color the light to fit your needs by placing pieces of paper and colored gels on the projection table. Slide them around until you have exactly what you want, then tape everything in place. From: Dick Reizner I started to let two fingernails on my left hand grow long 14 years ago when I needed to get the attention of on-camera talent in the news set at WVIR. The talent would be looking at the wrong camera and not noticing the tally lights, and needed to be attracted to the correct camera. I would click the two fingernails, making a small snap sound, and gesture to the correct lens. The snap sound was quiet enough to not go out live over the air and was loud enough to get the anchor’s attention. Then I discovered another good reason to leave these 2 fingernails long. When shooting in the field, I sometimes needed to do a focus roll to a foreground object, imagine an exterior of a building with an out-of-focus flower in the extreme foreground. Doing a focus roll to the flower would usually be a pain because it is easy to overshoot the focus point for the thing, going soft for a moment, then focusing back out to it again… Using my fingernail in the gear teeth of the focus ring of the lens as an adjustable focus stop, and stopping the rotation of the focus ring when the fingernail reached the housing of the lens’ zoom control gave me an no-brainer focus pull. Just rotate the focus ring till the flower is in focus, put my fingernail in the last tooth of the gear on the focus ring where the ring goes under the zoom housing, pull focus back from there to the building and roll tape. After the usual 15 seconds of the WS, I’d do the focus roll till my fingernail stopped the focus ring and voila! Having a long fingernail on both fingers that handle the focus ring enabled me to focus in or out as needed to a stopping spot of my choosing.
Richard Drumm Whether you’re the operator of a hand-held camera or in any other job that requires kneeling, you can benefit from this tip from Denise Delaney of KCSM, a television station in San Mateo, California: Wear knee pads. The pads in the picture were purchased at a local sporting-goods store. Their elastic backs hold them in place and they can be hidden under trousers.
From: Dick Reizner Some video cameras can be seriously damaged if their viewfinders are left pointed at the sun for more than a few minutes. The ocular lens in the viewfinder can focus the sun’s rays like a magnifying glass and melt or scar the display surface. Repairing such damage is usually not covered by warranty. From: Dick Reizner
Jerry Chiapetta of Orchard Lake, Michigan, photographs wildlife. The metal legs of his tripod used to make noise and hurt his shoulder as he moved through the woods. Now he covers the legs with foam insulation that is used to cover water pipes.
From: Dick Reizner
When shooting with more than one camera that are not synced, when shooting the original tapes, point all the cameras at a still-camera flash unit. Pressing the test button won the flash creates a frame that can be cued on both decks during playback. Just make sure you don’t stop rolling on the cameras. From: Dick Reizner
On a recent assignment, my crew and I needed to rapidly move between locations within one building. Because the length of the recording precluded the use of a camcorder, we hung our Sony BVW-50 recorder on the tripod and put the whole thing on dolly wheels. A twist in the shoulder strap used the recorder’s own weight to keep it from slipping down. From: Dick Reizner
Welcome to the world of Blue Screen! Once the exclusive domain of Hollywood special effects artists, blue screen imaging has expanded to include video and computers. There are many mysteries to the successful execution of a blue screen composite and considerable confusion as to what a blue screen composite is.
What is Blue Screen
Imaging?
What is Blue Screen Imaging? Creating a blue screen composite image starts with a subject that has been photographed in front of an evenly lit, bright, pure blue background. The compositing process, whether photographic or electronic, replaces all the blue in the picture with another image, known as the background plate. Blue screen composites can be made optically for still photos or movies, electronically for live video, and digitally to computer images. Until very recently all blue screen compositing for films was done optically and all television composites were done using analog real time circuits. Other colors can be used, green is the most common, although sometimes red has been used for special purposes. Another term for Blue Screen is Chroma-Key. Chroma-Key is a television process only. A more sophisticated television process is Ultimatte, also the name of the company that manufactures Ultimatte equipment. Ultimatte has been the ultimate in video compositing for 20 years. With an Ultimatte unit it is possible to create composites that include smoke, transparent objects, different shades of blue, and shadows. Ultimatte now makes software that works with other programs to create digital mattes, called Cinefusion.
How does Chroma Key work? The Chroma Key process is based on the Luminance key. In a luminance key, everything in the image over (or under) a set brightness level is "keyed" out and replaced by either another image, or a color from a color generator. (Think of a keyhole or a cookie-cutter.) Primarily this is used in the creation of titles. A title card with white on black titles is prepared and placed in front of a camera. The camera signal is fed into the keyer's foreground input. The background video is fed into the keyer. The level control knob on the keyer is adjusted to cause all the black on the title card to be replaced by the background video. The white letters now appear over the background image. Luminance keying works great with titles, but not so great for making live action composites. When we want to key people over a background image, problems arise because people and their clothing have a wide range of tones. Hair, shoes and shadow areas may be very dark, while eyes, skin highlights and shirt collars can approach 100% white. Those areas might key through along with the background. Chroma Key creates keys on just one color channel. Broadcast cameras use three independent sensors, one for each color, Red, Green and Blue. Most cameras can output these RGB signals separately from the Composite video signal. So the original chroma key was probably created by feeding the blue channel of a camera into a keyer. This works, sort of, but soon manufacturers created dedicated chromakeyers that could accept all 3 colors, plus the background composite signal and the foreground composite signal. This made it possible to select any color for the key and fine tune the selection of the color. As keyers became more sophisticated, with finer control of the transition between background and foreground, the effect became less obvious and jarring. Today's high-end keyers can make a soft key that is basically invisible. Recently I have been working with the Grass Valley Digital 4000 special effects switcher. This unit makes beautiful chromakeys from a good source. With the Hitachi SK2700w studio cameras the results are stunning. Fine hair detail is not lost and shadows and other variations in the backing can be maintained or dialed out. However it doesn't have the capability to remove blue spill, as an ultimatte does.
Why Blue? Can't other colors be used? Red, green and blue channels have all been used, but blue has been favored for several reasons. Blue is the complementary color to flesh tone--since the most common color in most scenes is flesh tone, the opposite color is the logical choice to avoid conflicts. Historically, cameras and film have been most sensitive to blue light, although this is less true today. Sometimes (usually) the background color reflects onto the foreground talent creating a slight blue tinge around the edges. This is known as blue spill. It doesn't look nearly as bad as green spill, which one would get from green. Usually only one camera is used as the Chroma Key camera. This creates a problem on three camera sets; the other cameras can see the blue screen. The screen must be integrated into the set design, and it is easier to design around a bright sky blue than an intense green or red.
Lighting for Blue Screen A considerable amount of mystery is usually attached to blue screen lighting design. Also, a number of myths have been nurtured through the years, most of which are only half-true. Myth #1 is the flat lighting myth. While it is true that the blue screen must be lit evenly, this is not true for the talent or other foreground subjects. They may be lit as dramatically as you desire. The trick is in lighting the foreground without screwing up the background. A great deal depends on what matting process will be used. If you are using Ultimatte, then a great deal of freedom is available. On the other hand, Chroma Key is not nearly so flexible and has more restrictions. I am assuming that most of the readers are most interested in video or computer uses, so I will not cover lighting for film mattes (perhaps someone with greater experience in that area can create a page for film matting?) Ultimatte units have controls that allow for "cleanup" of an uneven background and other adjustments to fine-tune the matte. Ultimatte mattes can also maintain the background through shadows, veils, smoke, water, hair and other semi-transparent objects. Most Chroma Key units cannot even approach this level of subtlety. One popular technique to minimize "the matte line" around the subject is backlighting. A straw, yellow, or CTO gel on the light helps to wash out blue spilling on the talent's shoulders and hair. (This technique is inappropriate for Ultimatte, as Ultimatte has a circuit that removes blue spill.) If you are lighting a scene in which the subject does not need to be near the blue backing, then lighting is simpler because you can put distance between the subject and background. Generally you want the level of light on the backing to be the same as the level on the subject from the key light. In video terms, this would be between 60-75 IRE on a waveform monitor, although slightly lower levels will usually work. It is most important for the screen to be evenly lit. If the talent is standing or sitting on blue, then it is more difficult, almost impossible, to have separate lighting. With primitive chromakey systems, shadows can create a lot of difficulty, and so you must use a flat lighting scheme on the talent to minimize the shadows. Many different lights work well for lighting the blue. Cyc lights are the old standard. A newer light rig called a "Space Light" also works well. This is a set of lights pointing up and down into a cylinder of white diffusing fabric. The new florescent fixtures are ideal also. Some people use HMI's, on the theory that they will punch up the blue by using a blue light on the backing and warm tungsten light on the subject. Some special effects companies use translucent blue screens that are backlit by dozens, even hundreds, of special blue florescence. An old favorite of pros and amateurs alike is a single thermonuclear fusion source, placed 93 million miles away. This light source gives perfect corner to corner illumination and makes a perfect match between the key level and backing level. Shadows are easy as it makes only one set of shadows. If you place a water vapor diffusion screen several thousand feet up, you get a great shadowless light. A thinner water vapor diffusion softens the shadows nicely. Those who are inexperienced at controlling these types of diffusion may want to use a large silk or other diffusion instead. I'm serious--I've done some great mattes this way. If you're shooting spacecraft models, this is probably the best way. Plus the rental charge can't be beat. The Death Star trench scene in Star Wars used this very same light source. A waveform monitor is an essential accessory on a video blue screen shoot. Since it displays a graphic representation of the video level in the scene, small variations in brightness are very obvious. A screen that looks good to the eye may have considerable gradual falloff from top to bottom. I would recommend using one on film shoots, in combination with a cheap video camera. The graphic display is so much more useful in this case than a spotmeter.
Paints and Backings The standard paints which almost everyone uses are from Rosco, the light gel manufacturer. They make Chromakey Blue and Green, as well as Ultimatte Blue and Green. One of the reasons I dislike using green as a backing is that the green paint is difficult to apply and just looks hideous. There is nothing more unsettling than having to work on a stage that is completely covered in Ultimatte Green! You can also get blue and green fabrics and drapes, as well as backlit screens. Stewart Filmscreen of Torrance CA makes a backlit screen. For location work, Wescott makes a folding background that is very handy. The fabric is sewn into a flexible ring, similar to a Flex Fill. This is great for when you need to get a talking head shot in an office, for compositing later. Elite Video also sells these, They have a Web Site. Photoflex has also started to make pop out blue backings.
What is ULTIMATTE? Ultimatte is a trademark of the Ultimatte Corporation, of Chatsworth CA. It is an outgrowth of work the company's founder, Petro Vlahos, did in the 1960s for the Motion Picture Research Council. The goal was to invent a better matting system for motion pictures. Electronic technology was not ready yet then for a film resolution system, but video could be achieved, and so the first Ultimatte units were created in the 70's. It is useful to think of the Ultimatte process as a mixing process, not a keying process. This is why it is possible to matte with shadows, hair, water etc. An Ultimatte uses the intensity and purity of the blue signal as a function to determine how much blending to perform between the foreground and background images. Another useful feature of the Ultimatte is the previously mentioned blue spill removal. Other circuits deal with glare, uneven or dirty blue backings, etc. Modern units from the Model V and up can independently adjust the color of the background and foreground plates. An Ultimatte used to have many knobs on its front panel, but the new digital units use a display screen and multifunction controls. The Current Model is the "8" and there are also models for High Definition work. There are also very useful Ultimatte plugin filters for Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. Although the After Effects production bundle has an excellent matting filter of its own, it requires considerable manual tweaking of the controls to perfect the composite. The Ultimatte plug-in automates these functions, making the work of compositing much faster. Highly recommended and worth the cost if you have a lot of mattes to do. A very useful feature is Screen Correction, which allows the operator to create perfect mattes from really bad blue backings. With Screen Correction, A still is first recorded of the backing alone, with no talent or other non blue pieces. This recording is then fed into the screen correction input. The circuit cancels out all the unevenness of the backing before any foreground elements enter the scene.
Lighting for Ultimatte Ultimatte Lighting is not so much difficult as it is misunderstood. Ultimattes can retain shadows onto the background plate. Yet camerapeople often run into trouble trying to create a shadow! This happens because they first light the blue and the subject with an overall flat light and then add a light on the subject to "cast" a shadow. They see a "shadow" on the background, but it doesn't show on the matte. The shadow is still lit by the overall key. The new light is pointlessly creating brighter area around the shadow. The backing should be lit to the same intensity as the key light. So to retain shadows, in which the shadow is actually darker than the rest of the backing, the same light should be used to light both. Also the light must be even. If there are darker corners, then the composited background will be darkened in the corners also! You can use this effect to improve the look or even relight a background plate. Since a shadow on the backing becomes a shadow on the background image, the background can be "touched up". Very useful for backgrounds created in computer modeling programs, almost all of which have very bad and artificial appearing lighting tools. Blue gels can't be used on the backing, if they will also light the talent. Another big problem (with all blue screen work actually) is blue floors. They invariably have a slightly different shade of blue. This is because the light is glancing off them at a different angle from the wall. This glare effect can be removed with a polarizing filter. The downside is the two-stop loss through the filter. This means the camera will need to open up two stops or that the set will need 4 times more light. Try to position lights so they are pointing in the same direction as the lens, and not straight down into the floor. This will reduce most glare to a minimum. Where this becomes a bigger problem is set pieces such as blue desks and props that pick up glare from side lights and back lights. Another difficulty that makes beginning Ultimatte artists tear their hair out is a lack of side lighting. To the naked eye on the set, there may appear to be sufficient illumination on the sides of the subject. But the subject is in what amounts to a brightly lit blue bowl, and is bathed in blue bounce light. When the Ultimatte removes this blue spill, the subject suddenly has no side light, and very dark shadows. If the background plate is bright, say a beach scene, the subject looks very out of place. In fact the effect will almost look as if there is a brown matte line around the subject. So you need to provide the same fill lighting that the scene you are matting into would provide. Fortunately this effect is easy to see if you are doing on set matting. If the matte is to be done in post, try to turn off as many lights as possible that only light the backing, while setting the subject's lighting. Generally it is best to start lighting the subject first, then adding fill light to the backing to even it out.
updated 9/30/97
Some Blue Screen Q’s and A’s Q - How evenly illuminated does a blue screen have to be, within a one-stop variance, for instance? A – How well you need to light the background depends on the equipment that will be used to create the composite image. Some versions of Ultimatte, for example, can tolerate extremely poor lighting. What’s most important is that the equipment be able to identify the background as being of a single color.
Q – Which is more effective, soft or hard light? A – Normally, since you’re looking for even lighting, soft sources work best, but that is up to you.
Q – Does the foreground subject need to be evenly lit, as well? I usually like to use some shadow on the fill side for modeling. A – The foreground lighting need not be even at all the foreground should be lit in a manner that would be natural to the replacement background scene. If the backgrounds a sunset, for example, the foreground might look best as a silhouette. If the background has a strong light source coming from the right, so should the foreground.
Q – How important is it to keep the subject’s light off the background? (Will the subject’s light reflect onto the screen unwanted color, for instance? A – Foreground light falling on the blue screen is not normally a problem. Again, the background should be fairly evenly lit. Whether that light comes from the screen lighting or the foreground lighting is of little consequence unless the foreground light is colored, in which case it could be a problem. What’s much more of a problem, and is more common, is blue light reflecting off the screen onto the foreground. That can cause portions of the foreground to disappear in the composite image. The best way to prevent this problem is to allow sufficient separation distance between the foreground and the screen so that the screen doesn’t contribute any backlight to the foreground.
Q – Finally, why blue screen? Is there a qualitative difference between the use of blue screen over green screen for video chroma keying? A recent article I read said that green screen for film provides less contrast. Considering that video is a high-contrast medium to start with, would there be a noticeable advantage to green screen over blue screen – or would video’ more drastic limitation s in contrast over film simply render any advantage of one over the other meaningless? A – Blue was selected as a color that doesn’t normally occur in flesh (blue eyes are relatively easy to mask). In video, there is a significant difference between blue and green in terms of the replacement background video. Green is video’s brightest primary color, representing approximately 60% of the brightness signal. Thus, the camera shooting the foreground ill normally make a transition from the bright green background to the darker foreground and back to the bright green background. Blue, on the other hand, is video’s darkest primary color, representing only about ten percent of the brightness signal. Thus, the camera shooting the foreground will normally make a transition from the dark blue background to the brighter foreground and back to the dark background. If the replacement background video is to be a bright day scene, the use of a blue-screen background for the foreground shoot can cause an unnatural transition between background a d foreground. Similarly, a green-screen background would b e inappropriate for a night-scene replacement background. In practice, these rules don’t need to be hard and fast. Again, what’s normally more important is the equipment used.
When Chris Conroy of Broadwing Communications in Goffstwon, New Hampshire, is shooting in the field, he often needs a portable blue screen for special-effects shots. His first improvisation, a blue cloth, quickly became tattered. Now he uses linoleum – not the side that faces up, but the backside, painted with chromakey paint. It is a rigid blue screen that is easy to ship and can be rolled up when it is not being used. From: Dick Reizner Not wanting to dirty the studio floor when you roll your camera dolly in, you carefully clean the rubber wheels. Although the wheels roll silently, their cleanliness makes them squeak against the floor when they turn. That can you do? "Spray the wheels with the silicon sold in auto-service stores that’s meant to preserve rubber trim," writes Jayson Sutton of Chapman Studios in North Hollywood, California. It stops the squeaking, he says. From: Dick Reizner
Wanna add some heat to your scene? If either for a desert effect or just to for the sake of effect, place a Tota or Omni light directly beneath and in front of your camera lens. The heat vapors will create a rippling effect within the air. This is great for adding a little stress to your action. Be sure that the light is safely away from your plastic shade box!
Bill Greene
While shooting an exercise video, Mark Shepherd of Shepherd Video in San Jose, California, notice that perspiration was causing dark spots on the instructor’s uniform. The production team’s solution? If you can’t beat ‘em, join ’em. Gus Archut, grip, filled a spray bottle with water and dampened the rest of the uniform to even out the color.
From: Dick Reizner
For an exciting MTV effect,
try playing some previously shot footage on a TV, then videotape the TV
using pans, tilts and zooms. Add strobe, black & white and paint effects for
an artsy look.
Michael J. Nasvadi
Your Tips
I like to travel, and I am
often times shooting video out of the car. The biggest problem shooting this
way is the sun reflecting off the dashboard onto the front window and
messing up the shots. To counter this problem, take a piece of black cloth
and cover the dashboard with it. The cloth eliminates the dashboard’s
reflection in your video.
Marty Wallace
Your Tips
Most of us who use
battery-powered equipment have more than one battery for each piece of
equipment. To keep track of these batteries we normally put a number or
letter on each one. This can be the subconscious cause of a problem.
Without thinking, you will normally use the battery marked “1” or “A” first, “2” or “B” second and so on. After a while, the low-numbered batteries have been used on every shoot and the higher numbered ones have been used very little, an imbalance which can shorten total battery life. You can avoid the problem by creating a scheme which forces a rotation such as using the batteries in ascending order during odd numbered months and descending order in even months.
From: Dick Reizner
THE PROBLEM: Mounting a
poster, still picture or other flat art so it can be photographed in the
field. Some videographers use double stick tape on the back of the art, but
I can rip the surface upon remove. Others use staples or thumb tacks, which
leave holes.
THE TIP: The secret is to
use several strips of magnetized tape and a metal mounting surface. Usually
two strips will do the job, but if the art has badly curled edges, the
magnets can be place on all four sides. This method will work in the field
by using a car door, a metal equipment case, the side of a filing cabinet, a
flag from a Lowel lighting kit or any other metal surface as the easel.
One word of caution, be
sure to keep the magnetic strips away from your videotapes.
From: Dick Reizner
It’s that time of year
again when dew switches start popping and shutting down video recorders. The
dew switch is a device inside your recorder that senses if there is
condensed moisture on the tape path. If there is, it immediately stops the
deck to prevent damage to the tape and heads. As usual, the best cure is an
ounce of prevention. If possible avoid moving your camera between areas of
greatly different temperature close to shoot time. Some Videographers
prevent condensation by putting the camera in a tightly sealed plastic trash
bag before leaving the first environment, then letting the temperature
stabilize at the second d location before opening the bag.
If you do get caught, one
of the best ways to get things rolling again is to dry the tape path with a
portable hair drier set to its lowest temperature. My neck ahs been saved
several times by a 12-volt drier which plugs into the car’s cigarette
lighter.
From: Dick Reizner
Whether you’re being
interviewed by “60 Minutes”, “Hard Copy”, or the “corporate friendly” hired
video gun to promote your products or services, just smile. Smile as much as
you can! Smile if you’re nervous. Smile if your guilty of what you’re being
accused of. Smile if you’re happy. Smile if you’re sad. Smile if even you
feel that your smile is goofy and forced. What usually comes across 99% of
the time is that YOU'RE CONFIDENT and a good person; a person to be trusted!
You’re saying “I’m OK. You’re OK.” Plus, you’ll probably come across as a
MORE liable person than the on-camera interviewer. Makes you on-camera
interviewers think, too, doesn’t it?
A few tips for shooting "door off" from a helicopter.
1. Set your focus to infinity, then tape the focus ring in place. The wind stream can easily turn the ring. You won't notice it at a wide angle but it will make your beautiful zoom-in go soft. 2. A polarizing filter can reduce glare. 3. A UV filter will help cut the haze and protect your front element from debris impact. 4. If possible, schedule your flight for a time of day when you can avoid shooting toward the sun. 5. If you are using a screw on lens shade or filters, tape them in place to prevent the slipstream rotating them off. 6. Be careful that the camera does not touch the helicopter while you are rolling. The contact will transmit all the ship's vibration directly to your tape. |
