Picture Resolution
We are producing three green-screen shoots in the next two weeks, and our goal is to shoot DSLR.
This camera outputs H.264 video compressions with 4:2:0 color space, which can sometimes make postproduction compositing tricky, as you substitute the green with some other background. While there are many techniques to handling this compression format during the edit, like transcoding your footage beforehand, and using different filters to help maximize image quality, there is another very simple step you can take.
Depending on the orientation of your subject, and if your talent remains relatively stationary, you can increase the resolution of your subject simply by turning the camera 90 degrees. If your subject fills more of the frame vertically than they do horizontally, you’re capturing more 1s and 0s of the information you want – your subject, and fewer wasted chroma green pixels. If you were to shoot a largely vertical subject with horizontal framing, the first thing an editor will do, before pulling a key, will be to crop out a lot of unused green real estate to the left and right of your talent! Shooting vertically will maximize the information you capture of your subject, and this will help you pull a superior key and overcome typical green-screen challenges, like maintaining clear details around the edge of your subject. This can be especially true when keying the talent’s hair.
We love simple math.