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What is a
"ChromaKey Background?"
A chromakey backdrop
is a solid-color backdrop of a special color tone that makes
it easy to select just the background or just the subject of
your image in order to isolate your subject and make the background
"disappear," or to easily "pluck" your subject
out of the image Why do we want to do that? Because in today's
age of computers and digital photography and digital videography
and movie making, we often want to make it look like our subject
is in a place or location other than they really are. Other times,
we may want a deep, solid black background or a pure, totally
white background (without having to arrange special lighting
setups and determine and use arcane camera settings to achieve
this optically). This technique is equally useful for moviemaking,
portraiture, and product photography (among others).
Just imagine the possibilities! A
client's child, holding a basketball and standing on the court
next to Shaq! Or maybe a girl in a bikini on a beautiful beach
in Hawaii at the golden moment of sunset. Or a diamond ring "floating"
in the air in front of the Milky Way, or an automobile on top
of a fabulous mesa in America's most beautiful National Parks.
Or an newbborn infant asleep in her father's hands with a solid
black background showing only the hands and the baby magically
suspended in a magnificent image. With these fabulous backdrops,
the only limit to what you can accomplish is your own imagination.
When you go to the movies and
see Spiderman or CatWoman (or, for the more mature among us,
Superman or Batman:), soaring over Metropolis or Gotham City,
and bouncing from skyscraper to skyscraper, in reality, they
are NOT "flying" above the city, but the SuperHero
is attached to wires (of the same green color as the chromakey
green background), soaring in front of a "green screen"
ChromaKey Background in a studio's sound stage! Then, the digital
artists delete the green chromakey backgrounds and the wires
holding the actors (on their computers), and then dropping in
image of a cityscape (or black, white, or any other conceivable
background image or color)! All the major studios use this technique
(as well as using special cameras that are "blind"
to certain colors), and there's no reason why we can't do so
as well!
And that's exactly why today's
photographers, videographers, and moviemakers use ChromaKey backgrounds
every day! ChromaKeys are of a tone of color that is very rare
in nature, and that makes it easy to select and differentiate
from whatever your subject might be.
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