Why don't photographers use scopes?

[Yash Lucid]

Why don't photographers use scopes when color grading? There isn't even a scopes option in photoshop. Granted, we use scopes to monitor levels and consistency for broadcast, but wouldn't potographers benefit from using scopes? I spoke to some and they have never heard of an RGB parade. They probably thought of people flooding the streets in red, green and blue...

I say this as I am getting into photography as a hobby, and my usual go to step is to first stretch the shadows and highlights, but your best bet in photoshop is to use a little histogram.

Why are scopes only used by the video industry?

 

[Paulo M. de Andrade]

Photographers use histograms, which also give you a visual representation of the signal. If you are used to scopes, you shouldn't have a hard time adapting to them. Scopes were designed for video.

 

[Jason Myres]

They also don't have to worry about their images being broadcast legal.

 

[Bart Walczak]

Although a Vectroscope in Photoshop would be handy at times.

 

[Chosa Mweemba]

The Histogram in Lightroom has RGB values represented so in a way our scopes are built into the histogram.
Just as an afterthought, how much faster would i be grading my raw photos in Resolve compared to Lightroom. Will try it out just for the fun of it. Now i really need to get a control surface for resolve.

 

[Walter Volpatto]

Photographers use histograms, which also give you a visual representation of the signal. If you are used to scopes, you shouldn't have a hard time adapting to them. Scopes were designed for video.

well can you tell me how you understand the "hue" of an image or the "saturation" of an image without a scope but using histograms only?

 

[Paulo M. de Andrade]

well can you tell me how you understand the "hue" of an image or the "saturation" of an image without a scope but using histograms only?

That's the point. Photographers don't need to worry about broadcast levels. They are free to manipulate their images as they please. We, on the other hand, need scopes.

 

[Tristan Summers]

Yeah nobody ever needed to make video assets in Photoshop did they?
Graphic designers need to know how to design for video.
A scopes plug in would be AWESOME
If it worked in Illustrator, Indesign and Photoshop I could educate about a thousand people in London in a week and end all this ugly illegal nonsense once and for all!

 

[jake blackstone]

A scopes plug in would be AWESOME
If it worked in Illustrator, Indesign and Photoshop I could educate about a thousand people in London in a week and end all this ugly illegal nonsense once and for all!

Display Photoshop on the Decklink output and use Scopebox with it. If you have an AJA card installed on the same computer, you may even get away with using a single MacPro.
Rejoice people of London, education for a thousand is on the way

 

[Tristan Summers]

Supposing I don't want to buy every graphic designer in London a deckink, another mac and scopebox??
The point here is to get none video people to design for video
Actually no, the point is millions of people already do and I am sick of telling them I can't use their 255 red
Decklink in Photoshop isn't live so kind of pointless
Present workflow is to get them to install after effects and pick colours in colour finesse, which would be easier if AE had scopes like a grown up video app
Can Scopebox do a live link from Photoshop?
I guess most designers still think a mac ia a pro machine so I don't need to worry about a Windows version
The point is, will somebody PLEASE write a scopes plug in for photoshop?

 

[Tristan Summers]

17 years on and still nothing
It's like a big communication gap
After the DV reveloution how come nobody went,"We gotta stop this madness, these graphic designers are killing us"
roll on true HDR
and then a neutron bomb that destroys all the video scaling equipment on the planet

 

[Tristan Summers]

Remember when you could use extended desktop in any application and use your monitors scopes?
sigh
This is just about TV branding really, just makes things easier if your colours are in legal range so they don't get subdued by any random legalisers
Just trying to make workable workflows for none video designers

 

[jake blackstone]

Supposing I don't want to buy every graphic designer in London a deckink, another mac and scopebox??
The point here is to get none video people to design for video
Actually no, the point is millions of people already do and I am sick of telling them I can't use their 255 red
Decklink in Photoshop isn't live so kind of pointless
Present workflow is to get them to install after effects and pick colours in colour finesse, which would be easier if AE had scopes like a grown up video app
Can Scopebox do a live link from Photoshop?
I guess most designers still think a mac ia a pro machine so I don't need to worry about a Windows version
The point is, will somebody PLEASE write a scopes plug in for photoshop?

I thought your point was "I could educate about a thousand people in London in a week and end all this ugly illegal nonsense once and for all", which I understood as you wanted to teach graphic designers to use scopes, no? Obviously thousands of those graphic designers are not going to invest in extra hardware and software, especially, if the issue discussed doesn't seem pertinent to that crowd.

 

[Tristan Summers]

Er, yes, hence saying there is a need for a scopes plug in for Photoshop illustrator and InDesign so when they are speccing colour they can understand when it is illegal, or if supplying photos dirt broadcast that can understand why it could get clipped etc. Designers don't use scopes because it is difficult but if there was an easy way they may stop asking me to use 255 red all the time

 

[Joe Bell]

I'm guessing the answer lies in how the two practices / industries have developed concurrently and differently. Signal integrity being a concern for video but not photography.

Why doesn't some video software come with temp/tint controls? Maybe there is good reason not to use, but is very intuitive to me, and I find helpful on video.

 

[Sam Gilling]

Just going to mention that anybody using Lightroom who hasn't checked out Capture One definitely should. To me at least it felt like jumping from Speedgrade to Resolve. No scope support but every tool in there feels more powerful than the equivalent in Lightroom.

 

[David Goldsmith]

I'm quite partial to darktable for RAW processing, which does have a waveform display.

 

[Andrew Webb]

Histograms, Eyedropper tool, ICC profile conversions, saturation masking, understanding the technical requirements of your clients. If you know how to read the Info Palette and translate RGB/CMYK/L*a*b* numbers into hue and saturation, you don't need a scope. The problem is not with the tools, it is with the people.

 

[Marc Wielage]

I bet it would also be possible to export legal SMPTE bars as a TIFF, hand that to the graphic designer, and tell them "don't let the chroma values go over this."

 

[Bart Walczak]

The problem is not with the tools, it is with the people.

I don’t think anybody sees it as a “problem”. I used to do a lot of retouching in the past with great success, then moved to video, and now I am missing video tools in Photoshop, because they sometimes can get the job done faster than your typical PS tools. And that’s it. Just another handy tool in the toolbox.