Eliminating the dreaded green spill
by Mike Piontek
on
Oct 4, 2006 at 11:11:20 pm
I've heard that using a back-light with a magenta gel can eliminate the green spill. Without going through the expense of gel sets, holders, etc.. to accomplish this, does anyone know of an inexpensive way to do it?
Re: Eliminating the dreaded green spill by Tim Kolb on Oct 10, 2006 at 1:35:36 am
Well...yes, it's a good theory and it has been used before (straw gel on a blue bkd, magenta on green...), but in practice it can be tricky to control. VERY tricky to make look natural or practical.
Too much magenta can't be compensated for as the "spill suppressor" in Ultra or any keyer is designed to add the color opposite of the keyed color...so you can only add magenta in the software, not get rid of it.
Typically just having a backlight is sufficient. The basic goal is to put some light into the area with a color of your choosing instead of let it be lit indirectly by bounce off the green sweep.
The other item is space...you need some between the talent or object and the green screen. If the screen is very close, it will be a substantial source of bounced light, the further away it is, the less influence it has on your foreground.
