This tutorial will walk you through how to create a green screen photo in PBU, with examples and graphics files for you to download. This tutorial should be used in addition to our existing tutorials, as we'll only cover the basics of creating a green screen photo.
We'll be making two green screens in PBU, and allowing guests to select one or the other before taking their photo. The two green screens we're going to make are:
First thing to do is download background and overlay files for these two green screens, which you can do HERE for the Halloween green screen, and HERE for the blue and yellow colored green screen. There are multiple choices for the colored green screen, and you're free to use any of them, but we're going to use option 3 in this tutorial. Make sure you get both the background and overlay!
1.
Open PBU Settings by pressing S on the main screen, and then click the Green Screen tab at the top.
2.
In the Green Screen tab, click Create New Green Screen.
3.
In the new window, the first thing to do is give your green screen a name. Always give everything you make in PBU a name! Click in the Name field and type Haunted Halloween.
4.
Click the Browse button to the right of Background Image File, and select your Haunted Halloween background file.
5.
Click the Browse button to the right of Overlay Image File, and select your Haunted Halloween overlay file.
Your screen should now look something like this:
6.
Click OK at the bottom of the window.
A note about the OK button: Think of it as a SAVE button instead. If you hit Cancel, any changes you've made in the open window will not be saved.
7.
You should now see the Haunted Halloween green screen thumbnail in the list at the bottom of the screen.
8.
Now let's make the second green screen. Follow steps 2-6 again, but this time name it Blue & Yellow, and import the background and overlay for the blue and yellow green screen.
9.
Back in the main green screen window, let's set our Chroma key settings. Right above the box on the right that's labeled Chromakey Settings, select DSLR.
Notice that there are two options at the top of the settings box: one for Live view and one for Photo. You have to make sure to adjust the settings for BOTH of them! Otherwise your live view will look good, but your photos won't, or vice versa.
10.
Click the color field next to Key color and you should see a bunch of different colors to pick from. It isn't ideal to choose one of those because it's better to be more specific with the color. Click the Advanced button.
11.
You'll see 4 sliders for RGBA. Set the R (red) value to 0, the G (green) value to 255, the B (blue) value to 0, and leave A (alpha) at 255. It should look like this:
That will leave you with a super green color that is best for chroma keying.
12.
Click Photo at the top, then set the same RGBA values for the Key color as you did for live view.
Now we have to adjust Threshold and Softness. Threshold will determine how much color is removed, and Softness will soften the edges. Gray is only used if you want keep shadows, so it's usually left at 0.
13.
Click the thumbnail for one of the green screens, and you'll see it appear in the Green Screen Preview box on the left.
14.
Stand in front of your green screen, and click Update Photo Preview. You should see yourself appear in the preview.
15.
Move the Threshold slider to about 47. You should see the green disappear and leave only you in front of the background. You might need to adjust it a little to get it just right.
16.
Move the Softness slider to between 5 and 8. This will soften the edges, but too much will make the subject disappear.
17.
Click Live view at the top of the Chromakey Settings box, and adjust Threshold and Softness to about the same values as you did for photo. You might need to click Update Live Preview to have a good image to work with.
18.
Now we have to make the two green screens selectable by the guests. In the Green Screen Mode box, select User Select. Then, click the Select buttons that are on each of the thumbnails:
19.
Click OK at the bottom of the screen, and you can start taking photos with your green screens!
20.
Click Photo on the main screen, and you'll see the two green screens you made at the bottom of the screen. Select the one you want and click Take Photo.