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Participant
January 31, 2012
Open for Voting

P: RGB Parade and Vectorscope in Lightroom?

  • January 31, 2012
  • 51 replies
  • 56723 views

Hi
I do a lot of video editing and really like using the RGB Parade and Vectorscope.

Histogram for photos aren't as detailed. Is there any plugins or features that have similar functions like RGB Parade and Vectorscope for use inside Lightroom or maybe as an external editor?

Best regards Simon

51 replies

Participating Frequently
January 2, 2025

ofcourse professionals want to professionaly know if their colors are correct. 
I do video and photo and I do miss the accuracy of scopes. 
It is so, so easy for adobe to implement it, they just don't care. Could even allow it to be disabled by default and just toggle in on through the settings.. implementation is such a low cost for them.. 

Known Participant
January 2, 2025

What professional photographers are not aware of is that vectorscopes and histograms provide entirely different information. The histogram serves the function of a waveform monitorin video in what referred to as the parade mode (red, green, blue displayed separately). The colored hump of the waveform monitor (below left) shows the range of light and dark for each color channel, scanning the frame from left to right. A lot of videographers prefer just to see luminance information, which can be represented by a single hump on the scope. Now, note the line on the vectorscope (below right) at about 11 o'clock. That's the all-important "flesh vector". That is the color of human flesh (all ethnicities). The image I used for this is a head shot, so there are not a lot of other prominent colors in the image. The vectorscope provides other information, like if the blacks (the glob in the very center of the scope) have a color shift that may affect the balance of the rest of the image. 

 

If there is a professional photographer out there who can tell me how to find a correct flesh tone in a histogram, I would be most grateful. Otherwise, I would say that we are talking about two completely different measuring tools here.

Ric

 

Participating Frequently
January 2, 2025
quote Do you think many "professionals" would use this to adjust their pictures?

 

Professional photographers tend to use histograms and are satisfied with them, and do not even understand what vectorscope does. Video people prefer vectorscopes. 

 

~~ LR user since 2006, PS since 1991 ~~
Inspiring
November 7, 2024

Yes, a vectorscope with skin tone line a 10000%! Need it so badly!

Participant
November 7, 2024

Adobe should improve Lightroom with professional color gradinging tools (vectorscope, parade and Waveform). Relying on "eyeball it" isn't sufficient for consistent, high-quality results. The viral "black and blue or white and gold dress" debate highlighted how subjective color perception can be—accurate color tools are essential for reliable, professional outcomes. Come on! This has been a asked feature at least since 2014.

johnrellis
Legend
November 7, 2024

Indeed, it's one of the more popular outstanding feature requests.

 

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, here's the existing Idea:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic-ideas/p-rgb-parade-and-vectorscope-in-lightroom/idi-p/7806134

Inspiring
October 15, 2024

Please add a Vectorscope (with skin tone line) to Lightroom Classic and/or Lightroom

Participant
April 18, 2024

Topic: Vectorscope

 

Just posting as a request for vector scope in lightroom classic

EsTaF
Inspiring
March 23, 2024

Darktable, 3dlut creator, rawcolor app have vectorscope. acr/lr for quick editing processes.

 

Known Participant
January 30, 2024

@ivan25349743g7a0 

This is what a vectorscope looks like. The pattern shows how it looks with SMPTE color bars as a source. The dots in the little boxes on the graticule (face markings) represent where those colors should be. We shoot a very accurate color bar chart to set up and match the colors coming from multiple studio cameras.

 

You'll notice a vector running to a position that is about 10 o'clock opposite the -I vector. We sometimes call this the flesh vector. Regardless of a subject's skin color, it should always line up with this vector. It will, if everything else is set right, but most camera shaders (the person who does the camera matching) will put sombody in front of the cameras, get a close up, and use this vector to make sure the vector matches on all the cameras. A good shader (or editor, for that matter) will never totally trust what they see on a monitor no matter how good and well-calibrated it is. The scopes always rule. 

 

 

I hope this helps clear things up.

 

(Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons, Denelson83)

(Edited to fix embarassing typos 2.1.24)

Known Participant
January 30, 2024

If you RGB histogram that shows three separate RGB histograms for R G and B and also Waveform and Color Parade that makes ton of difference, as for Vecroscope, i am not even sure what it does.