How to properly use a green screen and mask for my podcast

Question

Hey all. Just getting into Premiere and After Effects. I got a greenscreen, and have been looking to figure out how to make it happen.

Question - What is the easiest and quickest way for me to green screen myself? I've been on a super-budget so i'm having to use regular lights and work with that, but I just noticed that Premiere really just quickly changes the background with what i've got.

I'm curious. I didn't realize Premiere was this capable with a green screen, it's really quite profound. I had been going into After Effects and trying to rotoscope myself with AI out of the picture, but it seemed extremely time-consuming and i'm now realizing that I may be using the wrong tool.

I had sort of assumed the AI technology had surpassed the green screen, but then I got an intuition to just turn on the Ultra key in Premiere and look at my video and I was stunned at how quickly and easily it picked everything up, including my shadows with only a little bit of green bleed from my less-than-perfect-lighting.

So my question is this - In the screenshot i'm sharing, i'm standing in front of the green screen, yet there are moments when my arm goes outside it's borders and i'm wondering -

a) Is there a way to use a mask to clean up what's outside the green screen and still keep my arm in there?
b) Are there other ways I can easily use the green screen and speed up my productions? At this point it seems like i should put it behind me when I sit at the computer but I also like standing and moving about so i'm figuring it out. I don't have perfect lighting yet, and am amassing understanding on how chroma keying works in general and asking for techniques.

Bonus question - In terms of a podcast where the background is behind my chair and consists of my piano, is there any easy way in Premiere to bokeh out the distractions behind me (assuming i'm using the computer video, my iPhone w/a ring light, and not using the green screen behind me)

Thank you in advance. Getting it. Figuring it out.

R Neil Haugen · Answer

The first issue with green screens is getting your lighting on that screen absolutely even. It needs to be stretched so there are  wrinkles of folds with shadows, and evenly lit side to side, and top to bottom. Using a light meter to check this is pretty easy, and used light meters are cheap on ebay these days. Your eyes aren't nearly as accurate at this as a meter. Next necessary bit is separation between the screen and the 'talent', which in this case, is you. If you're too close to the screen, you get green bounced onto you ... bad, bad, bad ...  One of the ways to counter that is to have lights from the side of the screen pointed at you ... just strong enough to be brighter than any 'green bounce' ... it gives a bit of clean separation and edge to you. I don't see many using this technique, no clue why. cheap lights ... like a light bulb in a metal reflector from a hardware store ... can do this and it makes for a lot less need to clean up "in post". As to the background including more than the screen ... yea, this if often done in professional shoots, where part of the image is green or blue screened. But they're going to have pro level workers handling the fill & feathering of image parts. So I don't recommend doing that until you are really good at roto work. Green screens are available pretty cheap these days, you should be able to easily have one large enough to completely cover the background.

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