This is an important section, so pay attention. I mentioned earlier the importance of having a waveform monitor and vectorscope to check the accuracy of your video signal. A vectorscope is predominantly used to ensure that the colors you see are the same as the colors you will get in your final output media. To check the accuracy of your signal flow and monitor adjustments, you can use SMPTE color bars and a vectorscope to properly set up your system, as shown in Figure 6.23. Figure 6.23. SMPTE color bars are the standard test pattern used to calibrate a video signal.Here's one quick method of setting up your system correctly:
tip Do not use the hue and chroma adjustments on your monitor to "fix" bad image color on your source footage if you have not properly set up your system. Doing this only masks the problem until you output incorrectly colored video. tip To set up a monitor properly, you need to generate SMPTE color bars and display them onscreen. Some great books and web sites cover calibrating monitors (a topic that is beyond the scope of this book). Check out the Tektronics web site, www.tek.com, as one source of calibration tips and FAQs. If you are seeing color bars that are simply out of whack, you need to check all the controls on your deck, capture card, and software to make sure that they are not altering the signal in any way. |