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Filed under: Cameras •Post Production •Production •Training •

The RED Camera and Green Screen

Here’s Adam with the 80D (not the ADD!) filter. Notice the 4300k preset marked on the slate. I set the camera that way to compensate for the blue cast of the filter, and theoretically there is no impact on the RAW image.

Here’s the green separation:

It’s extraordinarily good. This camera loves green, and for full body green screen that works very, very well for me.

Here’s the red channel:

The red channel doesn’t look a lot different, other than being a little brighter. We’re not looking at a truly RAW image here; it has been processed through RedAlert based on the color temperature meta data found in the shot’s data file. The overall amount of red in the image seems to be more than in the 3200k image, and I’m going to put that down to the influence of the white balance meta data in RedAlert. I can’t say that there’s really any significant difference in either the noise levels or the high contrast edges in the red channel when using the 80D filter. What I do notice is that, both with and without the 80D filter, the edges aren’t anywhere near as clean as in the green channel, which makes sense considering there are twice as many green photosites as red or blue photosites on the RED’s Bayer pattern sensor.

But here’s the biggest change, in the blue channel:

Holy cow! There’s still some noise there, but not nearly as much as the non-filtered image. I’m not sure if that will improve the quality of the key but it will definitely improve the image quality by significantly reducing blue channel noise.

Just to rehash, here’s the blue channel WITHOUT the 80D filter:

In the unfiltered blue channel close up there seems to be a faint spiral pattern of some sort in Adam’s shirt that is missing from the filtered version. Is this some sort of wavelet compression artifact? It’s interesting that the blue filter makes it go away.

We keyed both shots on set in After Effects using KeyLight, and both worked well. Our compositor is still working on the project and I’ve not heard definitively how the comps have turned out. Based on this test, I shot all of our footage using the 80D filter and I have great expectations for the final results. But I probably won’t ever shoot green screen without an 80D filter, and as long as I have enough light I won’t shoot dramatic footage on the RED under tungsten light without it either. The blue channel noise is too noticeable to me to forego doing something to eliminate it, and the only method of doing that with the RED seems to be to use a blue filter to increase the blue exposure in relation to red and green. (I hope to do some Build 16 exposure tests soon so I can learn how fast I can rate the RED in emergencies.)

It goes without saying that blue screens shot on the RED should be lit with 5600k light only, or with tungsten light using as much blue filtration as possible. I’d consider the 80D filter a minimum requirement under those conditions.

The RED is a great camera for what it is, which is a camera with a 4k imager for $17,500. It is not the greatest camera ever made, bar none; but for the price it does some pretty amazing things—and I’ve gone from raging skeptic to fan as I learn more about how to use it. In a business where we’re only as good as our last picture, it pays to know how to combine the tools in your toolbox to get the best results possible. In this case those tools were the RED camera (Build 16) and an 80D blue filter.

FOOTNOTE: This article should not be taken as criticism of the RED. It’s only intended to inform how best to use it—a necessary process with any camera. So LIGHTEN UP.

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Well done article.  Your articles are always informative and make potentially difficult topics, easy to understand.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  11/04  at  08:18 AM

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Did you place the 80D filter on the camera or on the light source?

I’ve often seen the green screen lit with one set of instruments and the talent lit with another. If the green screen is lit so it’s instruments do not spill onto the talent, would you then light with green on the screen and white light on the talent?

Peace,

Rob:-]

Posted by Rob  on  11/05  at  01:46 PM

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You said, “... the 80D was half the correction of an 80D filter ...”. Is there a typo in here?

Peace,

Rob:-]

Posted by Rob  on  11/05  at  01:47 PM

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Please clarify a couple of points:

When you say “full body shots” are you referring to the seeing of skin tones on your subject ? Is that your concern ?

If that is the case then why not just make sure that there is no contamination of the subject by the light illuminating the
Green screen ?  Would using Super Green Kinos or a Lee green on your tungsten lights significantly improve the key ability of the screen ?

I have lit hundreds of green screens for films,  Keeping green
contamination off the foreground subjects is simply a matter of light control and having a large enough space/greenscreen to
keep the subject far enough away from the screen to make sure
that there is no bounce spill.
I would light the green screen to its best keyablity and then light the subject to the proper ratio of screen to subject in terms
of over/under stop wise.
I would much prefer to gel my lights than to filter my lens because when I filter my lens I am affecting not just the green screen but also my subject.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding , again my experience is primarily with film. We are starting to be questioned about whether the RED is a viable option for some of our work.
thanks-J

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  11/15  at  11:47 AM

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Great article Art!

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  11/22  at  05:40 PM

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