Green screen compositing has become a relatively common technique for photo and video creations in recent years, and because it’s used so often, it seems as if it’s losing its magic! Basically, the image editor recognizes a range of colors based on a sample and then seeks to remove all instances of that color. Why green? Well, it’s not a very common color as far as people’s clothing or skin goes. (As an added note, blue works just as well.)

However, have you ever wanted to try out green screen photography on your own? It’s really not that hard if you’re shooting for something extremely simple. Fortunately, I’m here to show you just how easy it is! Assuming you have access to something green, some form of lighting, and some already-existing camera know-how, you can try this out for yourself. Hopefully, being able to do it on your own will bring that magic back.

Hello Friends, I have got many E-mails asking me which is the best screen capturing app for Mac? My answer for them will be Capto! Yes, Capto: Screen Capture & Record is the best screen capture App for Mac. But the screen is all green.I mean you can see that's it the computer on the screen, but everything is green. Also, I tested my TV with my PS3 to see if it was the TV itself, crystal clear picture with the TV, no issue with it.

Lighting Is The Key to Green Screen Backgrounds

Most people don’t take into consideration the actual mechanics of shooting the green screen background photograph. The reality is that the most important part of it all is the lighting. Without lighting the set well, your composition will look really nasty. Let’s start with the basics, though. As with most staged photos, you’ll light your subject and your background. This provides an even tone throughout the area you are shooting in.

When lighting the background of most images in normal photography, a shooter may decide to use various techniques to “paint” with light and create interesting shadows or patterns. On the contrary, you don’t want to do that at all with green screen photography.

Here, the goal is to keep the green screen background as evenly lit as possible. That means no shadows! Since chroma keying (the technical term) involves taking a sample of a color (for instance, a green pixelHow Does The Apple Retina Display Work? [MakeUseOf Explains]How Does The Apple Retina Display Work? [MakeUseOf Explains]These days, people are crazy about the Apple Retina Display. Supposedly, it does wonders! A completely non-pixelated screen? Who would have ever thought?! However, many questions loom the supposedly revolutionary technological advancement. Is it really...Read More) and removing it from the image, this helps separate your foreground subject from the green screen background. Speaking of the foreground subject, it’s important to make sure they are lit better than the background.

As an added note, it is ideal to have the subject far away from the green screen (ten feet should work). This prevents any possible shadows, and it’s also why you see studios that use big green screens. Most people tend to have this idea that talent is always right up against the green screen – wrong. Even with the tiny, portable green screens it’s possible to stay at a distance. By creating a garbage matte around the area your model is in, you can use a little screen for a big picture.

Editing Tools In Photoshop

With screen scenes in moviesMatching Movies To Your Mood: Do These Tools Work?Matching Movies To Your Mood: Do These Tools Work?There is something magical about movies. In the space of two hours a whole story is told from beginning to end. With a middle that hopefully leaves you feeling something, anything, for the characters and...Read More, things are a bit more hit-or-miss in my opinion. The computer takes a sample of a color, and then it gives a range based on that color. Colors within that range (hopefully they are all very similar) are then removed from the final image and replaced with another background. There are ways to get much more specific with it, but that often takes time and more money. On the other hand, with green screen photography, all tools are pretty much at your disposal in Photoshop.

There are three primary tools most editors would use when trying to make a “green-screened” image in Photoshop. These tools are simply used to select the background or the foreground and remove it.

• Magic Wand
• Lasso
• Color Range

These are what I would consider your go-to tools. You may use only one at a time, for specific parts of the image, or all at once. As you work with chroma key images, you’ll learn what’s best for what. As a reminder, this isn’t just limited to PhotoshopHow to Fix Overexposed Photos in PhotoshopHow to Fix Overexposed Photos in PhotoshopIf you are a photographer and have a good sense of light, this tutorial is not for you. You probably know how to fix overexposed or underexposed photos. The target audience here is the wannabe...Read More, for other image editors may utilize similar weapons. Naturally, since nothing is perfect, you may want to make some manual color touch-ups after removing the green.

The Magic Wand

I’d say that the easiest, most automatic tool one can use for background removal is the magic wand. Essentially, this tells the application to remember the color value of the pixel that you have clicked and then to select pixels with similar hues that are nearby. The magic wand will also select similar connecting pixels, and this helps when selecting giant chunks of green. Even so, the handy non-physical, semi-magical apparatus isn’t perfect. Sometimes it will select pixels you wouldn’t want to it to touch, and in such situations, the tool is ultimately rendered useless.

The Lasso

Alternatively, for foreground removal, the lassotool manually cuts objects from a green screen background. By selecting individual points on the image, connecting lines will be created between them. After a closed circuit is created, the selected image can be extracted from the background. Of course, this tool comes with a couple of add-ons: the polygonaland the magneticlasso.

Both extras do exactly the same thing as the lasso. However, there are some slight differences. For instance, the polygonal lasso will create perfectly straight lines from point to point. On the other hand, the magnetic lasso clings to what Photoshop considers to be the edge of your selected image. Both tools add automatic functions to a highly-manual tool, and as with the case of the magic wand, there is certainly room for error.

Color Range

Personally, I’d say that the color rangetool is the best piece in your kit for background removal. While the magic wand selects wide areas and the lasso selects more specific ones, the color range targets a sampled color and selects all instances of that color in the image.

The tool can be accessed by looking at your menu bar, opening the Selectdrop-down menu, and clicking Color Range. Additionally, you can select Modify from the same drop-down menu, and this will allow you to smooth, feather, and do more to your images to refine the pixel edges (which was a problem we already discussed).

Setting The Background

After getting rid of the selected green area, you can now place your foreground on top of a fresh new background. This is done through layering, and you can even do this with free photo editorsDon't Install An Image Editor: Try These Cloud-Based Photo Editors InsteadDon't Install An Image Editor: Try These Cloud-Based Photo Editors InsteadIf you want to get really good results, you need to download some kind of graphics software or other editing app, and put it through its paces. But now, you can do most of your...Read More like the GIMP.

Remember how I said the lighting was very important when illuminating the green screen itself? Well, I’d say it’s equally so when it comes to lighting your subject. A photographer needs to make the lighting of the subject match the background when he actually shoots the image. With that in mind, he should probably already have the background in mine before even capturing the first picture. Else, the subject will look very out of place. Admittedly, our subject in the sample photos isn’t lit in the best of ways, but it should give you the general idea of how everything works.

This is why your standard Mac PhotoBooth background replacement looks so cruddy. The lighting is terrible! Granted, it is possible to use Photoshop as a means to adjust the lighting in post. If that’s the case, I would light the subject very evenly while on set and then apply various shadows while editing. Going brighter could cause a bit of grain or other riff-raffs.

Conclusion

So there’s a lot to green screen photography, but I’d say the best way to figure it out is by actually doing it. That said, I would first find a portable green screen or painting a wall with chroma key paint. If you don’t have professional lights, try experimenting with work lights from the hardware store.

What lighting techniques do you use for green screen background photography? What are some of your favorite green screen photographs?

Image Credits: presto44, miguelwhee, mmsz

Explore more about: Adobe Photoshop, Photography.

1. I'm new to green screens but enjoying the fun. Can I edit green screen video in Gimp or is it just for images. Also would a sunny day be ok for green screen if I put it outside.
   Thanks
   K

2. Thank you very much.
   I'm a stand up comic and I wan't to use this Technology
   To enhance the Dramatic Affect on the Satirical Comedy sketch I have Witten on bigotry.

3. Thank you Joshua,
   Very well written, just wish I had read it first :-) I have a green screen, and I shot a few photos but I still need to work on the lighting. Your article was very helpful, I now have a better idea of what I need to do. Next photo shoot should be much better and cleanup should be easy.

   Sarah

4. I removed Green color from recorded video in ios as well as live camera capturing using opengl in ios. I spent 10 days to remove green screen from recorded video . Live camera green screen i referred and it really really helped me to remove green color from my mp4 and mov videos .

   any help mail me on devinep.divya@gmail.com

5. Your article was very helpful. Very well written for all levels to understand. So many times the expert writing the article speaks to other experts, using hard to understand terminology ect. They forget the point... If I were already an expert...I wouldn't need to read it :)
   I will definitely look up any other tutorials you may have done. If you dont already, you should. You would have a great following I'm sure.

6. Would a green posterboard from Staples or the local craft shop work just as well? What shade of green should it be, or does it matter? Does neon green (0 255 0 RGB) work better than say 'mid-range' or 'normal' green (0 192 0 or 0 128 0 RGB?) With regard to lighting, is an overhead light balanced with a table lamp acceptable, or should a spotlight still be used?

7. I am looking forward to trying this out. I've seen it done but never tried it myself. Thanks!

8. Thank you Joshua & MakeUseOf for this article! It is still awesome to me, the way that this is done! Oh, yes, I shall begin right away attempting too get proficient at the Green Screen! Thank you again!

9. We had loads and loads of fun with this at class. In fact, this technique was the first Photoshop trick I learnt a few years ago. I have never done it using color range because magic wand does the trick most of the time, although with slightly fuzzy edge (which is okay when you're just using it for prank), so thanks. Pulling this with an image is fairly simple, but chroma-keying video will require more work and precision (have MUO covered that? I think it'd be an interesting article).

10. i made a green screen once but it dident work

    • Can you elaborate in which way it went wrong?

11. I avoid pirating apps, so I tend to use freeware replacements for pricy apps like Photoshop. Paint.net and Gimp shop saves the day :)
    Thanks for the tutorial.

12. Photoshop is one of the greatest photo editing apps and i think 2nd most pirated software after Microsoft windows. why spend loads of money or pirate it, if you can do such jobs for free. Use Gimp guys, the GUI is not appealing as Photoshop but have almost everything that you could expect from such software.

13. I usually do it with GIMP. The procedure to do is almost same. We use intelligent scissors in GIMP which is same as Magic wand in photoshop.

    • I use GIMP too, of course it can But no doubt that Photoshop has better tools for any photo editing. :)

Green Screen is a technique for combining or joining two images or video streams, which is also known as Chroma key in Wikipedia. No matter you are a beginner or a professional, green screen function could help you to make a cool video. First of all, what you need is to choose prefect green screen backgounds. To save your time, we here will tech you how to make a green screen video and list 5 best online websites where you can download free green screen video backgrounds.

Part 1. How to Make Your Green Screen Video with Filmora Video Editor

Filmora Video Editor for Windows (or Filmora Video Editor for Mac) is perhaps the best product out there for editing green screen videos. Filmora Video Editor comes with novel features that let you play with your videos with various marvelous tools. It has Green Screen feature for users to make impossible scenes possible. Also, there are many transitions that you can add to your video clips turning them into really beautiful motion pictures. You can use a lot of filters and effects to make your videos more interesting. Also, there are many intro and credits clips that you can add to give your green screen videos an interesting start and ending.

• Green screen: Allows users (including beginners) to emulate the professional 'green screens' used by professionals.
• Filters and overlays: Provide a number of filters including light leaks, old film, cinema flair etc.
• PIP: Picture in Picture option helps you to overlay a picture or video with another on the screen to depict a past memory or tell a story in different angles.
• Rotate, trim, crop and merge: This video editor has all the basic editing requirements for video making.
• Seperate version for Windows PC and Mac (macOS 10.14 Mojave supported), and is compatible with the latest operating system.

[Tutorial] How to Make a Green Screen Background for Video

Before starting to create a green screen video, you need to shoot video clips before a green screen backdrop. Or you can also download some green screen backdround videos from the websites we list in Part 2., and choose cool movements and elements to add to your videos.

Step 1: Import your videos

Drag and drop your videos to Filmora Video Editor first. Alternatively, you can click the '+' icon to import your videos to this program as well.

Step 2: Add videos to timeline

In this step, please drag and drop your videos to the PIP track in timeline to continue. Or you can right click on the video clip to choose 'Apply to PIP' in the user album.

Step 3: Green Screen feature

Right click on the video, you will get a drop-down menu immediately. Now you should choose 'Green Screen'.

Step 4: Apply Green Screen to video

Green Screen App For Mac

After getting a 'PIP Inspector' window, in 'Effect' tab, you can find 'Chroma Key (Green Screen)' feature, click 'Make parts of this video transparent' checkbox. Select the color as 'green', and you have the choice to adjust the intensity level. Clicking the green screen background to set it to transparent. At last, hit 'OK' to save it. After all the settings, you can now personalize a cool background for the video by dragging the new video background file to the timeline.

Step 5: Export video

Green Screen Software Mac

Finally, you need to click the 'Export' button to save your video.

Can't miss:

Part 2. Best 5 Places to Download Free Green Screen Video Backgrounds

#1. Videvo

Videvo is a website with green background free video clips that has videos you can use for film production, business and other kind of related movies.

Green Screen App For Macbook

#2. XStockvideo

XStockVideo is more of a website that provides free green screen stock video footages for professional videos. The videos can be downloaded in 960x540 or 1280x720 resolution.

#3. Videezy

Videezy has 781 free green background video footages of various different kinds that can be used for various different purposes. The videos relate to Time Lapse, nature etc.

#4. Motion Elements

Motion elements offers free High-definition videos that can be used for Green Screens.

Green Screen App For Android

#5. Ignite Motion

Ignite Motion is an amazing website that has free motion backgrounds along with 3D animations that come in a number of formats.

Best Green Screen App For Iphone

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