[Tig] Scopes

[Joe Owens]

Re: the Apple COLOR "spinning top".

Just another way to conceptualize the colourspace, since the CIE  
representation isn't all that intuitive, and pretty scary because it  
would show you how non-linear the real deal is.  Mostly, the COLOR  
tool is a client-oriented "thing that goes beep", and gets cluttered  
up with the 'capture cage' secondary indicators,, and if you lay it  
down on its side... is a vectorscope.

It is also a sampled environment ( I don't know whether its every 7th  
line, or whatever, like Final Cut) but really just another way of  
plotting where the pixels might land in combinations between 0-0-0  
and 255-255-255.  Personally, I like the Tektronix "Double Diamond",  
plotting R vs G, and B vs minusG.  When you stand the traces up  
between the apexes, that's gray scale -- where they intersect in the  
middle, that's black.  Utterly impassive.  Of course, that doesn't  
help if you are fighting simultaneous dynamic contrast, which is  
human physiology.

You need to know where "0" is, and you need to know where "100" is,  
and "80"... all that stuff.  Its just navigation, after all.  The  
scope will tell you that you have "adapted" if what you are observing  
is at variance with what you are seeing.  That is, the machine will  
tell you things your eye cannot and your eye can see things that the  
machine cannot.

Recent example.  Called in to comment on a transfer that "didn't look  
right"...   turns out it had been digitized out-of-scale --one glance  
at a scope was all it took (and days of finger pointing and telephone  
tag went away...).  Really, who needs the stress?  The machismo is  
like working without a net, so then, its not really about the job  
then,  is it?

Joe Owens
Presto!Digital Colourgrade
302-9664 106 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta T5H0N4
+1 780 421-9980
jpo at prestodigital.ca