A selection of tips, no particular order. Do a "wardrobe check" day where you grab a freeze of a wide range of clothing. Then at your leisure you can create an E-Mem appropriate to each piece. Just make sure "Key Memory" is off, adjust the chromakey on the still store freeze, change the key source to be the appropriate camera, then learn the E-Mem. You could program each setup as separate keyframes in the one E-Mem. Then you need only step through the Timeline until you find one that works. In the same vein, have a "Chromakey E-Mem" as above, where every time you get a key that works, you insert it into a Timeline. If you've forgotten to pre-load the E-Mem, copy the new chromakey M/E (or keyer) to another M/E, load up the Timeline, go to the end, copy the M/E back, then insert another Keyframe and re-save the E-Mem. You can have more than 50 "good" keys available; find one that works, then Learn it into a working E-Mem for that day's program. "Auto Setup" does not set up the Chromakey for you! It merely selects the hue and a couple of other parameters. You still need to make manual adjustments to every Chromakey, most notably "Selectivity". If keying on green and the clothing is yellow, and you've done an Auto Setup to select your hue, you can make a small manual adjustment to the hue away from the yellow vector (ie, slightly towards blue) to increase the differentiation from the green. Higher Selectivity (a bigger number) will tend to reject different shades of the key colour, but the trade-off is the potential for the edges to look harsher. Absolutely fabulous trick is to use the Kalypso Internal Test Signal as a key source, with Chroma Rainbow selected in the Eng menu. You can see exactly what hue or range of hues are being keyed, and see what effect your primary suppression adjustments are having. This is a great learning tool too, when teaching someone about Chromakeys. Have the chromakey set as "Clip-Hi and Clip-Lo", and not as "Clip / Gain". Then adjust both values to be as far away from each other as possible. (Values close to each other represent a high-gain key, which will make the subject appear "cut out and pasted on", and will lack fine detail such as wispy hair.) Under-suppressing the luminance slightly can allow fine hair detail to be seen. Try to get a chromakey that doesn't need "Reshape" first; only use "Reshape" if you can't get a decent key otherwise. Key Size only works with Reshaped keys, but will tend to chop off hair detail. Too much can also make the person look like they're poking their head through a hole in the wall that's smaller than their head size. Don't be tempted to use Key Size to get rid of a coloured edge; use the other controls first. Coring should rarely be used; its only use is to get rid of noise from the blacks in a noisy analogue camera. It's like doing a luminance key over black, and can look quite unnatural. Keys with Secondary Suppression sound great in theory, but you'll only use them when your performer is smoking and holding a martini glass. And if they are willing to stand there for a half hour while you adjust. (Or if you've grabbed a still to key off.) Don't waste everyone's time trying to use it on a live person. Some blonde hair-dye seems to have a greenish tinge. Be tactful when this is the case. Luminance Suppression can cause what looks like noise in dark areas. I don't know what to do about this. I just back off the suppression, and typically use Reshape and other compromises. When a key is not Reshaped, Chroma Suppression will be 100% - no arguments. When you use Reshape, you can reduce the Chroma Suppression to restore the correct colour. For example, a blonde on a green backing may appear to have magenta hair - too much chroma suppression. Reducing this to 0% will cause the "green" in the hair to no longer be suppressed, and the hair can be made the proper colour again. * First turn off Reshape, and try an Auto Setup. Increase selectivity slightly (one of my studios typically requires 10% selectivity). * "Show Key" - adjust the Clip Hi and Clip Lo so there is no white in the "black" (only just) and so there is no black in the "white" (again, only just). It's OK if the edges are a little grey, it will give a more natural result. * If it's not good enough, just turn on "Reshape". * If it's still not good enough, go through the above steps again with the Reshape button on. All chromakeys will involve some sort of compromise. Get over it. Just find the one you're happiest to live with. If you never see the performer (or background) "unkeyed", then there's no reference against which to be picky. Just adjust until the composite looks good, even if if doesn't look like the original. If clothing or background become "tainted" in some way, it doesn't matter, as long as the end result looks good. There's a selection to get you started. Happy keying. brad bradfisher.org/kalypso

We have a similar situation, Like Scott said make sure your background (green) is evenly lit that will help alot. On our chroma key we use Re-Shape on, when you auto setup your key if you adjust the selectivity (increase if you are having trouble keying the yellow) that might help, of course the yellow color may shift a bit but it seems to work for us rather well. As far as the details in the hair, try adjust your gain a bit, I usually can increase mine very slightly. It can get rid of the "lumpy" look that you were describing, it will soften your key a bit.

Hi Ricky, The Kalypso has great chroma keyers, unfortunately I only use them on tape sources that are already designed to be keyed rather than the anchor who just has to wear their favorite color. "After all the station is paying me a clothing allowance and they will just have to pay more if they want me to look good on that set". That was really said to me about 12 years ago when we had the same problem. Chroma keys are a real pain with uncooperative talent. They have to understand that just because they are not wearing green does not mean the color they choose is far enough removed to be descriminated for by the electronics. If they choose to wear a yellow (made from blue and GREEN in the light spectrum) that has similar chroma levels it will be tough to key. We had to test every piece of clothing our talent wore on the key set and get it approved by management. Also a real pain. That being said, make sure your lighting is excellent. The backgound and foreground should be lit separately and very evenly. Our levels for the background and foregound always fell at approximately the same level. You can actaully tweak your key by changing your light level difference between the foreground and background if necessary, part of the reason they need to be lit separately. If your set size allows, make sure to have good separation between your subject and the background to avoid light spillage. Keep the green off the talents back. Now to the hair edges looking lumpy. Use a backlight that is geled with a color that is opposite on your scope from your chroma wall. We used a green wall and found that straw ( I think it was straw, it has been more than a decade) colored gels for backlight did a good job of cancelling out green spillage in the hair. (the cause of the lumpy hair) Also remember that different colors of hair will key differently. If you use a blue or a green wall, look at the scope with a camera shooting the wall only. Start your gel color search in the colors that lie opposite the color you see on the scope. This process takes a while so be patient. The payoff is a happy director and talent that is happy because they look good. Scott