[Premiere] Chroma Keying (Green Screening) for Beginners (including De-Fringing)

[Dredgy]

For those where the pics are a bit too low resolution, I have attached a PDF of this tutorial at the bottom of this post.

Hi all, I've been playing around with chroma keying (removing a green screen background) for the last couple of hours. I’m lucky enough to have a green screen laying around. I have used it often in still photographs, but video is a whole different beast. This is my first time seriously having a good crack at keying using my budget equipment, as opposed to having a professional come in. This is also done on a very shit PC while my workstation motherboard is being RMA’d.

What you need

· Lights (if you have a well lit room, you might still be fine)

· Green/blue screen (other colour won’t do for step 2, and don’t wear a red shirt).

· Adobe Premiere (I’m using CS6)

· Camera

Getting a good key largely depends on lighting – you have to separate the subject from the background so that no green light spills over the edges, and so there are no shadows. Unfortunately, most beginners can’t afford wrap-around lighting and painted walls. I fall into this bracket, I picked up a cheap $150 (AUD) kit that included three softbox CFL lights, and a green screen.

So most people flat out told me I wouldn’t quite be able to get a perfect result, but I’ve come very close on my first try so…beginner’s luck. I am working how most beginners would – with a screen that has obvious shadows and creases. That said, I do have good lighting.

This is my setup:

So I took a quick video of myself flailing about in front of the green screen. The result was pretty good. Most creases were out of frame, and shadows were minimal, except immediately around me. Even if there were more creases, it doesn’t really matter as the software will get that out easily enough.

In another, full body shot, there were more obvious shadows around my feet, with the image also being at a lower resolution, as the camera was further away and I took up a tiny segment of the shot.

Step 1 – Keying out the Background

Both of those videos were more than easy enough to work with in Premiere. Simply drag the clip you want to edit onto you timeline, choose a point with little motion and search the effects for “key”. You will see a few results, “chroma key, blue screen key, color key etc”. We want chroma key. Drag that effect onto your clip and a bunch of options will show up in the “effects control” tab.

· First thing to do is, choose the colour you want to key out with the eyedropper tool. Choose the lighter green, as if you choose the shadowy green, and set the tolerance too high, you might lose some blacks.

· Secondly, set the similarity to whatever percentage renders the background gone (without destroying your subject edges). In my case, that was 60%.

· Increase the blend until even more of the edges go away, but before the subject goes transparent. For me, this was 15%.

· Set smoothing to high, and leave everything else as is.

The results are pretty good, as amateur footage goes you could probably leave it as is and call it a day. But there is still a very obvious green tinge around the subject, and it gets worse in motion shots.

Step 2 – Removing Fringing/Edging

This one took me a while to figure out, but it works amazingly well. To get rid of any green edges, we’re just going to leech any green out of the image.

To do this, go to your effects rack (where you searched for “key” before) and drag the “Non Red Key” effect onto your clip.

In the Effects Control Tab, leave “Threshold” and “Cutoff” at 100%, set defringing to green (or blue if on a blue screen) and crank smoothing up to high. All of your fringing will be gone!

This also has the added benefit of being able to trick other people into believing that you’ve actually seen sunlight before, though else the “beetroot red” effect isn’t that desirable.

Step 3 – Colour Correction

Colour correction is a whole different world, but we’re going to keep it very simple here, using a Premiere effect instead of loading it into Speedgrade or anything fancy.

Go to the effects rack and search for “color”. Select the “Change to Color” effect and drag it onto your clip.

The point of this effect is simply to choose one colour, and replace it with another.

· Under “From”, use the eyedropper to select a sample of the red. In this case, I chose the center of my nose, as it’s an easy place to remember.

· Disable the “Non-Red Key” effect. You do this, by going to where it says “Non Red Key” in your effects control. To the left of the title, is a little “fx” button. Click it to turn the effect off. Your skin color will go back to normal and green screen fringing will reappear.

· Now, back in the Change to Color control, use the eyedropper to change the “To” color. Select the same spot you did for the “From” colour. In this case, the center of my nose.

· Re enable the “Non Red Key” effect by clicking the little box to the left of it in the effects control. Your green screen fringing will disappear, but your skin color will retain the correct appearance.

You can play around with the exact colours to replace, and even change your skin tone up completely if you want. This is particularly helpful when editing two shots that due to lighting/environment have different skin tones. You can also edit the tolerance of the colour swap if not all of the red tones are fixed.

And final results

So the results aren’t perfect but they are pretty damn close to it, and at a full 24fps, any slightly rough edges are completely unnoticeable. That said, if the imperfections do bother you, they can be fixed. This is just a really simple guide.

It even works well on the low res, shadowy, full body shot.

I hope someone somewhere finds this helpful, as I wasn't able to find the information I needed to do this so easily!

[iHammmy]

For those where the pics are a bit too low resolution, I have attached a PDF of this tutorial at the bottom of this post.

 

Thankyou for such a detailed tutorial!

[C0LL0SS0S]

Guys spam the Like button hard on this one, bookmarked that just soo practical to know

[Dredgy]

Glad you found it helpful

[ShadowCaptain]

Great tutorial will come in useful when I plan to set up a screen

[awesomes8wc3]

I find Ultra Key or Keylight works best.

[Dredgy]

I find Ultra Key or Keylight works best.

 

Both still rely on very good lighting from what I can tell as both still leave large amounts of green on the skin, so still had to go through a non-red key (plus this temporary computer bust out crying when I opened AfterEffects). I tried every conceivable way, and this was the way that worked best for me. Your mileage may vary though, and I am very much an amateur.

EDIT: Keylight actually did a much better job on the lower res video

[Jonathan=PC]

I want to buy the:

https://www.vidaxl.nl/p/190041/studio-lampenset-36-watt-incl-statieven-paraplu-s

For lighting

But i don't know how it will perform
Can i use these kind of lights?

Thanks for reading

[Dredgy]

@Jonathan=PC You can use them, but I've found they aren't the best.

 

Get softboxes if you can, something like this: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Photography-Studio-Continuous-Video-Soft-Box-Boom-Lighting-Kit-Photo-3-Softboxes-/251674696350?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item3a98fb1a9e

 

You can find them very cheaply.

[Jonathan=PC]

@Jonathan=PC You can use them, but I've found they aren't the best.

 

Get softboxes if you can, something like this: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Photography-Studio-Continuous-Video-Soft-Box-Boom-Lighting-Kit-Photo-3-Softboxes-/251674696350?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item3a98fb1a9e

 

You can find them very cheaply.

Thanks

 

But the price difference is a lot

from 70 euro's to 240

If you try could you get a even lighting with the umbrella setup or should i really buy the softboxes.

Because it is more like a hobby and not for film school..

But i really want a even lighting on green screen

 

Am i kinda trying to buy a lamborghini for 100 dollars(example)

Or is it possible to get a cheap lighting that still works? if yes, what is the difference between softbox and umbrella

[Dredgy]

Thanks

 

But the price difference is a lot

from 70 euro's to 240

If you try could you get a even lighting with the umbrella setup or should i really buy the softboxes.

Because it is more like a hobby and not for film school..

But i really want a even lighting on green screen

 

Am i kinda trying to buy a lamborghini for 100 dollars(example)

Or is it possible to get a cheap lighting that still works? if yes, what is the difference between softbox and umbrella

You should be able to find them for much less than 240EUR, you should be able to find them around 100EUR. The difference is really the amount of light, and the quality of how "white" it is. Each soft box has 5 strong light bulbs in it, opposed to the 1 of the umbrella, the umbrellas are aimed more at photography.

That said. The umbrellas are still workable, but it could introduce new problems.

[Jonathan=PC]

You should be able to find them for much less than 240EUR, you should be able to find them around 100EUR. The difference is really the amount of light, and the quality of how "white" it is. Each soft box has 5 strong light bulbs in it, opposed to the 1 of the umbrella, the umbrellas are aimed more at photography.

That said. The umbrellas are still workable, but it could introduce new problems.

Again thanks for the really quick reply!!

I am going to buy the softbox set

 

one quick question

How many softboxes should i get?

 

Congrats,

Jonathan vd Lustgraaf

[Jonathan=PC]

https://www.vidaxl.nl/p/190023/studio-lampenset-met-3-daglichtlampen-en-softbox-40-x-40
How is this set?

[Dredgy]

https://www.vidaxl.nl/p/190023/studio-lampenset-met-3-daglichtlampen-en-softbox-40-x-40

How is this set?

Should be fine. Those top (boom) ones can be pretty flimsy though, so what I did was get a low profile stand and mount one on the floor.

But you only really need two, I've had good results with two.

[Jonathan=PC]

Should be fine. Those top (boom) ones can be pretty flimsy though, so what I did was get a low profile stand and mount one on the floor.

But you only really need two, I've had good results with two.

https://www.vidaxl.nl/p/190189/2-soft-box-lichtstandaarden

So these would do the job just fine?

[JinKagekiyo]

Great tutorial for a beginner like me. Thanks =] Been wanting to do some videos with friends and this will definitely be helpful.

[Dredgy]

https://www.vidaxl.nl/p/190189/2-soft-box-lichtstandaarden

So these would do the job just fine?

Yep.