Elstree Film School - Lastolite Green Screens

Over the course of the last 25 years, Lastolite Professional have evolved from the manufacturers of the very first reflecting panel into a company that today offers a extensive portfolio of market-leading Photography products. Over time they have established themselves as the world's leading manufacturer of backgrounds and lighting control systems for the photo, video and cinema industry. That's why we were extremely pleased when Lastolite offered to support our Green Screen Training Courses through the use of their products. We were so impressed with the quality and performance of the products in question, that we felt it necessary to briefly outline a few of our favourites.

Lastolite Background Support Stands

Lastolite offer a variety of robust background support stands for their curtain and paper backgrounds. Whilst these background supports generally consist of a four section air cushioned lighting stand with metal collars that is extendable from 99cm - 298cm, there are a variety of different set-ups ensuring that your background gets the support it needs. The 1128 Heavy Duty Support model is suitable for Paper and Vinyl roll-up backgrounds up to 3m wide. A 1108 can support both Paper and Curtain backgrounds 3m wide and can be further extended to support multiple curtains upto 6m wide, turning it into a 1150, though its middle stand will prevent you from loading any Paper or Vinyl Backgrounds. Lastolite background support systems are designed for use with both full and half-width paper backgrounds, as well as various types of fabric background. The design is simple and utilitarian, extremely straight-forward to set-up and it folds away efficiently making it exceptionally portable.

Given its 3 metre width, it is impressive that it can collapse down to fit into a small bag. The system itself can be constructed in minutes without difficulty. As such, Lastolite Background Support Stands are ideal for when it comes to transporting your shoot to different locations outside of the studio. The stands come complete with an extremely durable bag ensuring a long life free of wear and tear.

Lastolite Background Support Stands may be renowned for their portability but this does not come at the expensive of their sturdy nature. The Support Stands are robust enough to use on a more permanent basis in a studio set-up or otherwise. Moreover, the stands are hard-wearing enough to cope with the regular changing of backdrops adding to the durability of the product. Given the ease of set-up, it's compact, steadfast constitution and its readiness for transportation, Lastolite Background Support Stands come highly recommended.

Chromakey Vinyl from Lastolite

Vinyl is one of the world's most versatile plastics and given its relative low cost, durable nature and resistance to corrosion, light and chemicals it is no surprise that it's become a staple material used by a number of different industries including those of photography, video and cinema. Whilst more expensive than a Paper Background, the benefits of opting for vinyl are clear. Lastolite's Coloured and Superwhite Vinyl Backgrounds can be wiped clean ensuring that they can be used over and over again. If there's any dirt or footprints on the vinyl at the end of the shoot, you can simply wipe away the blemishes leaving your Background as good as new. Both Superwhite and Coloured Vinyl Backgrounds are supplied on a 2.75m wide roll (the same width as Lastolite Paper Backgrounds) and are 6m in length.

When Paper Backgrounds get grubby you have to tear off the dirty sections, giving the product a much shorter lifespan than its vinyl equivalent. Paper Backgrounds can also be easily damaged during a shoot creating an unnecessary disruption as the Paper is re-set. With Lastolite Coloured and Superwhite Vinyl Backgrounds, you'll never have to deal with such worries. As the vinyl material is waterproof you won't have to fret about working with babies or pets as all spills can be easily wiped away.

Chromakey Vinyl Backgrounds are only compatible with the 1128 Heavy Duty Background Supports. The seamless, professional quality of these Vinyl Backgrounds ensure that you can produce great 'high key' shots. The Coloured Vinyl Backgrounds are available in Black, Grey and Green. If you favour durability and ease of use above all else, then Chromakey Vinyl from Lastolite should be your Background of choice.

Chromakey Paper from Lastolite

Notwithstanding the above, Lastolite's Paper Backgrounds also have distinct advantages. For starters they represent an economical yet flexible alternative to Vinyl Backgrounds. Whilst Vinyl Backgrounds may be reusable, Paper Backgrounds are significantly cheaper and arguably easier to use. If the Paper Background gets dirty you can simply tear off the unwanted piece and unravel a new section. The low-cost of Paper Backgrounds also affords a degree of creative licence. Whilst it would not be practical or financially prudent to cut-up and experiment with a Vinyl Background, Paper Backgrounds can be manipulated and altered at will. To this extent Paper Backgrounds offer an artistic freedom that no other type of Background can.

Lastolite's Paper Rolls are crease free and come on a convenient roll which allows for a smooth and easy distribution and ease of tidying. Whilst Lastolite's Vinyl Backgrounds are only available in three different colours, the Paper Backgrounds offer significantly more choice (infact there are 55 colour variants in total) from Chromakey Green, to Graphite to Gala Pink. Lastolite Paper Backgrounds are available in three different sizes which can be cut down to lengths of your choice.

Whilst Vinyl Backgrounds have become steadily more popular, the smooth crease-free nature of Paper Backgrounds can still be hard to beat. Lastolite's Paper Rolls are not as heavy as the Vinyl rolls and thus offer increased portability. It's easy enough to cart around a half-width roll of Paper Background in the back of your car for use whenever you need it. In summation, if you seek a cheap and flexible alternative to Vinyl Backgrounds, you could do a lot worse than deciding upon Chromakey Paper from Lastolite.

Collapsible Backgrounds from Lastolite

Chromakey has become more and more popular in the fields of digital photography, film and cinema production as a means of mixing two images together, or cutting and pasting a subject onto a different background. Which brings us to Lastolite's Chromakey Collapsible Backgrounds: an easy to carry reversible screen that is surprisingly fast to set up and dismantle. Lastolite's Chromakey Collapsible Backgrounds come in a variety of different sizes, including 5' x 6', 6' x 7' and 6' x 9'.

The Chromakey Collapsible Backgrounds are available in Blue or Green or a reversible Blue-Green. These colours have been selected because blue and green are considered to be the colours least like skin tone and thus help ease the process of colour keying. Whilst the colour Green is currently used as a backdrop more often than any other colour (because digital camera's image sensors are most sensitive to green) the reversible nature of Lastolite's Collapsible Backgrounds ensures that you have both options available.

A blue screen can be handy if the subject of your shoot is predominantly green - for example a plant. Thus, with the Lastolite Collapsible Reversible Background, you can simply flip the Background over, turning your Green Screen into a Blue Screen when necessary. Further advantages to Chromakey Collapsible Backgrounds include its being made of an extremely crease resistant and fire-retardent fabric, its easily storable nature - given that it can be folded down to a third of its original size and fits snugly within a zippered storage sleeve and its ease of transportation. If you require an easy to set up and dismantle system then Lastolite's Collapsible Backgrounds are the obvious choice.

Lastolite RayD8 c3200 Continuous Lighting

The Lastolite RayD8 c3200 Continuous Lighting offers an excellent starting point in terms of studio lighting for both product and portrait photography. A major advantage of its continuous tungsten light source (3200k) is that you are able to see exactly what your image will look like through the viewfinder without constantly having to meter for flash or regularly adjusting the lighting once the shot has been taken. This is very much a 'what you see is what you get' type of approach.

The Lastolite RayD8 c3200 Continuous Lighting contains two heads with lamps (500w), two reflectors, two stands and two 80cm PVC umbrellas that ensure the best possible light distribution. The Lastolite RayD8 c5600 Continuous Lighting system comes with a colour corrected 75w Fluorescent bulb, which produces a substantial light and are relatively inexpensive to replace when the time comes. The lamps are robust constructions, mounted upon durable metal stands and they have a large handle on their rear which allows for easy handling. The lamps themselves have an easy to use swivel and tilt system to ensure your image is lit just the way you want it to be.

The Reflectors are large and thus don't allow for accessories like barn-doors to be attached (though gel clips can be used to successfully attach Gels). This would be a problem if Lastolite's Reflectors weren't easily removable thus allowing you to attach Reflectors that are compatible with a wide variety of accessories and granting you a considerable amount of control over your light source. Easy to set-up, adapt and control, the Lastolite RayD8 c3200 Continuous Lighting kit provides an entry level studio lighting system without rival.