Working with Video Scopes

The Video Scopes panel has been updated to use new Vectorscope, Waveform Monitor, RGB Parade, and RGB Overlay scopes developed specifically for Color mode. While these new scopes don’t yet have complete feature parity with the previous panel, the performance, graph visualization, and scale graticules have been dramatically improved.

If you need to use the older Lumetri Scopes, you can select the  menu next to the panel’s title and choose Show Legacy Scopes to switch back and forth between scope modes.

Using the Video Scopes panel

The Video Scopes panel displays a variety of analyses of the video frame at the playhead position in the current sequence. The analysis is the output of all effects, including all color effects, that are impacting the image and will be output from Premiere, either as a render during Export, or via Transmit to an external display.

The Video Scopes panel is different from the heads-up display (HUD). Whereas the HUD shows one of a variety of different analyses and overlays that are specific to each control you’re using, the Video Scopes show a collection of different visualizations of the signal being output by the image processing pipeline. This is a more traditional approach that’s suitable for careful analysis of the result and QC of your program.

Video Scopes layout

As a separate panel, you can move it around your workspace to any position you choose, or you can drag it to another display as a stand-alone window. There are two menus you can choose from to configure the Video Scope Layout.

Layout options

Four options let you choose how you want the Video Scopes panel to be oriented.

• Automatic: This is the default setting. How the video scopes are arranged depends on the panel’s aspect ratio. Thin and tall put you into a vertical arrangement, while wide and short put you into a horizontal arrangement. Rectangular puts you into Grid mode.
• Grid: Forces grid mode no matter how the panel is sized.
• Horizontal: Forces horizontal mode no matter how the panel is sized.
• Vertical: Forces vertical mode no matter how the panel is sized.

Add Scopes

Choose any of the scopes in the list to add it to the current layout. The following scopes are currently available:

• Vectorscope: Shows a polar (circular) analysis of the hue and saturation found in the picture. Hue is represented via the angle of the graph around the center, while saturation is represented by the extent of the graph away from the center. The center is desaturated, whereas longer extents represent more saturation. Two notches in each vectorscope graticule indicate 75% (inner) and 100% (outer) saturation. A centered graph implies a well-balanced color temperature throughout the image. An off-centered graph indicates a color cast (tint). False color shows which parts of the graph correspond to which colors in the image.
• Waveform Monitor: Displays an analysis of luminance levels across the picture. Each line of the image is analyzed from left to right and plotted as a wave graph, with the height indicating the brightness of each pixel in that line. Higher waveforms imply higher luminance values; lower waveforms imply lower luminance values. All lines superimposed together show you the total distribution of highlights (near the top), midtones, and shadows in the image. False color shows which parts of the graph correspond to which colors in the image. The peak luminance set by color management is shown as the max line, while 0% black is shown as the MIN line. If you’re outputting HDR, an amber reference white line shows you the current Graphics White level set by color management, which serves as the threshold dividing SDR levels below from HDR peaks above.
• Parade: Shows an analysis of each color channel of the image using waveform graphs. Color temperature imbalances can be seen in specific tonal regions of the signal, as reflected in the uneven heights of the three graphs at the top and at the bottom. Large differences between the heights of the three channels imply a color cast, while small differences imply a neutrally balanced signal, with the height of the imbalance indicating if it’s an issue with the highlights at top, or the shadows at bottom. Graticules are the same as the Waveform Monitor.
• Overlay: Identical to the RGB parade except the three channel waveforms are superimposed. Tonal zones where these three channels align can be seen in white as the tinted red, green, and blue waveforms additively align. Tonal zones where the three waveforms diverge can be seen as increasingly saturated parts of the three waveforms. Essentially, divergencies at the top imply a highlight color temperature imbalance, while divergencies at the bottom imply a shadow color temperature imbalance. Graticules are the same as the Waveform Monitor.

Video Scope scales and graticules

Each video scope has an overlay, or graticule, that can be used to compare graphs and measure their intensity, with an accompanying numeric scale at the left. These scopes automatically scale to fit the range of the video signal being output based on the Peak Luminance color management setting, which is often tied to the Output Color Space.

To change a scope’s graticule:

• Right-click on a particular scope, and choose one of the following options affecting the Waveform Monitor, RGB Parade, and RGB Overlay scopes:
• 10-bit: Shows the 10-bit numeric range of video encoding code values. Good for QC if specific code values are specified.
• Percentage: The default. Shows the available Min to Max scale as 0 (Black) to 100 (Peak Luminance). Good for basic reference, and similar (but not identical) to IRE.
• HDR: Shows a scale in “nits” (cd/m²) that’s typical for measuring the signal while grading high dynamic range (HDR) output in either HLG or PQ. Typical programs are mastered with 1000 nits max, while premium “evergreen” content is often mastered with 4000 nits max.

Video Scope Settings

Clicking the wrench opens the Video Scopes Settings, exposing the following options:

• Scope Opacity: A slider lets you choose how bright or dark the scopes appear.
• Overlay Opacity: A slider lets you choose how bright or dark the scope overlays appear.
• Saturation: Most video scopes have a false color representation of how the colors in the image correspond to the graph of the scope, or which waveforms correspond to which graph. This lets you intensify, subdue, or remove these colors entirely.
• Show number values: Lets you show or hide the numeric scales to the left of each graph.
• Always Show Full Graticule: When you shrink the video scopes, the graticules start skipping lines to avoid crowding. This setting forces all lines of the graticule to display, providing maximum information density regardless of scope size.