Green Screen in DaVinci Resolve 20 (FREE): Fast and Pro Shooting and Keying Tips

About this video

Tim simplifies green screen keying in the free DaVinci Resolve 20. Shooting tips come first: keep subject at least 6 feet from the screen and lit separately — ideally 5 lights (3-point for subject, 2 soft for screen), minimum a soft key, backlight and very soft screen light — use the best chroma subsampling available (4:4:4 high-end only, 4:2:2 typical on mirrorless/iPhone ProRes), lock auto exposure/white balance/focus (Blackmagic Camera app recommended for phones), and record a few seconds of empty green screen for a clean plate. Method 1 on the Edit page uses the 3D Keyer: draw over the green, adjust Despill, Tolerance/Softness and Matte Finesse, and remove non-green objects with a garbage matte rectangle. Method 2 in Fusion sandwiches a Delta Keyer between two Color Space Transform nodes to work in linear, picks the background color with the eyedropper using the black-and-white alpha view, and tweaks Matte thresholds/clean controls and Fringe spill (medium). Method 3, the cleanest, adds a Clean Plate node (via Time Stretcher to a clean frame, or via a Trails node to build a plate when the subject never leaves frame, saved as PNG) and a Matte Control node, plus garbage matte to remove and solid matte to protect areas, and detailed spill/fringe controls for motion blur.

Key takeaways

• Shoot for keying: separate subject/screen lighting, 4:2:2 or better chroma, locked exposure/white balance/focus, and record an empty clean plate
• Fastest method is the Edit-page 3D Keyer: draw the selection, then tune Despill, Tolerance/Softness and Matte Finesse, using garbage matte for non-green objects
• In Fusion, sandwich the Delta Keyer between two Color Space Transform nodes to work in linear for more accurate keying
• A clean plate dramatically improves fine detail: grab it with Time Stretcher, or build one with the Trails node and save it as a PNG when no empty frame exists
• Check the alpha channel (black = removed, white = kept) and fix noise with subtle Clean Background/Foreground and threshold moves; use Matte Control spill/fringe settings for green spill on edges and motion blur

Episode details: published November 5, 2025 · 14:10 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Kevin Stratvert’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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