I’m a photographer and I’ve been asked to photograph subjects/people on a green screen. The client wants them superimposed on a scene that would relate to what they’re wearing, i.e. Times Square scene and people celebrating New Years . Is there a program that does that and works with Macs? I realize it can be done in Photoshop, but I’ve seen it done at events, but don’t know what the program is they used. The camera was tethered to the computer and they instantly saw what it would look like. Thanks in advance for the help!
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Kirk
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Is There a Program for Superimposing Photos Using Macs?
Comments: 4 Responses to “Is There a Program for Superimposing Photos Using Macs?”
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So Photoshop will do this, but with still images, not video. I'm not sure if you are asking about still images or video. Usually when people talk about green screens they mean video. And I'm not sure whether you want this to be something recorded, or "live" in a just-for-fun setting.
If this is just for fun, then you can do it live with the Photo Booth app. It is already on your Mac. In the Effects, there is a set of backgrounds, like underwater or roller coaster. You set it to that, and it asks you to step out of the frame. It then takes the background and sets it, so that it only shows the difference from then on. Then you step back in and you are underwater, or whatever. There is also a page of effects where you can drag and drop your own images as background. Try it.
Now if you want something professional, where you are actually shooting video on a green screen and then editing that video into a finished product, you can do that in iMovie.
Let me know that you are trying to do and maybe I can help more.
Hi Gary ~ Thanks for the reply. I should have mentioned I will be shooting stills. This will be for a calendar for a Senior Living home and will not be a high gloss finished product. But, as my name is going with it, I want it to look professional (I've been a pro photog. for over 30 years). I saw something called "Superimpose" but can't pull it up in the Apple App Store and I'm not sure it works on computers.
I'll give Photo Booth a look. Thanks!
Kirk: If stills, and you want the result to be as good as possible, then Photoshop or a similar app is what you want. Photo Booth is for live "fun" video. Photoshop will allow you to take your still and expertly cut it out from the green background.
If you really want to avoid Photoshop or any "pro" tools, then you can always do it in Preview. I have a video on that here: https://macmost.com/cutting-out-part-of-an-image-with-preview.html In my example I'm cutting out from a natural background. Doing it with a green screen will make it very easy.
Kirk - Affinity Photo (on the App Store for Mac) is a pretty good Photoshop alternative, it is quite sophisticated, and probably lower cost than Photoshop (although I have not looked at cost of Photoshop).