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Mastering DaVinci Resolve Scopes: A Comprehensive Guide

Liza Brown
Liza Brown Originally published Jan 13, 24, updated Oct 14, 24

How do you set up DaVinci scopes? The internal color scopes in Resolve are flexible and customizable but can be confusing. The built-in DaVinci Resolve scope used to be limited only a few possibilities. However, the new 9-scope view offers a wider range of choice, making them a powerful tool for video editing. In this article, we will explore how to set up DaVinci scopes to achieve better color results.

In this article
  1. Part 1. Unlocking Color Precision: Exploring the Improved Scopes in DaVinci Resolve
  2. Part 2. Mastering Scopes in DaVinci Resolve: A Brief Guide
  3. Part 3: Edit Like a Pro: Mastering Video Scopes in Filmora
  4. Conclusion
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Part 1. Unlocking Color Precision: Exploring the Improved Scopes in DaVinci Resolve

The Blackmagic Design continues to improve the Resolve to make it better with every iteration. The new features improve colorist workflow in less powerful ways. The major improvements include a major facelift to the scope, allowing professions to do more with DaVinci resolve. Let’s have a look at some of these changes:

1. CIE 1931 Color Space

The inclusion of the CIE chromaticity diagram is perhaps the biggest change to DaVinci scopes. It displays the gamut of the project as set in the Color Management preferences. This makes it a useful alternate way of looking at the trace of an image to judge when the values are out of legal range. It also functions as an educational tool for learning about the range of color spaces.

cie 1931 color space

2. Low Pass Filter

The wavefront and parade scopes now have a low pass filter, which reduces noise in the trace. This visually sharpens the display of the scopes, allowing easier detection of elements in the frame.

low pass filter

The image above shows the major improvements. The second set of waveforms has more defined lines. These have the low-pass filter activated, which makes the scopes easier to read.

3. High, Mid, and Low Views in Vectorscope

The vectorscope has been added to the ability to toggle the mid-tones, shadows, and highlights of the image independently. You can set the ranges with greater visualization control.

high, mid, and low views in vectorscope

As seen in the picture above, the vectorscope controls allow you to select the low, mid, or high range of the image. You can also set the low and high ranges as desired.

4. Histograms Over Curves

Another great DaVinci scope is the histogram, which now appears outside of the scope panel. The new improvements have embedded the histogram inside the Curves tab on the bottom Palette. Click on the three dots in the Custom Curves tab. The pulldown menu that appears includes the Input or Output of the histogram. With these settings, you can find the element in the frame that helps you make adjustments quickly.

histograms over curves

5. Scope Quality

The GPU-accelerated scopes engine allows the scopes to respond quickly. Users have the option to set the quality to high, medium, or low and the scopes will respond to a range of hardware systems. Depending on whether you are working on a stationary short or looking to see how the scopes react in real-time, you will be able to toggle the modes quickly and easily.

scope quality

6. YRGB View in Histogram and Parade

The histogram and parade now come with the ability to view luminance together with the red, green, and blue channels. Users also have the option for YCbCr mode in the Parade.

yrgb view in histogram and parade

7. Extents

These are weak elements in the signore, which are of lesser importance compared to the stronger elements. However, Danvici now allows them to be revealed for a full illustration of the information that lies in the image. Consequently, extents can be used to determine whether the data is being clipped beyond legal limits.

extent

Part 2. Mastering Scopes in DaVinci Resolve: A Brief Guide

DaVinci scopes help you to analyze images as a basis for color correction. When used properly, scopes help in fixing white balance issues and checking saturation. They also allow you to get the correct exposure and check details like skin tone. To use scopes in DaVinci Resolve, go to the color page in the bottom right corner. You can also click on the small graph icon to view the scope. Here is how to use them:

1. Waveform

The Waveform represents the brightness or luminance of your image. In this video scope, the brightest parts are at the top while the darkest are at the bottom. The pixels are represented from left to right.

waveform

The Waveform scope on DaVinci Resolve is helpful when you are checking for clipping. This simply means finding out whether the image is too bright or too dark. The waveform also ensures that the image is properly exposed. The colorize feature of the waveform shows the colors of the image while the extent shows the darkest or lightest parts of the image.

2. Parade (RGB)

The RGB Parade comprises 3 waveforms that represent the luminance of red, green, and blue channels. The approach for reading the parade video scope is similar to that of the waveform. However, you now look at the balance between the colors correct the white balance, and check for a color cast.

parade

The Parade works almost in a similar manner as the waveform. It displays the red, green, and blue channels of the image as separate waveforms. This way, you can easily identify and correct color casts while ensuring the colors in the image are balanced. The video scope provides useful information to decide which parts of the image need to be corrected or tweaked further.

3. Vectorscope

Vectorscope in DaVinci Resolve shows hue and saturation on a circular graph. Hues (the colors) are indicated outside of the color wheel for easier color correction. Saturation is indicated by how far the graph extends from the center.

vectorscope

By displaying the hue and saturation of the image as a vector, this video scope helps check skin tones. The scope specifically checks whether skin tones are shifted toward colors such as yellow, magenta, or green. It allows you to make sure that the colors in your subject skin tones are not too saturated or desaturated.  

4. Histogram

Histogram is a video scope in DaVinci Resolve that displays the brightness or luminance of an image from left to right for the RGB channel. The video scope is based on the number of pixels that the colors red, blue, and green have in an image.

histogram

Using the histogram video scope on DaVinci Resolve allows you to check for overexposure or underexposure in your image. You can also ensure that the image has a good overall brightness range. The scope provides a graphical representation of tonal distribution in each channel. This way, you can evaluate the tone in detail for more accurate brightness and contrast adjustments.

Part 3: Edit Like a Pro: Mastering Video Scopes in Filmora

When working on video projects, Wondershare Filmora is a great editing software. It comes with unique features to color-correct your videos on the go as you edit it. From AI-powered features to royalty-free music, there is so much more you can do with Filmora.

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How to Use Video Scopes on Filmora

Using video scopes on Filmora is easy. The software offers four video scope options, allowing you to color-correct and grade your visual images properly. They include parade RGB, waveform, vectorscope, and histogram. When editing videos on Filmora, the video scopes can be accessed by clicking on the video scopes icon. The icon is found on the top right corner of the media player.

access video scopes

Filmora has made it easy for users to manage video scopes, and color-correct videos quickly. Users can change the layout options of the video scopes to match the editing needs of their project. You can also expand the button to show the name of the scope. As you manage the scopes, you can start with the Parade to make the necessary adjustments. Then move on to waveform, vectorscope, and histogram.

manage video scopes

The uses of the video scope on Filmora are as follows:

  • Parade – Cahnge the color channel from RBG to YRGB or YCbCr
  • Vectorscope – Identify skin tone
  • Waveform – Adjust color channels in a different way
  • Histogram – Display the multiple color adjustments in a graphical way

Conclusion

Scopes are indeed valuable to video editors and colorists. While viewing images on a monitor can be subjective, scopes allow you to analyze and define them objectively. This gives you the power to color grade and correct to ensure that viewers look at the image with a clear representation. When working on or editing your videos, we recommend Wondershare Filmora. The video editing software comes with a wide range of features and video scopes that allow you to do everything on the same platform.

Liza Brown
Liza Brown Oct 14, 24
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