Type of fabric. Most greenscreens are made with some sort of cloth, however that is not your solely choice. Foam or spandex choices will probably be extra wrinkle-resistant than some materials. With a bit of labor, it’s also possible to paint inflexible backdrops like cardboard or wooden. You can also need a thick materials to stop gentle bleeding by way of from the again in case you plan to shoot on location or anyplace the place the display screen will not be towards a wall.
Non-reflective materials. It’s critically essential to gentle your display screen evenly, however that may be arduous in case your greenscreen is simply too reflective. This may be particularly noticeable on shiny materials like a painted wall, however any vivid spots on your display screen will probably be a downside later. Make your lighting job simpler by getting supplies which have a extra matte floor.
You can construct your personal display screen out of supplies from craft or {hardware} shops. You may discover comparatively cheap kits that include every little thing you want, together with stands, a material backdrop, and clamps. I’ve used this one from Emart ($80) for fairly a whereas, and it is accomplished the job completely properly.
Have Some Stands Handy
It’s nearly not possible to have too many stands. Whether you want them to hold a material display screen or to arrange lights, they’re all the time helpful. There are additionally fairly a few varieties of stands you may hold round. Picking the proper ones will rely on how heavy the gear you are utilizing is, how a lot house you will have, and your finances.
Some of the commonest (and least expensive) are photography tripod stands. These have 1/4-inch screw ideas that you should utilize to mount lights, clamps, or maintain up backdrops. For your digital camera, nevertheless, you are higher off paying a little extra for a extra sturdy tripod like this one ($76). It’s nonetheless light-weight and may be knocked over, so do not put something too costly and heavy on it.
For bigger screens, backdrop stands like this one ($46) may be extra useful. (This bundle we linked earlier includes a backdrop stand and the greenscreen.) These are very related to the images stands however are available in pairs, have longer screw ideas, and have a telescoping crossbar you may hold material screens from. These nonetheless aren’t tremendous steady, however so long as you are not throwing your topic towards the display screen, they need to work properly.
A extra heavy-duty choice is C-stands. These are expensive ($165) (and I have never tried this one but). If you are attempting to stick to a finances, you may solely need one on your heaviest gear. These have three unbiased legs that may every rotate up to 120 levels, which helps stabilize the stand. It’s additionally sturdy sufficient to help a telescoping arm on its personal. These may be actually useful for supporting heavy lights you want to gentle your greenscreen with out being seen within the digital camera.
Light Your Greenscreen Properly
There are numerous methods to gentle each your topic and your display screen, and there are few unsuitable solutions when selecting the gear you are going to use. No matter what sort of lights you employ, your objectives are going to be the identical: gentle your display screen evenly, keep away from casting any shadows, and light-weight it individually from the lighting on your topic as a lot as attainable.
This may be a problem, however as a rule, you will no less than want a couple of enormous, vivid gentle sources. Smaller lights, particularly when positioned shut to the display screen, will create scorching spots the place the elements of the display screen close to the sunshine are a lot brighter than the elements additional away. To clear up this, you will have two choices: Get some huge lights or diffuse smaller ones.
