Day Fifteen: Why Use A Histogram?

A histogram is a bar graph that shows the colors in your photo, remember? There are 256 colored pixels that make up a picture with the far left being black, and showing all of the colors in between until you reach the far right. The reason you use the histogram to review your pictures while you are photographing them is so you can get a true read on how exposed your pictures are. The little screen can't show the picture correctly.

Imagine I am taking a photo of my boys wearing white shirts on a sunny morning. After I take the photo and check the histogram, I will be able to tell how the colors look by the bar graph. I want the histogram to have all of the bars in the graph in the middle. Chances are, the white shirts will be over exposed and the line on the far right will be high, but it will look okay if all of the other colors are mid ranged. If we changed the exposure to reduce the white tones, most likely the dark tones will be under exposed and all of the bars in the graph on the light (right) side will be low to the bottom of the scale. Vice versa if we over expose the photo.

What does this mean in the field? It's a quick way to check how the colors look on the go. Especially if I don't have a long time to get photos....like with my busy boys.

Your photo for tonight, which I checked the histogram and it was all in the mid range area, is the saddest picture of Ethan. He woke up this morning feeling unwell and I couldn't help but snap this photo. He spent the morning laying flat on his stomach on the couch. After a dose of Motrin, he started feeling so much better. Now, I can't keep Ethan (or Evan for matter) from running through the house.