Virtual green screens are quite neat, but for the result, nothing loses the real thing. But what if you have limited space? [Fred Emmott] It was about 30 inches behind the desk to work on and a green screen in a confined space shared what it takes to work reliably.
When it comes down to it, the basics of camera work (lighting, angles, and more) remain unchanged, but just hanging a green screen behind your desk 30 inches makes it somewhat challenging to dial in the right environment. Also, [Fred] Wanted a solution that can be deployed and packed without much hassle and without too much storage space. He ended up using a collapsible green screen that can be pulled straight up and out of its container, like a portable stand-up banner used at a trade show.
As the camera ends, [Fred] It has been found that reliable, quality lighting is critically important, even more so than used cameras. For repeatable results, he recommends disabling any automatic features (such as low light magnification, or automatic white balance, and settings of that nature) and using LED lighting in the ‘daylight’ range for illumination and replenishment. The key to good green screen results is to illuminate things evenly, and it’s a little more challenging when working in such tight spaces.
To deal with this, [Fred] Advises to move the lights easily and keep you away from things as much as possible. Get as much light as possible, then adjust your software ([Fred] Using OBS Studio) for best results. Once this is done, it can be more easily set up and broken down with minimal fiddling.
Computers definitely make things a lot easier these days, and if you’re curious, here’s how green screens were made before the digital age.