Hawaiki Histogram - Manual

Index

Basic Operation - You can find Hawaiki Histogram in your Titles Browser in FCP X, in your Filters library in Motion, and in the Effects library in Premiere and After Effects. Histogram is designed to be used as an adjustment layer in all of these host applications - apart from Motion where it can be applied directly to any layer or group as required.
In FCP X drag the Histogram to the top of your footage in the timeline and it will sample everything it sees beneath it. Extend the clip for as long or as short as you need it. There is no need to add more than one instance of the plug-in to any timeline, since you can simply move the clip to wherever it is needed. Simply delete or mute it when you have finished with it.
In Premiere and After Effects, add an adjustment layer to your project or composition and add the Histogram plug-in to that layer. It will sample everything below it. Delete or mute the adjustment layer when you no longer need access to the plug-in.

At the top of the inspector, you will find a small version of the main histogram.

The dropdown menu just below the histogram display allows you to choose the display mode.

The default is to show all three RGB channels overlaid on top of each other, but you can select luma, red, green or blue or individually instead.

Regular scopes give you feedback about the entire frame but with Hawaiki Histogram you can be very specific about the area you are targeting which makes for far greater precision and ease of use.

Histogram allows you to sample either an area of the frame, or the entire frame. Use the Mode dropdown menu to select the preferred option.
Frame - By default Hawaiki Histogram samples the entire frame.
Area - Allows you to set a rectangular area to sample. When enabled the Area onscreen controls are activated and a yellow guide outlines the area selected. The two onscreen controls can be moved in any direction to define an area to sample.
NB. At the bottom of the Inspector, there are position controls for both the Area OSCs, which can be used to reset the positions to their defaults.

In FCP X and Motion holding down the option key while clicking either control will also reset their positions; holding command while moving the mouse will slow the speed of the pointer, allowing for more precise selection; and holding the shift key will constrain that movement to either the x or y axis depending on the initial movement.
Guide - Turns the area guide on and off.

Brightness - controls the brightness of the display background - very useful for improving readability depending on the image being evaluated.
Opacity - changes the opacity of the histogram and background. A value of 50% is a nice compromise between seeing the histogram and the picture content of the entire frame.

NB. the opacity of the inspector Histogram is not affected.
Background - Turns the histogram background on and off.
Grid - turns the background grid on and off.

Enable the Histogram checkbox to view the histogram in the viewer. By default the histogram displays four sections, with the red channel displayed at the top, then the green, the blue and finally the overlay view which shows all three channels at once.
Mode - Choose between displaying the default four histogram view or view a single histogram showing either the RGB overlay, Luma, or the individual Red Green and Blue channels.
Vertical Scale - allows you to scale the display within the histogram - it can be a good idea to reduce the vertical scale if you are sampling a very small area of the frame.
Size - Change the size of the onscreen histogram.
Position - position the histogram either at the Left or Right of the frame.