Beginner's Guide To Lighting A Green Screen

On this video cinematographer James Mathers, and founder of the Digital Cinema Society, demonstrates how he uses a green screen in a home environment.

In order to get good results from a green screen you need a good green screen (well that is kind of a given – Mathers uses a Lastolite 5’x6″ Chromakey Collapsible Disc, Blue/Green) and some good even light falling on the screen (but not the same light which falls on your subject so you will not get shadows on your screen).

To light the screen he uses a set of two Kino Flo 4′ Lighting Fixtures – one on each side (he also shows a way to see if you have even light both on the camera and using a light meter (you can even use your hand but this isn’t accurate).

Other than this you will need to light your subject but make sure you won’t get light spillage to the background (you can get your subject away from the background for that – but you will need some space).

We have covered green screen in the past with a video by Matt Forbes from Telestream who covered a few different aspects of green screen use.

You can watch more HDSLR and video techniques on our dedicated HDSLR channel here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.