Review: Reflecmedia ChromaFlex for Easy Keying

Caveats

While this initially sounds like an amazing solution, understand that, due to the particular way that retro-reflective media works, there are a couple things you need to watch out for.

If you have talent wearing glasses, those glasses will reflect the blue or green LED ringlight. If the subject is far enough away, or the ringlight dim enough, you likely won’t make much notice of it, but it’s something to be aware of because the light reflected with the glasses will key out just like the background.

If you don’t want holes where their eyes are, having talent look off camera, or adjusting the angle of their glasses--typical adjustments for any on-camera light--can help ameliorate the problem.

I’ve also been told that in certain situations where the Ringlight is close to the subject, and they are wearing a white shirt, and there’s not a lot of ambient light--common with today’s sensitive large-sensor cameras, the LED key light can fill in the shadow areas of the shirt and reflect the key color back to the camera. So you need to be aware of your LED brightness and subject distance.

Having a ring of LEDs that need to be as close to the lens as possible means that putting a mirrored prompter over the lens can’t happen. You can try prompting above or below the lens, but moving the LEDs just a few inches away from the lens kills the amount of light they return to the lens. So even vertical strips of green LEDs mounted to the sides of a typical mirrored prompter will likely not work. I did not test this.

Lastly, bright outdoor sun provides some serious competition for the dual-color ringlight. The single-color ringlights have many more LEDs in them, but I checked and was told that they are the older, less efficient LEDs and the new dual-color ringlight is the brightest model.

Conclusion

Chromatte is an amazing technology. I still remember seeing it at NAB years ago: a big set with some weird, gray fabric draped down from the back walls, down onto tables and set pieces. On the live TV screen I saw two actors sitting on rendered sets and in a fake environment and it looked amazing. With near-zero concern for spill on the actors, the retro-reflective technology makes keying quick and easy.

ChromaFlex makes this easily portable and a breeze to use. The 7-foot ChromaFlex is great if you need full-body shots. But if you just need the headshots that most corporate videos require, the 4-foot version is more affordable, easier to transport, and delivers the same results.