Green screens are among some of the most widely used tools in the broadcasting industry. Officially known as "Chroma keying," the technique has been used in many fields to remove backgrounds from the subject of a photo or video – particularly in the newscasting, motion picture, and video game industries, according to Wikipedia.
So why do you need it and how can you use it? Let's figure this out together!
How Does a Green Screen Work?
Broadcast productions, news stations, and content creators use green or blue screens as a solid background to customize the way they look on screen. Green screen software checks the video for green or blue tones and replaces them with any image or video.
Why green or blue screens? The answer is simple: it doesn’t match natural skin color and is easier to remove without essential parts of a picture being affected. As a result, we have beautiful special effects organically integrated with movie characters on screen that wow the audience.
You may wonder: how is this connected to our streaming setups?
The answer is quite simple: similarly, you may use a green screen to create professional backgrounds for your meetings or streams without spending thousands of dollars on a setup.
What Do You Need to Use Chroma Key Compositing?
- A PC or other device that you can stream from, broadcasting tools like Talk Studio, and an external camera
- A light source - a natural one if you stream during the day. Additional lighting may be needed to have solid, even background
- Live streaming software of your choice
- Green or blue screen background.
But the most important ingredient is you!
How To Livestream Using a Green Screen
Connect to your streaming software once you have a green screen background behind you and lights on. General steps:
- Open your broadcasting software or studio.
- Click on the green screen or camera settings. Depending on the app you use, you might find it under different settings.
- Enable green screen. In some cases, your broadcasting software might capture it automatically once you have a green screen and uploaded assets.
- Upload the background. Pick the virtual background from the library or upload your own assets.
- Tune it. Some applications might have fade or tune options. Configure these based on your light and background color.
- Start streaming! Once all is set and you added a video to your canvas, go live and enjoy the outcome.
Using a Green Screen for Your Zoom Meetings
What if you don’t need a green screen for live shows but want to look even more professional during your work meetings? Green screens are a perfect solution here, too. Using Zoom, we will show you how to set it up for your business calls:
- Open Zoom and start or join a meeting.
- Click on the arrow next to the camera icon and go to Video Settings.
- Navigate to Background and Filters.
- Enable “I have a green screen” and pick the background from the library or upload your own by clicking on the + icon.
- Once enabled, Zoom will display your new background. Enjoy the call!
Set Up a Green Screen with Talk Studio
You and your guests can easily stream or have a meeting on Talk Studio with a green screen. Many folks use Talk Studio to add backgrounds with specific branding or recreate particular environments. Let’s check how to enable and customize your background with a few clicks:
- From your Talk Studio,
- On your right side click Menu to Video.
- Under the Green screen section, toggle on Enable Green Screen - you will see Green Screen On at the bottom of your Talk Studio highlighted in green.
- Select from either a “Green” or “Blue” screen.
- Now it’s time to select your virtual background - pick one from our library or upload your own. (PNG, JPEG formats accepted with recommended resolution 1920*1080 px.)
Conclusion
A lot more people started using green screens recently as they are a powerful yet affordable way to customize your background. Regardless of your live streaming encoder or software selection, a green screen is a must-have to customize your background for a professional look at meetings or during live shows.
If you run into any issues or have any questions, you can reach out to [email protected].