What's the best way to shoot a green parrot for a chroma key background?

Notes:
We have this pet parrot who were going to use for our logo. Kinda like the MGM lion.

In your case use a blue screen. Green screening a green parrot in DV 4:1:1 color space might result in a lot of post processing work.

Blue screen.

Botero Collapsible Background - 5x7' - #027 Chroma-Key Blue at one of our generous sponsors:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=303025&is=REG

Guess I took too long looking up the link, Jeff beat me to the answer. "Alex, I'd like Cinematography for $500."

ah, but yours is more thorough, Patrick. Nice link.

What if it is a green parrot with blue colouring?

You could also try a luma key (black). You just need to find colors that don't match. It depends if the parrot's colors are close to the green/bluescreen's.

Keith,

If its a blue parrot with green coloring, then get some non-toxic red fingerpaint and make it a green parrot with red coloring.

(No parrots were harmed in the making of this parroty...er, parody.)

Can't you key on just about any solid, even color? Is there orange in this parrot? Purple?

You can key any color. Just find a color that is significantly different from whatever colors are on the parrot. I used a day-glo orange one time for keying because that was the only color the object didn't have. And one time I had a guy in a Hawaiian shirt. Fortunately the only color not in the shirt was white, and I had some white seamless. He had on sunglasses, so I didn't have to worry about keying out the whites of his eyes.

Ever heard of Ultimatte? I think it keys anything.

We use Ultimatte and also Boris. On some types of things Boris does a better job, but Ultimatte is probably the best keying software to have if you can only have one. However, the Ultimatte software you buy for your Mac or PC for $1200 bucks is not the same Ultimatte that you can pay a huge amount for in high end applications. You still have to be very precise in your lighting, especially if you're shooting a DV25 format.

Thanks for the replies.

We ended up getting the blue/green 5x7 Botero background (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=303034&is=REG) for general purposes.

But, we knew it wasn't going to work for the parrot because it's quite colorful. So we took the other tip, and used orange-day glo cardboard paper from an art store. Works great on the parrot!

I'll post when when we've finished with the compositing.

After green/blue I've seen orange used the most in keying, but
yes, you can key any color as long as it is a strong bright color
with no fluctations in it and doesn't come close to anything you
are trying to keep in your picture.

You really don't want to key green things in front of a green
screen, that's basically impossible. In this case a black cloth
(not shiny!) might work wonders.

there is even better.
it is the no-color keying.
It uses a special ring with blue LED you can mount on the front of the camera.
It sends an invisible blue light to a special reflective background.
This way you can use anything of any color (as long it is not too much reflective).
I do not remeber the product name.
The only drawback is you have to purchase this special background that is not particularly cheap.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/virtual/keying.shtml

try this search in google:
camera led keying ring background reflective

<<<-- Originally posted by Giroud Francois : there is even better.
it is the no-color keying.
It uses a special ring with blue LED you can mount on the front of the camera.
It sends an invisible blue light to a special reflective background.
This way you can use anything of any color (as long it is not too much reflective).
I do not remeber the product name.
The only drawback is you have to purchase this special background that is not particularly cheap.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/virtual/keying.shtml

try this search in google:
camera led keying ring background reflective -->>>

It doesn't work that way. The background becomes blue, excited by the LEDs. Once you turn the LED on, it's just like any other chromakey operation. The advantage of this product is that one does not have to work so hard at illuminating the key material.

this is not correct. i have seen a demo where a girl was wearing blue clothes and the system still works.
I think the blue used is not in the video color cube (probably closer to UV than blue) so there is almost no chance that somebody wears this color.

Giroud: it is true that the color is different (with this system you
can basically use any color you want again by changing the colors
of the leds). Mike is correct in saying that the system works in the
same fashion. I've seen the leds in both blue and green for
example.

The difference is the fabric and how the thing is illuminated.
Another difference is price.

It's a lot cheaper to just get a black cloth or some other highly
saturated color. Light it and key that out. It might have some
more trial and error, but it is far cheaper then buying the other
set. Ofcourse which one you can/want to get depends on your
time and money availability.

you are right, the price for this stuff is just unbelievable.
around 800$ just for the LED ring.
you can probably build one just for 50$, but the main problem stays the fabric that has even more unbelievable price.
(several thousand $ for a pretty small one).
Anyway, there is probably some situation where money does not count and this stuff fit the need.
I guess you can probably try to replace it by a silver projection screen for very cheap.
(another project to put with DOF adapter and HD home made)