Zoom: Don't Have a Green Screen? Try Faking it!

For almost a year now, my home has functioned as a small coworking location, with me and my family working or going to school simultaneously. During the day, we are scattered in different areas of the house, and I’ve taken the bedroom. On Zoom, I’ve struggled to find a backdrop that I’m happy with. I don’t have a lovely bookcase, or open courtyard behind me, and my highly angular room can seem odd on screen. Worse, I have a small laptop to match my small desk, and it is not powerful enough to run a Zoom Virtual Background … or so I thought! 

If your computer is not powerful enough to support a Virtual Background, this is what you will see when you try to Select a Virtual Background.

You’ll notice that I cannot choose a Virtual Background, but there is a checkbox for “I have a green screen.” Actually purchasing and installing a green screen seemed like a bridge too far. However, I thought I might try selecting that box anyway, and success!  It turns out you don’t really need a green screen, you just need something relatively monochromatic behind you, such as a wall. 

Here’s how you can fake a green screen:

Position yourself in front of something as monochromatic as possible. It doesn’t need to be green. If you don’t have a blank wall for example, you can tape up a piece of posterboard 

• Select the caret next to the Video button Select “Choose Virtual Background” 
• Check the “I have a green screen checkbox” 
• Select a virtual background from among the option options displayed for you 
• At the bottom corner of your view preview window, click on the small oval or rectangle one time (see below) 
• Click anywhere on the background in the preview window to select that color 
• Close settings – you’re done!

Note: depending upon your computer and the version of Zoom you are running, the small oval button may appear as a rectangle instead and its position on the bottom of the window may vary. 

My bedroom wall happens to be green (although nothing approaching green screen green), but I’ve tried this in front of a bright red wall and it worked just as well. Just make sure that the color of your shirt or hair isn’t an exact match for your backdrop. Also, note that the light can interfere, so try to find a place with uniform light. 

This trick may not work for you, but it might, and you have nothing to lose!