For years I've been tweaking my Bri / Con / Hue / Sat by eye. LUTs seem over blown for my hand-held and drone cameras.
Does a Vector Scope help me in some way... I've never really used it.
Alternative tips welcome. Thanks in advance.
- Don
Does a Vector Scope help me in some way...
If you know how to use it, absolutely!
@donde : Understanding, numerically and graphically, by the use of Scopes, is the only way I know of how to get “under-the-skin” of the Video to:
A] Wrangle-in the wayward appearance of a shot. Here that is your experience with your blown footage.
B] Comply with a Broadcaster or even with what I might have to hand over to a 3rd party NLE Studio and making sure my own work can comply with my own Home Cinema. And then there’s VIMEO and YouTube.
Learning and appreciating the value of Scopes has meant for me to do an immense amount of reading and watching a ton of online videos. My tip? Firstly read/watch what you need to know and then, secondly, you’ll find yourself quickly wanting to spiral-off down avenues of exploration and study.
OK, my biggest Tip: Be pragmatic. Have a healthy reality check on analysis and don’t become a Scope Slave, but DO extend your knowedge base as you travel down this exciting and rewarding route. Know and expand your understanding to realise you have the Tools available to make change. It’s about balance, and only you will be able to decide how much you want to learn at what point in your Scope awareness.
Tip: Come to this Forum and make use of the expertise freely available here. Be prepared to post screen grabs of your Media and Scope references.
Apologies for my meanderings.
I found this article very helpful in understanding the vectorscope specifically.
http://shootdatapost.com/blog/2009/4/19/painting-hd-cameras-pt-1-basic-colorimetryhtml
I use the RGB parade mostly for white balancing; when the three channels are even or near equal, the image should be white balanced.
The waveform monitor is good for assessing overall exposure, keeping whites around 90 IRE and not pushing blacks beyond 0. It also shows you where your image is clipping or blowing out the highlights.
The vectorscope is useful when grading to see how your color adjustments are coming along, how far you can push them, and what other colors you might be affecting. Remember that colors on the opposite side of the color wheel cancel each other out, so if you have too much green, you can shift the colors toward red/magenta to counter act the green. The color corrector and color curves go hand in hand with using the vectorscope, so you can really see what effect your corrections are having.
These days, color graders use a vector scope to fine tune and "match" tonal centers, and for chroma (saturation) control.
Having cut my teeth at movie film labs, and not in television, much of my work is done with levels and gamma, visual cues and the histogram, my pet utility.
Since you mentioned HSL controls, which is what most of us are familiar with, I suggest you take time out to learn the six-point RGBCMY color model so you will know what you are looking at.
All the tools and measures in Vegas are extremely powerful when used within their logical range. Having started in the business almost 5 decades ago, I can tell you that Color Curves are much like good Scotch -- they can get you into trouble!
If you don't use a color corrected monitor you're shooting in the dark. Learn how to use scopes the right way and you won't even need a monitor. ;-)
tomV
I use the RGB parade mostly for white balancing; when the three channels are even or near equal, the image should be white balanced.
That is, IF the toe of the curves are properly anchored. Classic example is working from old color movie film transfers. Conforming the whites first and only is the worst possible approach. Visualize the rgb parade as three windshield wipers, frosty, not just the tops.