Shoot RAW Stills While Filming To Create Matte Paintings

When I shoot video I like keeping things simple but after watching this tutorial, I feel like I may have to use this technique in my next production.

Instead of lighting a stationary background to perfection, why not take a few RAW images and create the perfect setting in Photoshop.



Lee Morris's picture

Lee Morris is a professional photographer based in Charleston SC, and is the co-owner of Fstoppers.com

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14 Comments

ummmmm.....this may sound silly...but is there supposed to be audio with this?

@McKinley,

There's no sound.

Nice tutorial for videographers.

Cheers

This is great. A few suggestions:

1. Don't save in PNG, it's only used for web graphics and not optimized for photos. This is really only important if you're taking photographs, but it helps to learn best practices.
2. Use the masking option instead of erasing, so you can go back if you make a mistake.
3. Erase with subtler edges so it's not obvious where the matte begins and ends.

Hope this helps.

I don't how this technique works for the last examples!
Where the clouds are moving, and there is movement all over. As I see it, the idea is to make the path of the moving objects transparant, but in the shot with cars and planes, that would be easy visible - or???!

I don't get, ofcause :-)

Yes. This will get used.
@Edward... what other file format is there that saves transparent areas?

Yes. This will get used.
@Edward... what other file format is there that saves transparent areas?

Amazing! Something I def want to try on a future project!

Everything was ok except last step. Can you explain the reason using Cineform NeoHD and change everything to cold colors?
btw: I accept subtitles if there is no sound, but quality is worst and for beginners is hard to understand which menu/option was used.

INCREDIBLE! The moment I saw it I was like, of course! I've seen this done on plenty of behind the scene dvd's even as far back as Bladerunner! Whole sets can be extended, redesigned, added, subtracted... Very inspiring.

Thank you so much for sharing!
Great tutorial!!

Can't wait to try this out!

Thank you so much for sharing!
Great tutorial!!

Can't wait to try this out!

brilliant!.... verdy nice! verdy nice indeed!!! just like Hollywood! Will definitely use this technique ....THANK YOU THANK YOU FSTOPPERS!!!!! ......my heros ;)

Only one problem.... shadows in the foreground when the actor passes in front of them. The tree trunks (from the base) are casting a shadow on the grass, shouldn't the actor?

Otherwise, a sound technique.