Our cameras come with a bunch of features to help us capture the images we want. Among them, we use mostly only the exposure settings and choose to ignore a lot of other helpful features that our camera offers us. The histogram is one of them. Today we are going to discuss histogram in short, but with all the necessary details.
What is Histogram?
The topic histogram needs and deserves a lot of time to be discussed with. But, I will help you understand it in a simpler way in my own terms here.
In general, it is a useful method or tool that your camera has to help you get a quick summary about the tonal range in any given image. It graphs the tones of your image from black to white, from left to right. If the graph point is set at a higher level in any of these sides, then you would find that tone in the image.
For instance, if there are a lot of dark pixels on your image, then the histogram would be skewed more toward left and if there are a lot of lighter tones, then it would be skewed more toward the right side.
The LCD displays in our cameras are not good enough to give us the tonal detail accurately of each captured image. In such cases, the histograms can be used to understand the right tone of the image and help you take further action accordingly.
Is there any perfect Histogram level?
Photography is more like paintings. And that’s why there is no perfect or an ideal histogram that everyone must follow. In some cases, you might want the photo to be too dark and in some other cases, you might want the photo to look more white.
Additionally, tools like Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and other photo editing tools are also equipped with Histograms to let you understand the tones of the image. You can use this post as a reference to understand the histogram better while you are practicing a shot in real time.
Share your views on the Histograms by commenting in the comments section below. We will get back to you in case of any queries.
For more similar posts on photography, stay tuned with my blog.
