Leveraging the Vectorscope for Better Color Correction in Premiere Pro

Our eyes process colors differently. When two people look at the same picture, they may see different shades of colors. In post-production, Vectorscopes help to color grade and make sure you get your images exactly right. This means that you will process the exact color that you want across devices. Premiere Vectorscope is a great choice for anyone looking to correct and grade colors. Using Vectorscope Premiere allows you to get quantitative data about your image for a more accurate assessment of colors within the film. In this article, we explore what comprises Premiere Pro Vectorscope and how to use them in video editing.

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Part 1. Vectorscope: What is It and How to Read

Vectorscopes provide a great post-production way for color correction. It is video scope that provides greater data about the color properties of an image. Another way to look at it is that a Vectorscope is a circular graph, which monitors the following information of an image. By looking at it, you can measure saturation outward from the center while hue is measured in a circular pattern.

The Vectorscope contains markings indicating the degree of saturation and hue in an image. The distance of the markings from the center indicates how saturated the color is in your image. In simple terms, the further the markings, the more saturated the color. The two main options of Vectorscope are HLS and YUV. The HLS displays the hue, lightness, saturation, and signal information at a glance. On the other hand, the YUV mode contains several color boxes, giving accurate levels of hue and saturation.

Vectorscopes are useful to filmmakers and editors to ensure greater conformity in a film as they transition from one shot to the next. When the camera captures an image with too much saturation, using a Vectorscope helps to reduce the said saturation. This makes Vectorscope a useful feature for color correction and color grading. Color correction involves altering the colors of an image within a film to provide consistency and tone for the film. On the other hand, color grading is more like a supercharged version of color correction. It refers to altering a film so that it matches a tone or theme. Since the two, grading and correction are important, more video editing will use a combination of both.

How to Read a Vectorscope

Learning how to read a Vectorscope will make your video editing fun and easier. The best way is to view the Vectorscope in relation to the color wheel. When using Premiere Vectorscope, the colors are nicely labeled for anyone to understand. You only need to understand the primary colors of saturation and hue to accurately read a Vectorscope.

The hue color is the direction to which the marketer points. For instance, a marker pointing toward the boxes labeled “R” indicates that the hue is predominantly red. On the other hand, the saturation correlates to the length of the marker. The image is more saturated when the marker is furthest from the center of the wheel.

Keep note of the two boxes in each main color. The box that is close to the center indicates 75%, and you will normally avoid the marker extending beyond this first box. Any marketer that extends beyond this is known as non-broadcast safe or illegal colors. Although you may need to go beyond the first box in some projects for stylistic reasons, the general rule of thumb is to avoid that.

Without proper calibration, your images may end up looking too red or too blue. They will not look natural at all and will affect the overall quality of your video. Therefore, using the features within the vectorsope will help you color-grade your images to perfection.

Part 2. ** Vectorscope in Premiere Pro

Just like many other video editing software, Adobe Premiere Pro offers Vectorscope to help in post-production. The best way to look at Vectorscope in Premiere Pro is to use the Color Correction workspace. Once you have launched the software, Click Window, followed by Workspace, and then Color Correction. Access the reference monitor directly to deliver the program.

The reference monitor will first display composite video. Clicking on the setting icon allows you to access the panel and choose the video scope you want to use. Now, this is how you use the Vectorscope in Premiere Pro:

1. Reading a Vectorscope on Premiere Pro

A Vectorscope is similar to a color wheel. It displays colors in the same places as the wheel, with cyan to the bottom right and red to the top left. When you see a dot or line in the Vectorscope, you can tell it is giving you information about the color or chrominance of a shot. Essentially, this information is the hue (specific color) and the saturation (the strength of that hue).

As you examine the Vectorscope, you get to see how strong a particular color is by the length of the line from the center of the wheel. A longer line indicates that the color is more saturated. However, all Vectorscopes have small color targets. The Vectorscope points are lined with a drop-down used to read the scope. The default is set to 75%, which is a good limit for a typical broadcast system.

2. Adjusting Skin Tones

A commonly used feature of the Premier Pro Vectorscope is the Skin Tone Line. With this feature, you get the line on the scope between the Yellow and the Red sections at about 10.30 or 11 o’clock position.

The Vectorscope skin tone line represents the color of blood flowing through the skin. You can use this line to check the accuracy of skin tone color representation regardless of the ethnicity of the person you’re filming. In particular, video images are more accurate

The major problem is figuring out how to look at skin tones in a shot with many other colors. With the skin tons line in Premiere Pro, color correction becomes easy and quick. You only need to use a garbage matte, which is found under video effects then keying. Adjust the points so that they cover the skin of the person on the shot, then look at the Premiere Pro Vectorscope to see your end results.

Part 3. **How to Use Vectorscope in Filmora

The choice of video editing software can have an impact on how well you use your Vectorscopes. Wondershare Filmora is a great choice for anyone who wants to achieve great results with their videos. The versatile video editing software offers four types of video scopes, including the Vectorscope. This gives you more flexibility in video editing and achieving accurate results in color correction and grading. With the recent V13, you also get access to a range of AI features that make video editing quicker and easier.

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Access Vectorscope on Filmora

Accessing Vectorscope in Filmora is straightforward. As part of the four available video scopes, Filmora has made it easy to use Vectorscope during video editing. Here is a step-by-step guide to follow:

Step 1Create a New Project on Filmora

Once you have downloaded and installed the Filmora software on your desktop, launch it and click Create a New Project.

Step 2Access Video Scopes

After starting a new project, head to the top right corner of the main interface. Click on the Video Scope button to launch the video scope bar on the preview screen.

Step 3Customize Video Scopes Layout Bar

Customizing the layout of the video scope bar allows you to have more freedom in using the feature. You have the option to choose from four layouts or expand the button to display the video scope’s name. The purpose of this step is to modify the display option of the video scopes, allowing you to have a clear view of what you are editing.

Step 4Manage the Vectorscope as Desired

On the preview screen, choose the Vectorscope option. This video scope allows you to define the skin tone indication for better color grading and correction.

Step 5Change Other Video Scopes

To achieve more accurate and better results, explore the other video scopes in the same window. View the color changes in your image through parade, histogram, and waveform video scopes. You can also change the color channels to view specific color changes across the video.

Conclusion

Vectorscopes are great for post-production color correction. Although lesser-known features to many people, they are widely used in video production. They ensure that the colors in your video are consistent across all clips or shots of your film. Since filming will often involve different shots and settings, we recommend using Wondershare Filmora for your video editing. It comes with an easy-to-use Vectorscope and other video scopes that help you achieve great results with color correction and grading.

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