Ok photographers. I'm going to try to tackle a topic that is fairly easy to explain in person. I've done it a dozen times. But somehow in the course of prepping for this post I realized that it's easier to explain in person than in writing. But I'm taking my best shot!
The histogram. It's a graph that shows up when you hit "info" on your camera while viewing an image. It shows up when you're editing in Lightroom/Photoshop. It's everywhere! Many of you probably already know how to read one. But the more I've talked with photographers lately, the more I've realized how many of you don't. And that doesn't mean that you're not a good photographer! You don't have to know how to read a histogram to be a good photographer. But it CAN help immensely with getting your exposure correct in-camera and with proper post-production.
The histogram is a graphic representation of the tonal range in a photograph, and its analysis of the image's tonal range provides a precise check on exposure. The histogram depicts the range of tones in an image from the darkest on the left of the graph (0 in digital terms) to the lightest on the right side (255 in digital terms).
That's what the histogram is. But why is it an important, fundamental tool of digital photography? Simply because your understanding of the histogram will tell you if it's necessary to adjust your exposure, and it will indicate how to make that adjustment.
In this particular image, as I setup the shot few things that I will take into consideration tech-wise. Imagine that it is divided into 5 pieces on histogram . I wanted all 5 elements to be in one graph, BLACKS, SHADOWS, MIDTONES, HIGHLIGHTS and WHITES. The leftmost section represents the blacks in the image, then the mid-tones of the image are represented by "shadows" (the background), what Lightroom confusingly calls "exposure", and "highlights". Then the brightest part of the image is represented by the "whites" (her Wedding gown).
You should check the histogram when a scene's lighting is especially tricky; when there are areas of deep shadow and bright light in the same scene; and when you're going to take a series of images in the same setting and want to be sure your exposure is right on target.
A glance at the histogram will tell you if parts of your photo are over- or underexposed.
Go try it.
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