Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 1308)

Learning to Read the Vectorscope
The Vectorscope shows you the distribution of color in your image on a circular scale.
The color in your video is represented by a series of connected points that fall somewhere
within this scale. The angle around the scale represents the hue displayed, with targets
indicating the primary colors of red, green, and blue and the secondary colors of yellow,
cyan, and magenta. The distance from the center of the scale to the outer ring represents
the saturation of the color being displayed. The center of the scale represents zero
saturation, while the outer ring represents maximum saturation.
Red of clothing
Blue of background
The Vectorscope is useful for seeing, at a glance, the hue and intensity of the various
colors in your image. Once you learn to identify the colors in your clips on the graph in
the Vectorscope, you will be better able to match two images as closely as possible
because you can see where they vary. For example, the image above has points of intense
red and areas of vivid blue, which you can spot immediately on the Vectorscope. The
underwater image below contains predominantly blues, which present an entirely different
profile on the Vectorscope. Although this is an extreme comparison, by looking at various
images and studying how the Vectorscope changes you’ll learn how to spot the
information you’re looking for.
Distribution of blues
1308 Chapter 78 Measuring and Setting Video Levels