How do I check that my footage does not have blown highlights?
 

I have shot various sets of test footage and imported it into Adobe Premiere Pro CS3.

I want to check my test footage does not have blown highlights or clipped colour information in the highlights.

Does anyone know how to do this?

For a still image in Photoshop I would use the separate red, green and blue histograms. I've never used the scopes in Premiere before and am baffled by them.

The reference monitor will tell you. It will give you a bunch of information. The configuration I like is the one with v-scope, luminance and rgb parade. Just make sure that you un-check the "Setup" option at the top of the window. That way it won't be compensated, giving you inaccurate information about what's really in the video.

Bring up your Vect/YC wave/YCrCb parade monitor, and look for banding at the 100 IRE mark..
Similar to this..

If, within the many colour correcting tools available, you try to bring down the highlights, and the crushed top bar follows down, you have clipping.
This image has poor tonal range, but you get my gist.
Of course, preview on the monitor will be your last clew. If you can't see detail in the highlights after bringing levels down, you've clipped.

I highly recomment buying the book, by Steve Hullfish. The art and technique of digital color correction.
It's on the right hand side of the HOME page..

Good luck!!!

it's, actually, quite easy to tell, however, it does require a that you spend some time actually looking at your images. blown hi-lites display as areas with absolutely NO detail...everything is a yellowish white. Not hard to spot as it's quite distracting and ugly.

Thanks Bill, Peter and Tripp :)

I will have a go looking at the scopes when I return home to my secret editing chamber.