TECHDATA
LIGHTING DIGITAL SCREENS
Texas Productions will endeavour to supply screens with as close as possible colour match between screens. Sometimes the shade between screens will vary due to dye lot, age etc, but always remember you are just shooting a “colour value” - the actual fabric never appears on screen!
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For the best results the screens need to be lit evenly and with the best possible colour saturation. Evenness is easily achieved using a soft light source and a wide beam spread. The best saturation of colour is achieved by using blue-spike lamps (420nm) on blue screens and green-spike lamps (525nm) on green screens. (eg. KinoFLOW "Supergreen and SuperBlue tubes and lamps). It’s not so much about a perfect F-Stop value across the screen, but rather what produces the best saturation of reflected blue or green light. Using “White” light (eg un unfiltered Blondies or Redheads) will actually throw a warm white/red cast on the screen, producing more colour variation in the fabric, and polluting the true colour value of the key. Take the time to gel your lamps to the correct colour temperature, or use Kino Flo Super Blue and Green tubes for the best results.
The most satisfactory results rely on an intense chrominance as well as an even luminance.
*With greenscreens attempt to light the screen at the lens stop and always try to keep the screen even to within 3/10 stop when measured with a Spot Meter.
*With bluescreen attempt to light the screen 1/2 to 1 F-stop EV below nominal key (depending on your meter), and try to keep the screen even to within 3/10 stop when measured with spot meter.
*It is always a good idea to black out all screen that is not needed. It is easier to garbage matte out the remainder of the picture than try to remove a ton of green or blue spill. Grips usually have a bunch of
black cloth that can be draped over unnecessary screen or floor.
Remember, you only need to cover the area behind the subject, not the whole image area.
*It is also good practice not to panic when there are a few frames that the subject might violate at the screen border. Roto of a few frames is trivial and when balanced with the time it might take to re-hang a screen it is a good and cheap solution to a 5 frame problem. Using green/blue floppies on C-stands can be a simple way to get around these problems.
*For further tips please see the Kinoflo web site for more useful information www.kinoflo.com
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*Always rely on a camera test over any any information gleaned on a website or someone "in the know"!
And please feel free to call Paul Arnott at Texas productions on +61.2.9966.5554 or after hours on +61.418.415.129 for any help or information you need.