chromakey

Bit of a stupid question. I have a chroma key background that I'm starting to use lately. While I can figure out how to use it okay (side from lighting it evenly which Im struggling with) why is it green?

Simply, what is it about the green color, of all the colors include white or black, that they make them in?

Just curious

I always figured because green is not a good skin color.

I know they make them in blue as well.

But if you are to remove "Green" from a portrait, it wouldn't or shouldn't cause too much difference.

I'm curious for a more official answer from someone more knowledgeable though : )

Csae wrote in post #10939747
I always figured because green is not a good skin color.

Yes that's pretty much it.

Green (and blue) screens are used as they are considered the colours least like skin tone.

Those colors make it easier to predict with software where the person ends and the background begins.

Just make sure the subject isn't wearing the same color as the background or that will be removed also when removing the background.

I was always under the impression that the colors are so bright/extreme, that they don't really "exist" in standard day-to-day fashion/products/model​s, so it's easy to pick that color out. Certainly could be wrong....it's happened before.

I know the colors have to do with the skin tones being far from it. Sure you can avoid blue or green clothes, props, hair dye, or even contact lenses but what about natural blue eyes and green eyes?

Cathpah wrote in post #10953334
I was always under the impression that the colors are so bright/extreme, that they don't really "exist" in standard day-to-day fashion/products/model​s, so it's easy to pick that color out. Certainly could be wrong....it's happened before.

you are correct, using a green screen is designed so you can select that colour and remove it leaving anything not that colour in the final image

keeping your green screen evenly lit allows you to keep your tolerance level narrower, thus not removing shades of that green colour

Seanzky wrote in post #10953354
I know the colors have to do with the skin tones being far from it. Sure you can avoid blue or green clothes, props, hair dye, or even contact lenses but what about natural blue eyes and green eyes?

Sean green eyes are not the same colour as the flourescent green background, that is the importance of even lighting,

you are selecting a specific colour you wish to remove

I understand and I'm not arguing. It's just that I've seen some pretty bright blue and green eyes and I wonder if those would be affected, too.

^ It's still fairly easy to deselect things like that, so it's probably not really an issue even if it did select the eyes...

A friend of mine recently told me that highlights are usually red, midtones are green, and shadows are blue, so you might choose a background color based on that.

toxic wrote in post #10954933
A friend of mine recently told me that highlights are usually red, midtones are green, and shadows are blue, so you might choose a background color based on that.

That's interesting. There's so much for me to learn. Hehe.

Karl Johnston wrote in post #10939557
Bit of a stupid question. I have a chroma key background that I'm starting to use lately. While I can figure out how to use it okay (side from lighting it evenly which Im struggling with) why is it green?

Simply, what is it about the green color, of all the colors include white or black, that they make them in?

Just curious

What are the three primary colors used in photography? Red, Blue and Green. So, theoretically, you can use any one of those colors for chroma key. However, the problem with Red is that the human skin is made up more of Red than the other two colors so Red would not be a good choice for chroma key unless there were no people in the picture. So that leaves Blue and Green. All other colors are made up of two or more combinations of the primary colors and, hence, do not make good chroma key colors.

Just my two cents.