What You See Might Not Be What You Get

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.

graphics/06fig23.gif

Here's one quick method of setting up your system correctly:

  1. Use a color-bar generator or other source of accurate color bars (from a test-signal generator, professional video camera, master tape of color bars, and so on).

  2. Feed the color-bar signal directly into the vectorscope to verify the signal's accuracy. Each color should appear in its respective box on the vectorscope screen, as shown in Figure 6.24.

    Figure 6.24. Properly adjusted colors should appear in the appropriate box.

    graphics/06fig24.gif

  3. Feed the signal into your monitor. Use the Loop Out feature to feed the signal into the vectorscope.

  4. When the scope properly displays the test-pattern signal, use the controls on your monitor to get the image onscreen to display proper color bar colors.

  5. Feed the color bars from the generator (or other source) through your editing system. If all controls with Premiere and your capture card are set properly, the color bars should appear correctly on your monitor.

  6. Digitize a few seconds of the color bars, and output them to tape.

  7. Connect the vectorscope to the output of the videotape recorder. If all controls with each aspect of your system are set properly, the color bars should appear correctly on the vectorscope display.

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.



Premiere 6. 5 Fundamentals
Premiere 6.5 Fundamentals
ISBN: B000H2MVO4
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 219

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