Skip the setup. Keep the transparent cutout.
Chroma key was a workaround for a problem software can now solve. Here is what you give up by keeping the cloth, and the two cases where you should keep it anyway.
Already have footage shot against green? Use our remove green screen from video tool for the dedicated upload workflow.
What the cloth actually costs
The screen is the cheapest part. Everything attached to it is the expense, and most of it is not money.
Floor space you stop using
A screen wide enough to cover a medium shot needs two metres of wall and a metre of distance from the screen so green light does not reflect back onto you. In a home office that is the whole room.
Three lights, minimum
Two flat on the screen to kill shadow and keep the green even, one on the subject for separation. Uneven green is worse than no green because the cutout develops uneven or broken edges.
A wardrobe rule forever
Nothing green, nothing reflective enough to pick up green, no glasses catching the screen. This constraint outlives every shoot.
Spill suppression on every clip
Green bounces onto skin, hair and shoulders. Removing it is an extra grade on every single clip, and it is what makes cheap chroma work look cheap.
Chroma key against matting
Green screen
Dedicated space, permanently set up
Three-point lighting before you press record
Wardrobe and prop restrictions on every shoot
Spill pass in the grade, every clip
Fails outdoors, fails on location, fails in a hotel room
Hair against an evenly-lit screen keys well
Automatic matting
No dedicated studio backdrop or floor space to clear
Light the subject only
Wear whatever you want, including green
No spill to suppress, there was never any green
Built for handheld and location footage, including outdoors
Hair is solved per pixel, and it is the hardest case
Questions people actually ask
Is a green screen ever still the right call?
Yes, in two cases it remains the stronger choice. Live broadcast needs the key in real time and cannot wait for a queue. Controlled studio work where the subject and background are genuinely the same tone gives a model no edge to find, and a lit screen solves that at the source. BGRemove is the flexible alternative for footage you have already shot, and for location, handheld, and creator work where hanging cloth is not practical.
Does this work on footage I already shot against a green screen?
Yes, and often better than keying it, because you skip spill suppression entirely. The model does not care that the background is green, it only cares where your subject ends.
What about shadows my subject casts?
They go with the background, which is usually what you want when compositing onto a new plate. If you need a realistic shadow in the finished edit, add it there, where you can control its softness.
Your next transparent video is one upload away.
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