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| Chloe in front of the green screen. |
If you watch movies, you probably know that much of the Hollywood magic that we take for granted is the result of green screening a shot. In simple terms that means filming the subject against a green colored background. Once the picture is taken, specialized computer software removes the green color and replaces it with a new background image of your choice. This is how you place your subject in all types of imaginative settings for basically very little money. Maybe you want the family standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, but you can't afford to send them on a Paris vacation. No sweat, just snap a picture of the family group in front of a green screen, and swap in a nice background image of the Tower. Instantly, the picture is digitally altered with a new French flavor, and nobody is the wiser.
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| Chloe steps up in front of the green screen. |
So it was recently when I held a photo session with Chloe in front of a green screen. Now you have to remember that dogs are notoriously short with their attention span, and any type of specialized photography that requires them to take posing instructions has to be done quickly and creatively.
And did I mention treats? Yes, you need to have plenty of treats, preferably small ones, like Charlee Bears on hand that you toss at the green screen in order to get them to stand in front of it. As they turn away from the screen after scooping up the treat, you immediately click the shutter.
The result should be an interesting candid pose in front of the green backdrop. Of course if you have a pet that takes verbal commands of "sit", "stay" and "don't move" that might also work, but what's the fun in that? That would be too easy. Chloe on the other hand is always moving, she is after all a Cocker Spaniel with plenty of energy, except when she's sleeping. So to green screen the image as we say in photography, it's a little on the difficult side to keep her still.
I love photographing Chloe and I can tell you that my computer is filled with her digital pictures that can be creatively altered at a later date. The photos that you see here are just a sampling of our first green screening session, ...and did I say that cocker spaniels are inquisitive? Chloe just had to see what was behind the green screen in that last image.
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| ...here's my "best surprised look" pose! |
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| ...the "I will not open my eyes" pose! |
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| ...the "Are we done yet" pose! |
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| ...and the "I know there's something behind the screen" pose! |
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