How to use a green screen to put a different background behind your subject
Have you ever wanted to extract a subject from one photo and then place them in another photo? For example, taking a photo of your child in their sports kit, and then making it look like they're playing in a full size stadium.
This process of mixing images together is known as compositing, and is becoming increasingly popular. While it might sound difficult, it can actually be very easy. The trick is taking the photo of your subject against a background that makes it easy to extract the subject from the background.
Private School Girl by "PictureYouth" on flickr (licensed CC-BY)
For this purpose a green screen (also known as chroma key) background is often used. In this article we'll look at how to take a photo using a green screen, and then how to use photo editing software to remove the green screen and composite the image.
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