Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 1223)

436 Part II Project Interchange
Using Scopes Versus Looking at the Picture
There are two pieces of information that you have available to work with while
performing color correction: the readouts displayed in the Video Scopes tab, and the
visual image as displayed on your NTSC or PAL broadcast video monitor. Each has
advantages and disadvantages; you’ll want to use both equally to determine what
needs to be done.
The Final Cut Pro scopes are very good for showing you quantitative information about
the relative distribution of luminance, the balance of different colors, the amount of
saturation, and the range of color that exists in your clip. This information can help you
decide how to adjust the controls of the color correction filter being used, and let you
spot details that you may not have noticed in the picture.
Useful though the scopes are, in the end it’s still important to carefully look at the clip
you’re working on and compare it visually to previous clips you’re trying to match. The
Multiple Edits screen layout is ideal for comparing adjacent clips in your sequence to
one another on your computer screen for a relative comparison.
Another extremely useful procedure when correcting one clip to match another is the
ability to quickly flip back and forth between multiple edit points in the Canvas. This
allows you to compare the clip being color-corrected to the clip being used for
reference on your external broadcast monitor. Since your external broadcast monitor is
showing you the most accurate representation of your clips, this is an important
process. By rapidly flipping back and forth between the corrected clip and the
reference clip, you can easily spot the true differences between the clips.