August 26, 2023
I spent a LOT of time perfecting my green screen technique, and only recently got it to the point where I am pretty satisfied with the results. Here is a quick sample of the results and zooming capabilities:
So what are the hints?
- Check the quality of your green screen by placing it against a pure white background and checking for artifacts before rendering the final file.
- Lighting… the key to all good green screens… too much is just enough!
- Aperture… getting more depth of field will result in sharper videos.
- Make sure your green screen is wide enough for your needs. In my case I pulled the bellows much wider than I ever would normally to test if I pass the boundaries and adjusted how much width I record, that way I never have a part of the accordion “disappear”.
- Don’t zoom in to the point where quality begins to fall apart. Never sacrifice quality for a “feature”.
I’ve been doing green screens now for a few years and it really is a slow and sometimes arduous process of trying and learning, rinse, then repeat many, many times over and finally getting closer to perfecting it, but the end results are very much worth it… not just with the green screen results, but with the color-grading, sharpness and overall final quality of the video. It’s been a trip that was a lot of fun and definitely worth learning… there is something very satisfying when it all comes together and you get to upload that final file to YouTube and compare it to the green screen videos of other accordionists. I’ve worked a long time to get to that spot!
Now, the playing, well, that is something that I just need to keep plugging away at!
Enjoy!