Chroma keying in Photoshop- problems with reflection

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I took a few head shots for a friend recently. We were going to do it outside around or downtown area, but due to inclement weather had to use a green screen last minute. It was evenly lit, but between the light and the green, the color reflected on his head. (The subject was bald) How can I chroma key effectively and remove the green coloring from his head?

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I’ve tried the wand in PS and color range. When removing the green, the color reflected on the subject’s head around the sides and somewhat on the top. How can I fix that in PS? Also what are some ways to color correct his skin tone, he came out a little on the red side in some of the shots?

Answer

Alright well first off I wouldn’t use the Magic Wand or Color Range. For something like this:

  1. Go into Channels (it’s attached to the Layer Panel by default)
  2. Select the Blue Channel which will give you the most contrast. Now the pants and skin are about the darkest things, the shirt is by far the lightest thing, and the background is a midtone.
  3. Duplicate the Blue Channel
  4. Now you can use Curves or Levels to bump the contrast a little more
  5. Select > Focus Area and change the output to Layer Mask
  6. Now go ahead and change your Channels back to the RGB image by deselecting that Blue Channel Copy.
  7. You should now have a Layer Mask in your Layer Panel. Notice the box around the Mask on the right, not the Photo on the left. To do that just click on the mask portion of the layer in the layer panel.

Layer Mask

  1. Use a Brush to do some cleanup particularly around the feet which wasn’t as good of contrast. You’ll also want to get rid of the gaps in the arms. I used Magic Wand for those holes and then again Brush for some find touch

  2. Now on the layer panel click the actual photo so you’re no longer on the Layer Mask. (You might even want to duplicate it at this point to have a copy)

  3. Edit > Matting > Decontaminate Colors

Before:

Decontaminate 1

After:

Decontaminate 2

  1. Time to get dirty with manual fixing. Create a new layer.
  2. Select Clone Stamp S
  3. Make sure it’s set to Sample All Layers on the top:

Stamp 1

  1. Using a soft brush (I use around 65% Hardness with Wacom pressure for size) touch up the problem areas on the face. I’d suggest using new layers for different areas so its easier to manipulate and gives you more control later:

Stamp 2

  1. I only did the top right of the head so obviously there’s still quite a bit of green in other portions, but here’s a quick look at how it can get:

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You might want to look into Professional Portrait Retouching for Photographers by Scott Kelby. It’s a great resource for stuff like this.

Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Brittney , Answer Author : Ryan

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