A professional NLE supports its post performance with monitoring tools so that the timeline preview will be judged not by your feelings alone but more to the tech-info such as:
Are there illegal colors in the Vectorscope? Is the signal clipping in the Waveform? How about the pixel distribution with its grayscale values in Histogram? Correction for brightness/contrast/gamma?
Your first question however, may be what project do I do and where?
Vegaspro has constructed its preview window as a device Reference Rendering Transform (RRT).
It has nothing to do with render-project-to-video-file but means the characteristic of a display where Vegaspro just working DOES decide what signal/color levels you should take for your timeline editing and not conversely.
The RRT-construction provides most flexibility for your job and makes it possible to create any norm specified video even you don't have the proper hardware at hand.
That's the fascination of Vegaspro!
I'll take an example to illustrate the workflow.
Say, I have a modern laptop and a fullHD TV connected on it, I want to produce a standard PAL-wide-screen video, my source material: DV-AVI clips, photos from camera, a picture of unknown format, an art work designed in B/W and a 4K LOG video.
Situation 1, I start Vegaspro in the fullHD TV screen.
1, the View Transform seems here off but it is internally relying on my fullHD TV which has StudioRGB/Rec709 space with 16-235 levels.
2, as my TV device can perform the project signal in every aspect, I do set it with no modification.
3, objects on timeline, no matter of what origin they are, must change to fit this color space for further editing.
4, the monitoring instruments have to choose this space, too. Because the chroma in Vectorscope is shown as percentage value and the signal in Waveform as scale value. Be sure to use Composite for color video and Luminance for B/W.
5, the PAL color check bars indicate that everything is correct with one exception: my laptop LCD. To use it as second view device we must check
"Apply deinterlace filter" -- because my timeline delivers interlaced signal,
"Adjust levels from StudioRGB to computerRGB" -- i.e. expand 16-235 to 0-255.
If the viewed motion picture goes tearing, we should also check "Wait for vertical sync".
Now ready for editing.
DV-AVIs including material shot with camcorder (HDV/fullHD/2K/4K), if not stated else, are all in StudioRGB/Rec709 space. You can watch them everywhere without any significant problem.
As on timeline with 16-235 levels you will find minor illegal values here or insufficient contrast/brightness there, they are very individual.
For such various correction/adjusting, ColorCurves is the right FX-plugin, here you have free hand.
For this clip, we'd like to raise the saturation to 1.400 and do some midtones modification in ColorCorrector.
It's an FX-plugin for primary colors. It has a doppelganger for secondary colors, thus the name ColorCorrector (Secondary). Innocent Chinese call it 二级调色 (ColorCorrector second class). 😀😀😀
So, never use plugins you do not understand!
Camera photos and CGs are catastrophic on the timeline as you see. It's also a big challenge to throttle them into video levels.
Because converting color spaces is far from enough, the instrument panel gives you more tasks, you'd do your job one by one.
By the way, Levels is really only a converting tool with gamma calibration, NOT an FX-plugin.
There are materials behaving mysteriously on the timeline. Their Histogram presents a beautiful pixel distribution with best values, no signal clipping, no illegal colors or even looking pale out. But you can not judge the contrast/brightness.
For this picture below, it has a signal deviation.
Set the Offset value to -16.000 and see, you got it. You can then increase color saturation as desired.
You could probably ask, why not using Levels plus HSL, LAB, LUT etc.?
Answer: Ccorrector is the only right one here. Even Levels would reach the same result but why do you take it excessively for a wrong job?
As for the other mentioned plugins they are just one number too big for me.
One more word to Levels: nobody says you must always follow the standard settings.
For example, I'd like redesign this art work in accordance with my favor just as I convert it into video levels.
LOG material is made exclusive for post editing.
They are packed in the so called LOG-space which offers a very wide range in highlights with rich details. Unfortunately, our 4K-clip was shot in bad day so that clouds or blue sky can been hardly seen. You only find a few pixels in the grayscale area between 200-220.
But let's begin to deal with this area. We set the signal input start from 0.090 and clip its end by 0.800. That means we throw it away.
If there's a difference between LOG and Rec709 material then here you have the choice to keep or cut and the Rec709-camera has already clipped it by shooting.
Render to file -- can I do it now?
Yes and no!
All the performance above just shows the bright side. The dark side is, you could use effects like Starburst/Rays or transitions like Flash/Dissolve. All these are disasters for a norm specified video signal. Even you didn't use one, there should be places beyond your control.
So, if you don't care do it. Otherwise:
1, add the tool plugin BroadcastColors into VideoBus and set it as Lenient = Signal will be limited between -20-120 and no pixel will exceed 16-235 levels. Conservative (till 110) happened ca. 10 years ago and Extremely Conservative (100) over 20 years.
2, choose the right Template and render by default.
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Situation2, I start Vegaspro by default (i.e. in the laptop screen).
1, the View Transform here is relying on the laptop sRGB-LCD with full range or computer levels 0-255.
2, as the display a progressive device is, I must set the output signal into progressive scan even if I have a standard PAL video project.
3, objects on timeline will be edited in sRGB space.
4, the monitoring panel takes sRGB, too. You can see clearly that the PAL color bars have less percentage/scale value even their pixel distribution doesn't change.
5, to use our fullHD TV as second view device, we need do nothing. Because our timeline signal will be translated into TV levels by Windows10 or the graphic card.
As for sure, we need the famous Belle Nuit HD Testchart:
We are ready.
In the sRGB editing modus, our DV-AVI clip has this appearance after adjusting in the ColorCurves:
Camera photo in its primary space:
The offsetting picture converted in sRGB. Be careful that Levels must be located behind ColorCorrector.
The art work designer is better than me indeed. I keep it unchanged.
The LOG video at Inputstart=0.150/end=0.800 in Levels and 1.050Gain in Ccorrector.
Render to file -- just two steps and it's done:
1, put the Levels into VideoBus and set ComputerRGB to StudioRGB.
2, render it out. The template will pack it in interlaced video.
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---to be continued---
Situation3, what an environment is the 32-bit floating point (full range)?
Situation4, HDR10 Project.