Broadcast Monitor · Picture & Scopes
Start with exposure and color. Each tool answers a different question, and you can learn one at a time.
False color replaces the image's normal colors with colors that represent brightness ranges. Instead of trying to judge a face against a bright background, look at the range that face falls into.
Try it during rehearsal: frame your presenter, turn on false color, and observe how the face changes as you adjust exposure. Use the display's scale and your intended look; there is no single exposure value that suits every face or lighting design.
False color is included in all three editions.
Zebras place a striped overlay on parts of the image that meet a brightness condition. They make it easy to locate those areas without looking away from the picture.
Try it on a bright stage: use high zebras to see which parts of a white shirt or projection screen cross your selected threshold. A zebra warning invites a closer look; it does not automatically mean the image is clipped.
Free includes high zebras. Express and Professional include all zebra options.
Detail enhancement boosts fine edges in the RGB picture view, with optional grayscale. Adjust its strength to make detail easier to judge, and use the threshold to limit enhancement of low-level noise. Express and Professional include these controls.
During camera setup: maximize the picture pane, enable detail enhancement, and watch fine edges as you adjust focus. Turn it off again to judge the ordinary picture. Enhancement helps reveal detail; it cannot restore detail that the camera did not capture.
This is a viewing aid. It does not modify the captured samples or the signal measured by the waveform, vectorscope, or histogram. Zebra thresholds still use source measurements.
If you send a composed monitoring layout to an output, its picture pane includes the enhancement. Disable it when you want that output to show the ordinary picture.
A waveform plots signal level vertically and image position horizontally. Bright parts appear higher on the display; dark parts appear lower. That relationship helps you connect a reading to an area of the picture.
During a live event: check whether a spotlight is pushing a presenter's face much higher than the rest of the scene, or compare black and highlight levels as you move between cameras. Look for lost separation at the extremes, then check the picture as you adjust.
Express includes Y linear-light luminance, Y′ encoded luma, and the Y′CrCb, R′G′B′, and Y′R′G′B′ parades. Professional adds white-trace Hue, Saturation, and Luma/Chroma modes. The video-colored Y, Y′, Hue, and Saturation waveform variants are reserved for the Doug edition.
A parade separates signal components into displays side by side. An RGB parade, for example, lets you compare the red, green, and blue channels.
On a subject that should be neutral, a channel that sits noticeably higher than the others can help explain a color cast. Use a known neutral subject when matching balance: a red backdrop should have more red, so unequal channels across an entire scene are not automatically a problem.
Production payoff: a more informed starting point for camera matching, especially when cuts reveal brightness or color differences.
A vectorscope shows color as direction and distance from the center. Direction represents hue; distance represents saturation, or how strong the color is. Neutral content stays near the center.
During camera matching: compare the same subject under the same lighting. Does one camera push color in a different direction? Is its color much stronger? The vectorscope helps make those differences visible.
Included in Express and Professional.
A histogram groups pixels by level. It shows how much of the image falls into dark, middle, and bright ranges, giving you a quick overview of the signal's distribution.
During setup: watch how the distribution changes when the stage lights come up. A concentration at one edge is worth investigating, but it may simply reflect the scene. Unlike a waveform, a histogram does not tell you where those pixels are in the image.
Express includes Y, Y′, and parade histograms. Professional adds Hue and Saturation distributions.
These examples use a built-in sample scene. Explore sample scenes and test patterns without capture hardware, then apply what you learn to your production signal. The guide identifies which editions include each monitoring tool.
Looking for two-source comparison?
Explore chromaticity, Color Balance Plot, and Hue / Saturation.
The Picture toolbar groups Pan, Pixel Inspector, and Area of Interest tools with display, focus, and exposure controls. Hover over a settings icon to open its flyout. Express and Professional include pixel inspection and a picture face-overlay control. Professional adds held-key face zoom and a shared analysis region so supported scopes examine the selected part of the same source.
Professional also supports source LUTs and reference overlays. Keep LUT processing intentional: an applied source LUT changes the processed signal supplied to supported measurement views. A reference guide helps compare positions or levels without changing the signal.
Click the scope picture or graph to focus its pane before using these shortcuts. Held inspection keys return to your previous view when released; available channels and tools follow your edition.
| Shortcut | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Hold Y, R, G, or B | Temporarily inspect luma or an RGB channel in Picture, or a supported channel in Waveform and Histogram. Hold RGB keys together to combine channels. |
| Hold H, S, or M | Expand highlights, shadows, or midtones for a closer look in Picture and supported measurement views. |
| Hold numpad 1–9 | Magnify a region of Picture or a supported scope. The keypad follows screen position: 7/8/9 at the top, 4/5/6 in the middle, and 1/2/3 at the bottom. Several held keys average their target centers. |
| Hold Z or numpad + | In Picture, inspect a 2× crop centered on the upper-third line. |
| T; hold Space | In Picture, T cycles the available drag tools. Hold Space to pan temporarily, then release to return to your selected tool. |
| Alt+1–9; Alt+0 | Select the corresponding toolbar view in the targeted pane. Alt+0 selects the tenth view when available. |
| Ctrl+Space | Toggle freeze/resume in a pane with a freeze control. |
Try it with a sample photograph: hold H to inspect a bright stage light, release, then hold R or B to examine its channel contribution. In Picture, add Shift for monochrome or Ctrl to invert the temporary display.
For supported graph controls, use the mouse wheel to zoom, Shift+wheel for trace intensity, Ctrl+wheel for trace width, and Ctrl+Shift+wheel for persistence. Alt+wheel cycles available views. Which controls respond depends on the scope and selected mode.
Face zoom and Quad Balance shortcuts · Move between panes and workspaces
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