Quick Tip: DaVinci Resolve Chroma Key on Color Page

by Florian GintenreiterMay 2^nd, 2020

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Chroma Key is used everywhere these days, but it can still be a humbling experience to properly pull a key if you‘re not doing it all day for a living. If you are working in the Studio version of Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve you do have one of the best Keyers in the world at your fingertips.
But working the Fusion page is not for everyone. Don‘t fret — there is a decent Chroma Key hidden in DaVinci Resolve‘s Color page.

When Blackmagic introduced the 3D qualifier to DaVinci Resolve I was impressed by how much better it was to select ranges of colors for secondary color correction, compared to the old qualifier algorithms.

What I did not realize at first was that you could use the 3D qualifier to pull chromakeys. Turns out: you can!

And boy does it work well!

Check out this Quick Tip Video, where I‘ll show you how this works.

A few Tips on Shooting Greenscreen

Of course, the results of a chroma key depend on the quality of the footage you are trying to key. To get keyable footage, keep these things in mind:

• Use the highest possible quality your camera can record — maybe rent an external recorder if the internal codec is weak.
• Use the proper shade of highly saturated green or blue as a background. Just simple green cardboard does not cut it.
• Light the subject and the screen separately
• Put a Kicker-Light on the hair of your talent. Put a quarter or half CTO gel on it.
• Light the green screen as evenly as possible to about 40% brightness.
• Get as much distance between your talent and the screen as possible
• Make sure your white balance is correct
• Use Greenscreen over Bluescreen whenever possible. Digital cameras usually compress the blue channel the most and that’s exactly where you need information when keying Bluescreen.

If you have questions, requests or ideas for future Quick Tip Videos, please write in the comments.