When you record someone in front of a green screen, you can use chroma key to replace that shade of green with another image. You can then replace their background with whatever you like.
It is best to avoid very dark or very light colors or multicolored clothing. Complicated patterns are not a good idea for any video, as they can create shimmering or flickering in the video. Neutral shades are good, as are pastel colors (as long as they are not variants of green!).
One other problem is people wearing very powerful glasses – they refract enough that you see the screen behind as they bow in the perspective of the head. It doesn’t present a problem for very high budget green screen processing, but on the lower budget shoots that don’t have access to high end keying software it can be difficult.
- Stripes are an absolute no-no, as they introduce a waving pattern/shimmer on the video.
- Shiny materials are not a good idea either.
With HD video it is a little more flexible because of the higher resolution, but be careful because suits with fine zig-zag patterns, while OK when shown in HD, when scaled down to normal Standard Resolution, you will see a weaving shimmer (this is known as the moiré effect).
Because the screen is green and will be effectively removed from behind you in the video, if you wear green yourself, whatever part is green will also disappear! Therefore green is not allowed. However this can be great for special effects such as missing limbs etc!
If you absolutely have to wear green (a uniform for example) let the video studio know ahead of time, and then they can use a blue screen instead.
All the normal video rules apply here too – no stripes, patterns etc.
If you are any doubt it’s best to bring a spare outfit; something you really want to wear, and a plain fail-safe outfit.
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