Choose the correct back screen.

This is a very, very important rule! The color used for your backing screen should NOT be present in the subject. If a person is wearing a blue shirt and she is photographed against a blue backing screen, the shirt may seem to disappear when the blue background is removed.

At right, our model has blue eyes and is wearing a jean jacket. While Primatte can work around color similarities in a screen and subject, it would be smarter to simply avoid problems by photographing this model against a green screen.

Black, white and gray backing screens are often problematic because those colors are found in almost every foreground objec. Shadows are mostly composed of black. Highlights almost always contain white. And a value of gray is often lurking in another color. This makes pulling a key extremely difficult, since Primatte doesn't know what color to focus on for extraction.

At right, the white background picks up some of the lighter colors of the vase, like peach and pale green. It also matches the bright white highlights that reflect onto the vase from the lights used for the photoshoot.

Another color that is used, but you need to be careful of, is red. A red screen can get too tangled into the skin tones of human models. This is true for yellow and brown also. Blue and green are the best choices for photographing humans because these colors are least likely to be found in skin tones.

At right: While the screen in the photograph is well lit, its red color is too prominently found in the model's skin tones. This will cause a lot of issues during the masking process.

Use saturated color.

If possible, use a saturated color for your screen. For instance, a rich blue will always work better than light blue or turquoise. There are numerous screen products manufactured in the colors of 'Chromakey Blue' and 'Chromakey Green'.

A professional screen in Chromakey Blue provides a smooth, bright saturated background.

This screen was created with blue paint on a board. While Primatte works with this blue, the color is too washed out for professional shoots.

The screen we recommend.

Here at Digital Anarchy HQ, we have experimented with a number of blue and green screen solutions during our development of Primatte Chromakey.

What has worked the best for us is Chroma Key fabric. This foam-backed fabric comes in rolls that are 60" wide, is sold by the yard, and comes in blue or green. It's manufactured by Velcro.

The foam absorbs light, which cuts down reflection on your model. When our subjects are photographed against this Chromakey fabric, we have experienced very little color spill and Primatte quickly pulls a great mask.

You can buy this material through photo supply houses like Film Tools and Chroma-key.com. Digital Anarchy does NOT sell this material or make royalties from its sale. We just think it is a good product.

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You can buy house paint in bright medium green or bright medium blue. Just go to any Home Depot or Kellys Paint. We painted sheets of wood with green for some of our earliest experiments. This is a cheap solution, however, and you get what you pay for. The background can be dull and may not light very well. There is also specialty chroma-blue and chroma-green paint available which surely works better but is more expensive.

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We also experimented with shiny blue photographic paper that hung horizontally in a long roll. This is light to carry, rolls easily, and is quite portable. It has a very reflective surface, however, which can cause color spill.

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The company Photoflex.com makes a line of chromakey products called FLEXDROP2. If you work on location, these are great for portability because they are light and two-sided (green/ blue). These products also can't develop wrinkles (whose dark colors can throw off the color model of chromakey software). In our tests, they were not very light absorbent, which may generate a lot of color spill.