Which Green Screen Software is Best for Photographers

These days the professional photographer who is looking for the best chroma key software has a number of choices. So let’s take a look at the green screen software features most important to those who make their living producing stunning images for their clients — and which software delivers best on what photographers need to expand their businesses…

Professional photographers demand state-of-the-art when it comes to technology, especially software – and there are significant differences between the green screen software available today.

Of course the most critical feature for any green screen removal process is the algorithm used to separate your subject from the background down its finest component – a human hair! Each software product on the market uses its own proprietary algorithm to accomplish this process.

In addition to that, since no one has yet created the absolutely perfect algorithm, the software also needs to have the ability to make critical adjustments easily and accurately to allow the professional to create a truly realistic and desirable image for the client.

With the recent release of Green Screen Wizard Pro Version 9.0 for both Windows and MAC, this is one powerful tool for the demanding professional. Its Reality Integration™ proprietary algorithm is way ahead of the competition in its ability to zero-in on background areas and remove them from your green screen image. The original algorithm was first released in 2007 and has been refined and made more powerful and accurate five times since then. This is why Green Screen Wizard Pro outshines the others with its highly advanced removal process.

Fully-Integrated Airbrush Editor Brings Out the Finest Hair

Green Screen Wizard Pro’s Airbrush Editor puts 15 amazing brushes at your fingertips – each designed to enhance and make more realistic the removal and restoration process, as well as simple ways to expertly embellish your images.

The proprietary chroma key removal algorithm already does an amazing job separating hair from the green background, but with the with a wave of your mouse you can restore even the finest hairs — as pictured on the before and after pictures above.

Other powerful airbrushes will easily help you to adjust green areas of your subject like a bride’s bouquet, fix green screen shadows, blend layers for transparent areas like glass and veils and even make your subjects look years younger with the smoothing brush.

New Special Effects Functions Super-Power Your Post-Production

With the addition of the seven new Special Effects functions, Green Screen Wizard Pro 8.0 takes chroma key software to an entirely new level of performance. Quite simply, there is no other product available that can touch the overall functionality of this software. Just look what you and your designer can do during the post production of your green screen images.

The new Special Effects available with the release of Version 8.0 include:

Add Reflections

This is one fun and powerful feature! Take a look at the image at the beginning of this blog post — we used the Add Reflections special effect to produce it. And despite the incredibly realistic result, it was a snap to create. You have total control too — change the size, angle, transparency and texture of the reflection with simple sliders. You’ll fool even the sharpest eye with this effect. They’ll never believe it’s a chroma key image!

Lighting Effects

Critical to a successful background removal is the ability to achieve clean edges in your green screen photos. To accomplish this, it’s important that your lighting is even, so you’re not creating shadows on your green backdrop. You can also try using available ambien light as we discuss in Simple Steps to Mastering Green Screen Photography.

So what do you do when your final image requires some additional lighting to create a dramatic effect? The answer is now at your fingertip with the new Lighting Effects.

You’ll be able to choose from a number of lighting effect types such as sheet, circle or cone lighting. You can control the amount of start and end light applied and even add a white or black glow around the foreground image. Use the Shadow Generator feature to create a background shadow to enhance the realism as you can see was done in the middle image above.

Advanced Silhouette

In addition to classic black silhouettes Version 8.0 gives you the ability to change the color of the silhouette and also replace the black in the silhouette with any image. The results can be stunning and very artistic. The Advanced Silhouette special effects is a simple and quick way to produce unique, personalized art for your clients.

Skin Smoothing

Who doesn’t want to have younger looking skin? Version 9.0 has a proprietary smoothing algorithm built into the Skin Smoothing special effect. With a few strokes of your mouse, watch fine lines and age spots disappear. Your clients will be overjoyed to see themselves looking years younger. Don’t be surprised if they order more reprints or ask you to use the same image with additional backgrounds!

Black & White and Sepia

With this effect you can make your foreground and/or your background Black and White or vintage Sepia. This special effect is becoming very popular these days, especially combining the back and white with a color image. With this software, you can quickly change the images from color to black and white, and back again — so you can easily judge the impact of this special effect.

Framing Options

With the release of Green Screen Wizard Pro 9.0, the Framing Options have been simplified, yet made much more powerful.

Now the software can generate four frame types: Square, Oval, Heart, and Jagged. You can pick a color from the palette or even use an image for the frame — or a texture can be added to any frame. There’s even a second frame overlay that lets you create even more variations.

And as shown in the middle image above, one of the more unique features is the Blur Frame that lets you use the background of the image as a source for frame content.

Add Artistic Texture

One of the most unique and popular special effects is Artistic Texture. By adding artistic texture to an image, you can change an ordinary photo into a work of art. Rather than posing for a painter for hours and spending hundreds of dollars or more, your clients can come to your studio for a simple photo shoot. Then you can use the latest version of Green Screen Wizard software to create a very flattering artistic/painted effect. The software even allows you to slightly distort the image, resulting in an ‘impressionistic’ look and feel that is sure to get the “Wow!” reaction.

Learn more about Green Screen Wizard Pro Version 9.0 for both Windows and MAC. Currently, photographers who purchase the software also receive  4 Special Effects Background Image Collections FREE — that’s over 260 quality images!

Simple Steps to Mastering Green Screen Photography

The principle behind green screen photography magic is fairly simple, but harnessing this powerfully creative tool, even for the seasoned photographer and graphic designer, can be challenging.

To get you started out right, let’s first explore the basic concepts behind green screen photography and the software used to achieve the magic — also called chroma key software.

The first thing you’ll need to do green screen photography is a green screen backdrop. These screens can be as simple as a green plastic sheet (though we don’t recommend shiny plastic) to an expensive fabric screen on a specialized background stand. Chroma key techniques are so popular today that many photographers, videographers and filmmakers have even transformed or built entire studios using ‘green’ backgrounds exclusively.

Avoiding Shadows on the Green Background is Critical

Setting up the correct lighting situation is very important with any photographic set up and shooting against a green screen is no different. The most important thing to keep in mind is to avoid creating shadows on your backdrop. This will result in different shades of green in your background and can affect the software’s ability to properly remove those areas — as you can see happened in the example below. Also be sure there are no creases or folds in your backdrop as they will show up as shadows as well.

The image above on the left was shot with a direct flash. The harsh shadow makes complete green screen removal nearly impossible. When the background is replaced as it has been on the right, the shadows show up as black areas in the final image. One way to avoid these shadows is to use an on-camera flash with a diffuser to soften the shadows.

With Green Screen Wizard software there are some great tools to help you remove unwanted green screen shadows, but the best approach is to avoid creating these shadows in the first place.

Find a spot next to a window that’s generating plenty of ambient light as we show in the set up above. An outdoor set up is another way to utilize ambient light in order to avoid shadows. Find a shady spot on a bright, sunny day and you’ll have all the ambient light you need. Plus, it’s the least expensive set up!

Place your subject in front of the backdrop and when setting up the shot, be sure the green background fills the entire frame. Stand close to your subject or zoom-in.

Working with Green Screen Software

Upload your image to your computer and using your green screen software, bring in your new image. This is step one in performing the all-important step of removing the background. Below is our image loaded into Green Screen Wizard software. You perform this first step by selecting “Load Foreground”. Once you select the desired subject image press “OK” and now the foreground image is loaded. At this point the image looks just like it did in the camera — an image of a women standing against a green screen.

To perform the real green screen special effect you will also need a background image or images. With Green Screen Wizard software you can use most image formats for your backgrounds, it is not necessary to purchase backgrounds, however many professional photographers use the specialized Green Screen Wizard background collections.

Now go ahead and load a background image by pressing “Load Background”. This brings up another open dialogue and you can select any background image. In this example we’ve selected a photo of an aqueduct in Mexico. Pressing “OK” brings the background image into Green Screen Wizard, and also tells the software to run its chroma key removal algorithm which then merges the background with the foreground as shown below.

That’s all there is to it — the specialized software does all the work! All the areas of the foreground photo that were green, are replaced by the background image. In future posts, we’ll explore in much greater depth, how to unleash the full power of the software which can perform very sophisticated retouching and special effects. You’ll learn how to handle such challenges of thin hair that lets some of the green through, a bride that is holding green flowers, removing shadows or wrinkles on your green screen, and much more.

Let’s try another background. Doing this is a snap. This time we’ll put our subject in a woodland scene. Do this by choosing another background image and pressing “Load Background” and “OK” and presto, she’s been transported to an entirely new scene!

Or use the power of Green Screen Wizard Pro to put your subject in the image by using a Sandwich Overlay. The result is very realistic as you can see below!

All you need to do now is to save your image. Perform this final step by selecting “Save” and Green Screen Wizard will bring up the save dialogue so you can save the image onto your computer.

That’s all there is to it! In just minutes you’ve already mastered the basic steps of green screen photography magic. But this is just the beginning, especially if you are using Green Screen Wizard software which provides the professional photographer and designer with exclusive special effects tools that allow for practically unlimited creativity. Bottom line is your clients will be amazed and you’ve just added a specialized service that will surely expand your photography business.