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Old 01-19-2019, 05:21 PM
Standicz Standicz is offline
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Default video recording background

My dear fellow guitarists

could you help me choose some decent, preferably cheap, background for a video? We are a starting folk duo from South Bohemia, Czech Republic, and we want to shoot some basic video while we record in our rehearsal room so people can see how we look like.. If you want to get an idea of how we sound and look like, here is YT and our web page

I am looking for something darker, but not black.

If you have any thoughts, let me know, feedback appreciated becuse we are just starting.


Also, partly because I felt like stealing JakeStone's thread, I move the description of our rehearsal room here

So far, we only made auxiliary recordings when working on a song, but that might change soon, which I dread because the room is built almost like a concrete bunker... But we want to be able to record our 2 guitars and 2 voices in the comfort of our own space. I will try to get as much wisdom out of this forum as I can when that day comes.

With the band (clarinet, 2x sax, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, 3 voices, keyboard) we allways rent a studio with a technician, because it's way too much to handle.

here is a picture I took today in our rehearsal room, which is as allways complete mess..I might have overdone it a little bit but it was really terrible when it was empty. Echoing like a reverb chamber. Also I could not drill the walls for various reasons, hence the stands. I move free "pillows" as needed. It's not the prettiest rehearsal room in the world, we had a limited budget. but it works great for the whole Dark Blue Elephants band and it gets better as we add posters!





I allways liked how Tony Polecastro's videos look like, but I don't think we can afford it

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Last edited by Standicz; 01-19-2019 at 05:28 PM.
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Old 01-20-2019, 09:06 AM
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Having the background not be distracting is always a consideration in video's

Your space is doable but arguably you may want to consider getting at least 1/2 of the space more tidy ( US slang for more organized)

If you can get it organised then it may be good to go with just that.

Another approach that is not very expensive , is to use a cloth backdrop in either some neutral color or a bit more complex even bright green (if your video editing program has a "green screen" feature) depending on which editing program you use there may be youtube videos on specifically how to do green screen chroma keying with that particular software . One done you can drop in any photo or even video backdrop you want
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Old 01-20-2019, 09:15 AM
Standicz Standicz is offline
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Oh we will definitely organize that room first, by that I mean throw everybody's stuff out. Green screen is a great idea but I don't think I will be able to make the virtual background convincing or even undistracting in a video editor..We tried black cloth as background but didn't like the result.
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Old 01-20-2019, 09:38 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Standicz View Post
Oh we will definitely organize that room first, by that I mean throw everybody's stuff out. Green screen is a great idea but I don't think I will be able to make the virtual background convincing or even undistracting in a video editor..We tried black cloth as background but didn't like the result.
What exactly didn't you like about the black cloth ?

As for green screen If by convincing you mean as if you were actually in that space or location then yes that would be a challenge because a realistic depth perception using a backdrop and the cutout aspect of green screen is the tricky part . But the other approach is to make the backdrop part of the artistic feel or message, rather than a "Here we are playing inside the Taj Mahal" type situation


Another technique is to use a more diffuse more monochromatic type photo with a shallow depth of field which is also less distracting than a high contrast high definition type photo

Here I simply tried to have the backdrop help portray the story with no attempt to have it be convincing as to being there (one problem I have noticed is that if you do not bump up the Youtube tool selector to HD 720 or better yet 1080) there are some artifacts that show up on some transitions


Yikes I just realized I have the wrong name on the credit It's One Republic not New Republic guess I better go edit it (gotta love digital)
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Last edited by KevWind; 01-20-2019 at 09:45 AM.
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Old 01-20-2019, 10:40 AM
Standicz Standicz is offline
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It looks great! We might want to try that approach once we get a little fluid.

here is a black cloth that I did like because it fits the stage and also there is some depth to the scene.



but when we tried it in the room, it seemed unnatural and shallow. And the whole scene was too dark and kind of unfriendly. Insufficient lighting might be part of the problem.

What I'd like is something that would make people feel like they are in the room with us. These rockwool pillows all over the place really complicate that because they are such weird objects. But the walls are thick and made of stone, ceiling and floor is concrete so the stuffing is absolute necessity, and it works great! Except its ugliness. Maybe we should choose a different place for the recording altogether, or just try to move these stands out of the picture..?
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Old 01-20-2019, 10:53 AM
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Originally Posted by Standicz View Post
It looks great! We might want to try that approach once we get a little fluid.

here is a black cloth that I did like because it fits the stage and also there is some depth to the scene.



but when we tried it in the room, it seemed unnatural and shallow. And the whole scene was too dark and kind of unfriendly. Insufficient lighting might be part of the problem.

What I'd like is something that would make people feel like they are in the room with us. These rockwool pillows all over the place really complicate that because they are such weird objects. But the walls are thick and made of stone, ceiling and floor is concrete so the stuffing is absolute necessity, and it works great! Except its ugliness. Maybe we should choose a different place for the recording altogether, or just try to move these stands out of the picture..?
In the room feel is a perfectly valid goal
I agree a backdrop almost cannot help but give a shallow feel . And yes lighting could make a big difference. I am using my daughters photo studio lights in that video . There are a number of photo studio lighting kits starting at about $50 USD.... here is one from Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/CRAPHY-Photog...09372080&psc=1
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Old 01-20-2019, 11:49 AM
gfirob gfirob is offline
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First, I have always thought of black as death and it should be avoided as a video background. You should note that Tony's background is darker that he is (in terms of light intensity) and out of focus, which helps to separate him from the background.

If the foreground singers are lit and exposed 2 or 3 stops brighter than the background you are half the way there (Tony also has accent lights in the frame). Green screen can allow you to approximate this kind of separation if you shoot the background with the same lens you shoot the performance, matching the focus distance between the subject and the lens so that the background is out of focus (a longer-focal length lens helps with this).

If you use green screen you can choose exactly what you want that background to be and how the exposure should look, and it is technically simple to do on most editing programs (I use Final Cut Pro X). The simplest solution is a mottled gray photographer's background (cloth) and nice lighting in the foreground, but green screen gives you the most flexibility.
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Old 01-20-2019, 12:36 PM
Standicz Standicz is offline
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Originally Posted by gfirob View Post
If the foreground singers are lit and exposed 2 or 3 stops brighter than the background you are half the way there (Tony also has accent lights in the frame). Green screen can allow you to approximate this kind of separation if you shoot the background with the same lens you shoot the performance, matching the focus distance between the subject and the lens so that the background is out of focus (a longer-focal length lens helps with this).
I like that idea, maybe green screen really could be the way to navigate around the troubles with the scene.
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Old 01-20-2019, 02:05 PM
Standicz Standicz is offline
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Do you think green elastic bedcloth would do? They make some very green ones, it's cheap and cca 2x2 m.
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Old 01-20-2019, 05:26 PM
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Do you think green elastic bedcloth would do? They make some very green ones, it's cheap and cca 2x2 m.
I am not familiar with that but for example

here is a 9X15 green cotton sheet for $29 from amazon

https://www.amazon.com/LimoStudio-Ch...FN0VSQFMC361H3
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Old 01-21-2019, 09:10 AM
Standicz Standicz is offline
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I am not familiar with that but for example

here is a 9X15 green cotton sheet for $29 from amazon

https://www.amazon.com/LimoStudio-Ch...FN0VSQFMC361H3
It's hard to shop on amazon here in Europe...while their storehouses are in Czech Republic, employing thousands of Czech people, there is only "localized version" of german amazon web page but most stuff is either in german language (which I don't speak) or does not ship to Czech Rep., or it does but the shiping is xx extra € ...but I will try hard to find something like that here!

Oh but surprisingly I found some realy cheap options, I just hope no chinese kids were hurt in the proces.. I guess bright green is the best color..? They allways use bright green in the movies and since it's called green screen..
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Last edited by Standicz; 01-21-2019 at 09:19 AM.
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Old 01-21-2019, 09:45 AM
Johnny K Johnny K is offline
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Originally Posted by gfirob View Post
First, I have always thought of black as death and it should be avoided as a video background. You should note that Tony's background is darker that he is (in terms of light intensity) and out of focus, which helps to separate him from the background.



If you use green screen you can choose exactly what you want that background to be and how the exposure should look, and it is technically simple to do on most editing programs (I use Final Cut Pro X). The simplest solution is a mottled gray photographer's background (cloth) and nice lighting in the foreground, but green screen gives you the most flexibility.
I think the black works for Andy at Shut Up And Play Your Guitar. But's his material is so good, you dont really care about the back background.

I would love to do the green screen. I saw a drummer i follow on Instagram do it with "stars moving thru space" on green screen and it was pretty slick.
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Old 01-22-2019, 07:24 AM
Ty Ford Ty Ford is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Standicz View Post
It looks great! We might want to try that approach once we get a little fluid.

here is a black cloth that I did like because it fits the stage and also there is some depth to the scene.



but when we tried it in the room, it seemed unnatural and shallow. And the whole scene was too dark and kind of unfriendly. Insufficient lighting might be part of the problem.
Yes, lighting is hugely important. You need to blow or spill some light on the backdrop. Know as well that backdrops come in many colors. A softer grey might work. I prefer muslin over paper because muslin helps reduce sound reflections.

Here's my mottled grey backdrop. I'm exposing for the lighting I have on the guys, so the backdrop looks darker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_dcNXBCbKU

Here the same backdrop looks darker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1SttlS3llk

On this one, I set a small pink/red light behind Teporah to create a little halo on the same back drop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9-t4PmPzqo

Here's the same backdrop with more light spilled on the backdrop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pay2BfgkrZ8

Regards,

Ty

PS: Lighting is king!
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