Shooting with a chroma key backdrop

Looks great. Has anyone done comparisons between Photokey 2 and Primatte?

SnlpeR wrote in post #8597820
nice results
can you PM me the serial number?
lol

To get a serial number you need to buy the software.

Primatte does a good job but I went the cheap way with Photokey. And I can do batches with it. I'd never find the time to sit and do every picture individually.

Jon.

TMR Design wrote in post #8593288
Hi Jon,

I've been looking at getting dedicated software for working with Chroma Key and Photokey 2 looks like a really great program.

Since you use it, I'm curious as to the workflow. Can I import my images to Lightroom as I normally do and then select 'Edit in..' and set it up so that it opens as a TIFF in Photokey, do the keying, save the TIFF and then open it up in Photoshop to create a layered TIFF for additional retouching? Once the extraction is done in Photokey 2, do I have the option to replace the background in Photokey 2 and/or in Photoshop to take advantage or filters or plugins I have installed?

I don't use the software to it's fullest. I just use it to open the jpg files, replace the background and save them.

Jon.

Jon Foster wrote in post #8598939
To get a serial number you need to buy the software.

Primatte does a good job but I went the cheap way with Photokey. And I can do batches with it. I'd never find the time to sit and do every picture individually.

Jon.

Photokey is almost the same price for the pro version that does the batch processing.

When I tried the demo of Photokey I found that it did not handle spill as well.

I just downloaded and tried both programs. I like Primatte more because it's a plugin within Photoshop and that's appealing.

I don't really care for the interface much at all. I'll work with it a bit more to see if it grows on me but I'm also going to look into other programs or photoshop plugins.

BCRose wrote in post #8599731
Photokey is almost the same price for the pro version that does the batch processing.

When I tried the demo of Photokey I found that it did not handle spill as well.

Photokey is not perfect by any means. But it was real fast and easy. It's also a stand alone application that I can have on a PC without the need for another Photoshop license. Plus most of the people I work with don't do so well with Photoshop. We also got a school discount when we bought it.

Would I buy it for myself? If I could get a good discount and didn't want to spend the time doing it myself in Photoshop, yes.

When I first started looking for this type of software my first choice was Primatte but being that I was spending the schools money I had to go with the best price. And honestly, Photokey does a decent job.

Jon.

Jon, are you shooting the annual school portraits on chromakey and doing the knockouts yourself?

Just a couple samples...not the best picture for this but if you set up your original pose properly you can drop them into some really cool digital backgrounds.

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BCRose wrote in post #8602318
Jon, are you shooting the annual school portraits on chromakey and doing the knockouts yourself?

Nope. The school has a "unnamed" company doing the annual portraits right now. This is their last year under a contract and then they are out for good. I'll probably do the annual portraits for all the schools in the system after that.

I work for the school system and shoot everything else. I do all the event, marketing photography and video work. I also teach the photography and video production classes. Keep in mind, the schools are junior kindergarten through 8th grade. So we really don't do anything too crazy in our classes. Every so often we run a special after school program where we get into more interesting stuff but it's only when we get enough kids that are really serious about doing this kind of stuff. And we have a ton of new kids on the roster for this year so I don't know what will happen yet. We actually took on most of the students from a school that closed unexpectedly last month. Things will be crazy for the next month or so...

Having said all that, we have been doing a lot of work on the green and blue screens. Most of the knockouts are done by myself or the students who can actually do the work. Most of the staff has little or no interest in this stuff and just can't do it. We also can't afford more licensing for our Adobe products. Right now I have enough to cover about half of the student computers with Photoshop and Premier. We also have two portable studios run with Visual Communicator that will be getting their own room this year. Having a permanent location that will always be set up will allow a much broader shooting schedule for the kids. Right now the idea is to start a morning newscast that is entirely student produced. It will air live on all the TV's in the main school with a edited version being uploaded to www.schooltube.com later in the day for the public to see. The video production work is really what got us started using chromakey backgrounds for our photography.

Jon.

Next year have a look at www.36pix.com for doing mass green screen work for schools...I recommend them.

Okay I just have to say, that BG with the Santa dude looking through the window from the outside is just creepy.

*shudder*

But very nice chroma key.

I'm curious if anyone has ever had a mischievous parent send their kid to school on photo day wearing chromakey green.

This looks like ton of fun, I may have to get a screen and play a bit.

bnkrazy wrote in post #8626600
I'm curious if anyone has ever had a mischievous parent send their kid to school on photo day wearing chromakey green.

This looks like ton of fun, I may have to get a screen and play a bit.

LOL then the photographer would just roll down chromakey blue. PWNED!

bnkrazy wrote in post #8626600
I'm curious if anyone has ever had a mischievous parent send their kid to school on photo day wearing chromakey green.

This looks like ton of fun, I may have to get a screen and play a bit.

More than once. Having the reversible green/blue screens is a huge plus. Our older students do it on the days they know they'll be in front of the chroma backgrounds...

Jon.

You don't need a green or any chroma key backdrop..get a copy of the photoshop plugin Fluid Mask and you can remove ANY solid colored background..it doesn't matter what the color..if you are very good at it, you can remove any background, even a forest if there is one in the photo..just make sure that the people being shot are not wearing the same color as the background you are shooting...but Fluid Mask will use any solid colored background and it doesn't have to be evenly lit either.