Green Screen option?

[PhotoJames]

Hi Chris and fellow boothers,

I've been wanting to set up my booth with a green screen so that I can insert virtual backgrounds. I have Photoshop CS4 on the booth computer and it would be really easy to use it to run an action that would switch out the background. Is there a way to pass the photos to PS and have it run an action and then return it to PSRemote to put it all together and print? Or can this be accomplished within PSR?

[Chris Breeze]

The edit option in PSRemote allows you to automatically run a command after each image has been downloaded and so it might be possible to use this to run a Photoshop action. I'm not sure what would happen when you reach the last image in the sequence though because PSRemote will start to format the print layout immediately after the last image has been downloaded.

[PhotoJames]

Any chance of something like this making its way into a future release of PSRemote?

[Chris Breeze]

I'm not sure. I have done some initial experiments with green screening the live view images in DSLR Remote Pro and then using a third party green screen app to process the final images. There's still a lot more work to do on this but I hope to have something available later this year, initially for DSLR Remote Pro but also for NKRemote and PSRemote if there is sufficient demand for it.

[PhotoJames]

I can't speak for others (if "others" are reading this maybe they could chime in) but I think it could be a really awesome addition to the program. This would be a great selling point to both those thinking of buying or upgrading the software and for those that have/use the software.

[rsh78ph]

I'd like this option too!

[Rodasphoto.com]

I would also like the option.

[rikiboy]

Green screen! WOW! NKRemote user here, that would be so sweet. :)

[uphid]

Green screen aside, I love the idea of being able to plug my own software into the "pipeline". I've already written a bunch of custom image processors, and as already mentioned, Photoshop can be used command-line too.

[jdorman]

Yea the green screen would be cool. It's important to get it right though. If the quality is poor, the photos can come out looking cheesy.

[alexsiskahn]

Below I'll explain how to do this already. However it is complicated. It would be nice if Chris Breeze could create a NEW output option in DSLRR that allows photoshop to be opened and an action run via a function key automatically. This would allow anyone with photoshop action writing skills to do whatever they watned as far as green screen or even other image manipulation goes (for instance pencil sketch or charcoal mock up portraits)..in combination with a hot folder printing program.

this is how it can be done with autohotkey and dslr remote. you need to do the following:
set dslr remote to open the image in photoshop after each photo is taken
set dslr remote's oupput options to JPEG only
write a green screen action that will process the 4 photos in photoshop and place them on a new canvas in a strip layout you like.

after the 4 photos are taken you need to write an autohotkey script to open photoshop and run the action you previously created and then switch back to psremote.

due to photoshops poor ability to print images when different printers are hooked up to a computer, it is best NOT to try to print from the action but instead use a hotfolder application to print the image. have the action save the image to two locations as most hot folder software destroys the first image upon printing.

obviously draw backs is it takes a decent computer to run actions fast. Netbooks are probably not a good option something with at least a 3 ghz processor is nice. Also dslrr creates an unnecessary photostrip layout.

[PhotoJames]

Interesting. I'm assuming that you can do the same or something similar in PSRemote. I like the idea of setting it to jpeg only, that way you can process the last image (Chris had made mention to a possible issue).

Since the green screen effect can be achieved very easily even in old versions of Photoshop it might be better to have an older (and much lighter on the processor) version of Photoshop or maybe even PS Elements (don't know about elements as I've never used it). Does anyone have an old version of photoshop or know where you can get an old (legal) version of PS?

[PhotoMeir]

I'd also be interested in this option!

[alexsiskahn]

i dont' think elements has actions capability.
photoshop 7 can be found on ebay easily for cheap.

[PhotoJames]

I looked online for PS7 and I have to say that I'm a bit leery of buying it on eBay. Don't get me wrong, I bought most of the parts on my first booth through eBay. Just something in the back of my head isn't quite sure of this. Does anybody know of a business that sells legitimate versions of older software? I don't want to buy some software only to have Johnny Law show up at my door. I know it doesn't happen very often, but it only has to happen once.

[Sharpie]

I'd like this option in PSremote also.

[inabooth]

I'd use it!