Deciding on backdrop for making YouTube videos

Question

I am new to recording videos. My room is cluttery and I want to hide all that clutter under a backdrop. I have watched some videos on YouTube but I am still not sure of what I need. From the videos I saw on YouTube I believe the best option is using fabric backdrops. Though, I have realized there are types of fabric backdrops. There is a the muslin backdrops and there is the non-woven backdrops. Also, on amazon I have found seamless fabric. I am not sure what that is. On YouTube people say that non-woven is bad for closeup product shooting. I have realized why after I saw the visible pattern of non-woven cloth in videos. Anyway, here and here are the seamless fabrics I am talking about.

Also, here is the non-woven:

Here are my requirements. I need a green backdrop for replacing it with different colors to have a variety of (realistic) backgrounds. I will be sitting in a chair recording the videos using a webcam placed on the laptop screen right in front of me (on top of it). The distance between my body and the laptop is around 1 meter. The backdrop will be placed 1 meter behind me (I want my video to have a wide angle not closeup angle. I am not sure if I am using the terminology right but to clarify I do not want the camera to be very close to my body). I want the backdrop to cover everything behind me. My room is very wide. I do not want it to be transparent. I have decided to save on buying a backdrop stand (I am on a very tight budget). I will be using two adhesive hooks plus a line between them and I will place the backdrop on the line (if that is problematic please let me know).

What backdrop do I go for? Also, what dimensions should I go for? I have noticed that on some videos people go for small size green backdrop and then hide what is not covered by the backdrop using video editing software like the guy from this video.

I want what is behind me to as realistic as possible. I do not want what is behind me to look as fake as images in the video above. Any background color is fine as long as it is realistic.

Answer 1

I see this as equally applicable to still & video. In either case the quality of the camera is going to partly drive the decision.

You decide on the size you need by checking the field of view in your camera. You need something larger than the camera can see.

If you have the green screen properly lit & far enough behind you that it's out of focus, it won't matter what material it's made from. If you can't get it out of focus then you need one that manages to maintain a good solid colour. The main problem I can see with using a webcam is it's likely to be a wide lens with a narrow aperture on a small sensor - each of which is going to make it harder to get the backdrop out of focus, so your lighting will need to be good & even.

"Real" green-screen is a kind of fuzzy material, like the 'loops' side of a piece of velcro - & in fact velcro 'hook' pieces are used to add markers in significant line-up zones, so it serves two purposes. It looks very flat and even, making it very easy to light. It also doesn't crease nearly as badly as regular woven or non-woven fabrics.
See https://www.eufabrics.com/display-fabrics/529-green-screen-fabric-for-background-photography.html for an example retailer.

After that, it's down to how good your chroma-key software is at separating the image from the background & killing any green spill onto the subject. Of course, the better your initial setup, the easier that task becomes.

Answer 2

I agree with all of @Tetsujin’s answer. In addition: the key to getting a good green screen keys is the lightning. If you can separate your foreground from your background with enough distance and you have soft lighting- large diffuse light boxes, not small spotlights, you will get radically better keys than if you use mixed colour temperature lighting and have hard shadows and green spilling onto your subjects.

Also highly recommend taking a look at After Effects - its Advanced Spill Suppressor and Keylight plugins are great if you have access to AE.

Addition: the key to great realism on a green screen is to examine the video background you plan to use, and mimic the lighting on your subject as much as possible. Then colour correct your subject after keying to improve the match even more.

This is a pretty good tutorial showing how to plan and match the lighting:

Answer 3

The main problem is that the green screen will be so close that you will get green spill light onto you, contaminating your skin tone and potentially making the edges appear part of the background. I think you should consider a neutral-color backdrop and forget about green-screen.