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Green screen doesn’t suck, you just suck at green screen – Here’s why and how to fix it

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Shooting on a green screen has become far more common these days. Green screens are cheap and readily available. Most video editing software, not to mention live streaming software like OBS and hardware like the Yolobox Products, have native support for it built-in. But it’s still something that many people struggle with when it comes to video editing with bad keys, dodgy artifacts and other issues.

A lot of people blame the software tools for a bad key, but is it down to operator error? Well, yeah, it probably is. There are many factors in shooting good green screen footage, and in this video, the team at Syrp Lab go through the process and explain exactly what could be causing your green screen issues and how to resolve them.

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These guys tested every video stabilizer so you don’t have to (but you probably still should)

If you shoot video, you know that you’re going to need some kind of stabilisation at some point in the process. Whether it’s a tripod, gimbal, a whole giant rig or simply relying on the camera or lenses built-in stabilisation, there are so many different ways out there. We can even stabilise in post, thanks to things like Adobe’s Warp Stabiliser and DaVinci Resolve’s gyro-stabilisation for Pocket cameras, or Sony’s similar tech.

Picking which one to choose for a given situation can be challenging, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience using all of the different methods out there. So, the team from Syrp Lab decided to give them all a try to see which worked best in which situations, from gimbals and IBIS to software stabilisation like that found in GoPros as well as the aforementioned Warp Stabiliser.

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Here’s how to build a complete portable podcasting setup into a single case for easy travel

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Now that the world has spent the last couple of years stocking up on microphones, lights, new cameras and a mountain of other bits to be able to stream from home or just make our Zoom calls look and sound a bit better than our co-workers, what do we do with it now that the world has (mostly) opened back up and we’re able to start travelling again? Well, we take it with us, of course!

In this video, the team at Syrp Lab build an entire podcasting studio in a single box that lets you record or broadcast from pretty much anywhere. Based on (in?) the Manfrotto ProLight Reloader Tough-55 roller case, it’s rugged enough to deal with the usual rough handling of travel and it also fits within carry-on restrictions (although do double-check before you book) when you need to fly!

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This deep dive looks into LOG vs RAW footage and how they differ for colour grading

These days, whenever a new camera is released – particularly one geared towards video – I see two questions that come up repeatedly for days. “Does it have a LOG profile?” and “Can it shoot raw?”. They’re valid questions, but there are some pretty big differences between the two. In this video, the team at Syrp Lab take a deep dive into both to show how they differ and the potential problems you can run into.

In short, log footage tries to emulate the range of brightness that our eye is capable of seeing, but once you start to great it, it can fall apart pretty easily. Raw footage, on the other hand, contains much more data with a greater bit depth – and bit depth is explained in the video – offering a lot of latitude in post to adjust clips to match each other and give an overall artistic great. But it comes at a cost of space and computing power.

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How to build your own DIY acoustic panels to treat your room for recording audio

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If you’ve ever tried shooting a video indoors where good sound is important, you’ve no doubt come across the issue of reverb. It’s the echo that you typically hear in a recording in an untreated room with a microphone placed too far from your subject. It’s an issue that most indoor spaces face, but it’s one that can be overcome with a little work.

The team at Syrp Lab recently rebuilt their gear room for filming in and they’ve faced this challenge. So, in this video, they build their own DIY acoustic panels to help treat the space and deal with some of the echo picked up by their cameras and microphones.

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Building the ultimate gear room for photographers and filmmakers

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Camera gear, whether it’s for photography or filmmaking can be quite the pain to store, especially if it’s your career and you’re constantly adding new gear to your kit. And I’m not talking about buying more gear for the sake of buying more gear, I mean you actually need all this stuff to offer more services and a better quality of service to your clients. It’s just the nature of the beast when you work in a creative industry that requires a camera.

The folks at Syrp Lab faced this issue, with gear strewn around all over the place (a common problem for many of us) and the boss instructed his team to tidy up the gear room and make it more efficient. While this setup might be a little overkill for some of us, it offers some great tips and advice on how we might be able to better store some of our own kit.

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Syrp to be rebranded “Syrp Lab” with products folded into the Manfrotto Move ecosystem

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New Zealand based camera slider and timelapse gear company, Syrp has announced that it’s rebranding itself to Syrp Lab and that its products will be also rebranded and brought into the fold of the new Manfrotto Move ecosystem. This isn’t the first name that’s been rebranded under the Manfrotto banner recently with “Lastolite by Manfrotto”, and simply “Lastolite” before that, also bring brought under the Manfrotto name.

According to the announcement, Syrp Lab is essentially going to be come an R&D facility working on “the next generation of tools for creators” covering a range of brands across the Vitec Imaging Solutions collective. They’re also turning to education, teaching users of Vitec products how to use them and create the best content they can.

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Syrp’s new Genie Micro is an all-in-one smart remote controller for your camera

Syrp has announced their new Genie Micro. Unlike other devices that bear the Genie name, this one isn’t a pan head or slider motor. In fact, it’s not motorised at all. It’s actually a smart remote device for controlling your camera with your smartphone using the Syrp app. With it, you get an array of triggering options, including bulb ramping, stop motion and HDR bracketing.

Unlike a lot of triggering devices out there, this one doesn’t just tell your camera when to fire, but actually communicates with your camera over USB to adjust settings – as if you were shooting tethered to a computer. But, it does have the option to use a standard trigger cable for just firing, too.

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How to build out your own DIY white seamless studio cyclorama on a budget

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This isn’t a project for the little home studio in your spare bedroom, but if you’re looking to build out a new studio space, this might be just the video for you. When the folks at Syrp moved into new offices a couple of years ago, they wanted to build out a new studio. High on the list for the studio was a cyc wall (also known as a cyclorama, infinity wall, or various other names).

A professional cyclorama can cost tens of thousands of dollars, but the Syrp team decided to build their own. And they did it for less than $2,000. In this video, we get to see how it all went together, from the initial design on the computer to the final result, and the reasons for all of the design decisions made during its construction.

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Here’s how to light and shoot cinematic Apple-like product commercials

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When it comes to product photography, there are a lot of brands out there who keep a very consistent look and feel to their promotional material. Whether it’s a truck or a toaster, you can immediately tell by the way it’s lit and shot that it belongs to a certain brand.

One such brand is Apple. And while many of their product photos and videos are actually CG, the guys at Syrp have broken down Apple’s techniques to show you how you can shoot it for real.

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