Transforming Your Portrait Business with Chroma Key Techniques
“When I suggested to my clients that they have me put them in an impressionist style painting, they looked at me like I had a screw loose, but when they saw the finished image, they were amazed!”, related one Chicago area photographer. “And I’m pretty pleased to see the increase in my business as a result of green screen photography and the new visual effects I have at my fingertips thanks to Green Screen Wizard software.”
Like many professional photographers, Sam was running his portrait business pretty much the same way he had for years, using a number of backdrops in his studio setting and counting on being able to deal with all the variables and uncontrollables when he goes on location.
All photographers have experienced the challenges of shooting outside the studio, even at familiar locations. When you rely on good weather or lighting that you can’t control, often the unexpected happens. Worst of all is when the issue doesn’t show itself until after the event when it’s impossible to go back and re-shoot!
This is why photographing your subjects in a studio environment is so advantageous.
With Green Screen Photography You’ll Photograph Your Subject in a Set Up You Control
Clearly the most important advantage associated with green screen photography, especially with portrait photography, is the controlled environment of the green screen studio set up. As any photographer knows, anytime you’re able to shoot your subject in the studio, the more control you have over lighting.
Once you’ve captured your subject against the green screen backdrop, with the use of the software and background images, the real creativity begins.
First, here’s the story of how another photographer saved the day with green screen techniques when an outdoor wedding ceremony didn’t go as planned…
“I thought my wedding day was ruined when the dark clouds and rain rolled in,” related new bride, Sandra Samuels, “But our photographer had a plan…” she continued. “Since his studio wasn’t too far out of the way, we made a stop there on the way to the reception. He had us pose in front of the green screen — it was pretty fun at the time and we had no idea what the final pictures would look like. Then a week or so later, the portraits we received were unbelievable — and we were able to cherish our precious day forever!”
Sandra’s photographer had seen a chance of storms in the forecast and set up his studio with his green screen backdrop before leaving for the ceremony. When the wedding party arrived at the studio, he was able to quickly get the shots he needed so they could be on their way to the reception. Then that week, when the weather cleared up, he went out to the park where they had the ceremony and took some background shots. With his green screen software, it was a snap for him to produce realistic images showing the bride and groom at the park on a beautiful day.
Recreating cherished event settings is one way photographers are using green screen techniques to transform their portrait businesses. Additional applications are practically endless for the event portrait photographer, including photo products for businesses, schools, sports, clubs, religious groups, dance & martial arts studios, and more.
Offer Your Clients the World Stage without Going Outside Your Studio
The obvious benefit with green screen photography is your ability to place your subject in just about any setting imaginable — and to do so without leaving the confines of your studio! Using green screen or chroma key techniques will save you both time and money. With one photo shoot you can use the magic of green screen software to place your subject in front of endless backgrounds and locations that could cost thousands to travel to.
With most green green software you can use just about any image that you have rights to use as the replacement background. Many photographers who do extensive portrait work using chroma key techniques have dedicated a lot of time to build up their libraries of background images. They go out to locations for the sole purpose of taking background shots or they arrive early or stay after a location shoot in order to capture the images that will work with green screen subjects. You never know when you’ll come across a great texture or real life backdrop, so be on the lookout for these opportunities.
Of course there are images available on line you can use, typically for a licensing fee — just be sure you observe any copyright protections. And there are a number of background image libraries available for purchase, including popular photo backgrounds and image overlays available from Green Screen Wizard.
How Special Effects can Impress Your Clients and Expand Your Business
Utilizing green screen photography in order to open up endless background and location possibilities is one major advantage of chroma key techniques. While this capability alone is not only economical for the photographer and exciting for clients, but when you use the right green screen software — the only one that also provides simple to use, yet impressive special effects, you can really ‘Wow!” your clients.
With the latest release of Green Screen Wizard Pro Version 9.0, photographers and graphic designers have some amazing, new special effects they can easily apply to their images, including: Framing, Advanced Silhouettes, Reflections, Smoothing, Texture, and Lighting. The image above shows the artistic results that can be quickly achieved using Green Screen Wizard Pro’s Reflections and Texture effects.
This is a screen capture of the new Green Screen Wizard Pro 8 Special Effects Control Panel, with intuitive icons, slider controls and full preview capabilities.
Even with little graphic design experience, we find photographers easily pick up on how to use these effects to create stunning images their clients fall in love with! Learn more about the new feature and other enhancements released in the new Green Screen Wizard Pro Version 9.0.
Earning a living as a photographer, especially a portrait photographer can be extremely challenging. Sure, you’re confident your technical and creative skills are top notch and you have a steady stream of clients — still your profitability is not what you envisioned when you started your photography business.
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Fortunately, just because you’re using green screen images, which obviously requires you to add a the image environment, doesn’t mean that you have to spend an inordinate amount of time in post production.