The girls thought it would be fun to dress up in their Princess dresses today, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to play with the Impact 5×7 Collapsible Chromakey Background.
(If you missed it, check out the Impact 5×7 Collapsible Chromakey Green & Chromakey Blue Background Unboxed & Initial Impressions video I posted on YouTube a couple weeks ago).
I did a pretty simple set-up as you can see in the above photo I grabbed with my Samsung S5. It’s one Nikon SB-26 speedlight in a Neewer 32″ Softbox with S-Type Speedlight bracket on a small lightstand in my living room. As you can see, the Christmas tree is still up. š
You can see the back-side of the softbox a little more clearly in this second photo, including the Nikon SB-26 and wireless remote receiver attached to it. The Chromakey background is leaning against a heavy-duty lightstand.
In the above shot, you can see the image as it looked before I added the chromakey effect in Photoshop. I kept the softbox head-on to my subject and shot pretty much the same angle to avoid any shadows on the chromakey background, something you definitely don’t want when working with chromakey.
I used the Panasonic G7 with the Panasonic 25mm f1.7 lens for all the photos you see here. LOVE that little 25mm f1.7!
I then used the “Select – Color Range” option in Photoshop to do the heavy lifting on the background removal. A little additional touch-up work, and the first image at the top of this post is the result.
The second image you see above is the same image with a different background image dropped in on a layer. It’s really easy to do a bunch of different looks once you’ve got the initial chromakey removal work done.
Here’s another pose as shot before the chromakey effect is applied. I just asked Lilly to keep giving me different Princess poses, and she was happy to oblige. š
On this shot, I cropped in heavily into a head shot because the green was really bleeding through the translucent part of the dress. No biggie, but something to bear in mind next time I’m shooting Princesses on green screen.
Over-all, I was pleased with the way these turned out, and, more importantly, Lilly was THRILLED! It was fun seeing the look on her face when she first saw them, and then the subsequent questions about how I did that.
I could probably fiddle with the edge around the hairline a bit more, but it doesn’t look bad from a viewing distance. Certainly nothing a non-photographer would notice.
I will probably also do another shoot with a similar set-up but using more lights. My standard green screen set-up for the Art of the Image YouTube channel is with two main lights, camera left and camera right, at approximately 45 degree angles to the subject (me), and two more lights from camera left and camera right, above and behind. The rear lights keep my hair and skin from going wonky colors due to reflected light off the green screen.
The Impact 5×7 Collapsible Chromakey Background is convenient and easy to work with. I love how fast the set-up is, and then how easy it is to tear down and fold away. The quality is great and collapsing it is very easy once you get the hang of it after a time or two.
I purposely did this shoot with just the single speedlight in a softbox as I wanted to see what the results would look like (plus, it was a LOT easier to set-up). I’m happy with the results. For quick and easy chromakey work, I think it looks pretty good. More importantly, Princess Lilly LOVED it. š
Stay tuned as Princess Ella is up next for more chromakey examples using the Impact 5×7 Collapsible Chromakey Background!
Camera Gear Used & Discussed in this Article:
Impact 5×7 Collapsible Chromakey Background
Neewer 32″ Softbox with S-Type Speedlight bracket
Neewer Wireless Trigger & Remote Receiver
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