CHROMAKEY BACKGROUNDS

I am starting to take digital portraits (Seniors, families, weddings, etc) and I would like to know how essential it is to have green or blue Chroma Key backdrops.

I am using a Canon EOS 20D camera.

Thanks!

theloanexperts wrote in post #2343044
I am starting to take digital portraits (Seniors, families, weddings, etc) and I would like to know how essential it is to have green or blue Chroma Key backdrops.

I am using a Canon EOS 20D camera.

Thanks!

They are essential if you will be replacing your backgrounds digitally.

They are nice to have if you plan on using different backgrounds often. I have Chromakey Primatte, zMatte and Backdrop Designer. All are Chromakey plug-ins for Photoshop CS2. Even with all this software, still nothing beats having the right backdrop in the shot. At first I played around alot with this software, but as time went on I realized, for me, Chromakey is best for adds and backgrounds that are just too extreme to use in real life. My plug-ins total over $1000 for CS2 and for me, it would have just been cheaper to buy a few more backdrops with as little as I use it. It's a bit time consuming to get a realistic look. It takes a good bit of testing and patience to get realistic depth and color and light balance in the shot. I'm not doing adds of people falling through the sky, or diving into volcanoes for Chomakey to really shine for me. But I do know of photographers that use Chromakey almost exclusively. I make my living off of weddings, portraits and some event photography and my step-daughter is in her HS drill team. I am completely digital, and I have yet to use Chromakey at any of these! Some may disagree, but in my opinion it's not that essential.