Fluorescent vs skin tone

Seth Bloombaum · March 4th, 2009, 11:51 AM

Overall, a very productive test!

1. The shadow at the inside corner of her left eye (between her eye and the bridge of her nose) seems unnatural. Try bringing the fill light closer to the camera, perhaps half the distance, maintaining the current distance to the subject.

2. The patch of screen that isn't keying for you - lighting can fix this, obviously. However, a garbage matte is commonly used in the chromakey software or filter to take care of problems like this. Hopefully, your sw has this function. If not, it is a little more difficult to create another matte by hand that covers just your subject, then fill it with your desired background. Exact steps for a garbage matte vary...

2a. How to get your background evenly lit? A common method is to have the subject step out, turn on the zebras on your camera at perhaps 70 or 80%, then open your iris until you have zebras displayed across most of the screen. The areas where you have no zebras are not lit to the same level as the areas that do display zebras, so, adjust the lighting until you have zebras across the entire screen. Then, have your subject step back in and adjust exposure/iris to her.

3. Can you slow down the movement of your background graphics? To me, they are distracting.

Skin tone seems fine to me.

Bill Davis · March 4th, 2009, 08:53 PM

First thing I noticed is the shot composition.

The vertical framing makes the spokeswoman look squashed down into the frame.

If there's a reason you want a waist up shot - then push in so that she fills more of the frame and her eyes are closer to the upper third framing line.

I kept wondering if she has some hip size problem that combined with the editors unnatural love of the motion graphics in order to force this framing.

And this next comment is both subtle and probably a reflection of the fact that my son is a young teenager so for the past five years or so our house has been awash in young boys - but I could hear his pack of pre-teen boys stopping in the studio and one of the less polite of the pack snarkily commenting to his buddies that that lady on the screen's got smoke rings coming out of her ___.

She's a lovely lady, has a charming accent, a wonderful smile. And certainly doesn't deserve that. So hopefully there will be few to NO teenage boys in the eventual audience.

But I'd probably overreact and change it anyway. Cuz one stray comment from a immature sales guy and from then on the video would probably get shelved.

Sorry, got to go repair my karma now for even bringing all this up.

Donald Blake · March 4th, 2009, 10:19 PM

Haha Bill that last comment put a smile on my face, I wasnt expecting that at all.
The reason I framed it the way I did is because I had already shot another test previously with a head shot and a full body shot and since this is just a test I framed it in between (wast up) You can see my previous test here (watch it in HD) :
YouTube - démo intro RSB

Then I will ask the client to choose between these 3 framed shots.

Seth for the keying problem, I easily fixed it by masking it out.
I use Sony Vegas 7 for the editing, I don't think I have the matte function?

Ok so the background media isnt the best for this situation, it is well noted.

But I'm pretty happy about the skintone overall, tho I agree with Seth that the fill light should be closer to the camera. The only reason I put it there was to hold the 43"diam silver reflector.

Thanks again guys!

Seth Bloombaum · March 5th, 2009, 11:07 AM

A garbage matte can be done in vegas, but the tool is not integrated into Vegas' chromakeyer, it's part of clip pan/crop.

Please see the tutorial in Vol. 3 Issue 3 of Edward Troxel's excellent newsletters regarding the Bezier Mask.

The idea here is to put your clip to be keyed on the top video track, just as you have been. Apply the bezier mask - create nodes LOOSELY around your subject. You don't want her reaching outside of the mask. Following the tutorial, the default mask mode will turn everything outside your mask transparent, which is what you want.

Now, with your background media on a lower track, apply the chromakey filter as you have previously. The filter is now keying only what is inside the garbage matte, what is outside the matte is 100% transparent, allowing background to show through.

If my explanation isn't clear you should probably ask more questions over in the Vegas forum.

March 4th, 2009, 11:51 AM	#31
Seth Bloombaum Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,420	Overall, a very productive test! 1. The shadow at the inside corner of her left eye (between her eye and the bridge of her nose) seems unnatural. Try bringing the fill light closer to the camera, perhaps half the distance, maintaining the current distance to the subject. 2. The patch of screen that isn't keying for you - lighting can fix this, obviously. However, a garbage matte is commonly used in the chromakey software or filter to take care of problems like this. Hopefully, your sw has this function. If not, it is a little more difficult to create another matte by hand that covers just your subject, then fill it with your desired background. Exact steps for a garbage matte vary... 2a. How to get your background evenly lit? A common method is to have the subject step out, turn on the zebras on your camera at perhaps 70 or 80%, then open your iris until you have zebras displayed across most of the screen. The areas where you have no zebras are not lit to the same level as the areas that do display zebras, so, adjust the lighting until you have zebras across the entire screen. Then, have your subject step back in and adjust exposure/iris to her. 3. Can you slow down the movement of your background graphics? To me, they are distracting. Skin tone seems fine to me.

March 4th, 2009, 08:53 PM	#32
Bill Davis Trustee Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Scottsdale, AZ 85260 Posts: 1,538	First thing I noticed is the shot composition. The vertical framing makes the spokeswoman look squashed down into the frame. If there's a reason you want a waist up shot - then push in so that she fills more of the frame and her eyes are closer to the upper third framing line. I kept wondering if she has some hip size problem that combined with the editors unnatural love of the motion graphics in order to force this framing. And this next comment is both subtle and probably a reflection of the fact that my son is a young teenager so for the past five years or so our house has been awash in young boys - but I could hear his pack of pre-teen boys stopping in the studio and one of the less polite of the pack snarkily commenting to his buddies that that lady on the screen's got smoke rings coming out of her ___. She's a lovely lady, has a charming accent, a wonderful smile. And certainly doesn't deserve that. So hopefully there will be few to NO teenage boys in the eventual audience. But I'd probably overreact and change it anyway. Cuz one stray comment from a immature sales guy and from then on the video would probably get shelved. Sorry, got to go repair my karma now for even bringing all this up.

March 4th, 2009, 10:19 PM	#33
Donald Blake Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Montreal, Canada Posts: 142	Haha Bill that last comment put a smile on my face, I wasnt expecting that at all. The reason I framed it the way I did is because I had already shot another test previously with a head shot and a full body shot and since this is just a test I framed it in between (wast up) You can see my previous test here (watch it in HD) : YouTube - démo intro RSB Then I will ask the client to choose between these 3 framed shots. Seth for the keying problem, I easily fixed it by masking it out. I use Sony Vegas 7 for the editing, I don't think I have the matte function? Ok so the background media isnt the best for this situation, it is well noted. But I'm pretty happy about the skintone overall, tho I agree with Seth that the fill light should be closer to the camera. The only reason I put it there was to hold the 43"diam silver reflector. Thanks again guys!

March 5th, 2009, 11:07 AM	#34
Seth Bloombaum Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,420	A garbage matte can be done in vegas, but the tool is not integrated into Vegas' chromakeyer, it's part of clip pan/crop. Please see the tutorial in Vol. 3 Issue 3 of Edward Troxel's excellent newsletters regarding the Bezier Mask. The idea here is to put your clip to be keyed on the top video track, just as you have been. Apply the bezier mask - create nodes LOOSELY around your subject. You don't want her reaching outside of the mask. Following the tutorial, the default mask mode will turn everything outside your mask transparent, which is what you want. Now, with your background media on a lower track, apply the chromakey filter as you have previously. The filter is now keying only what is inside the garbage matte, what is outside the matte is 100% transparent, allowing background to show through. If my explanation isn't clear you should probably ask more questions over in the Vegas forum.