All Within Two Degrees

Years ago, I took some training on new Broadcast TV equipment. When setting up multiple broadcast cameras to make them look alike, you use a set of scopes called Waveform and Vector Scopes. The waveform shows luminance or light levels. The vector scope shows color saturation and hues. The picture I posted here is a Vector Scope with Color Bars as the signal. This shows degrees much like a compass, where 360 degrees is straight up. This particular training was for a new skin-tone card we installed in studio cameras. What these cards did was to sample a specific color tone and smear it to make a human face look smoother. So if someone on camera had lines or blemishes on their face, this card would make the face look smooth and without blemishes—one of the tools of the trade in TV studio work.

We had several examples of people with drastically different appearances to shade the cameras with. One guy was a dark-skinned African American, another was a pale-skinned lady who was of Irish descent, and another was a Hispanic man with deep lines in his face. As the instructor explained how to set up the cameras using an MCU, or Master Control Unit, connected to several CCUs, or Camera Control Units, we could bring up each camera on the scopes and adjust the outputs. The instructor pointed out that the hue level on the vector scope for skin tone was in the upper-right of the 360-degree scale. He also pointed out that all human skin was within two degrees of hue. In other words, there is no color difference among the three people sitting in front of the cameras, only a difference in luminance (light reflection). I was amazed that the color of every human is basically the same, only the luminance, or light level, was different.

So when someone says something about the color of skin, there is absolutely no difference in color, only reflectivity of light. Same thing when someone says something about Race, I know we are all of the same race, the Human Race. I truly hate how politics tries to divide people when there is really no difference between us, only cultural differences.