Histogram...someone educate me?

[PhilN]

Someone please explain how to use the histogram properly? The LCD is frustrating, half the time its too bright to see, and increasing the brightness is decieving, an underexposed shot can look correct.

I understand that the histogram shows brightness levels, darker to the left, brighter to the right.

If the graph is bunched up one side it indicated too bright/too dark. But what about if they go way off the top? Is this "clipping"?

Tips, advice,help would be appreciated.

[chs4]

Take a look here: Understanding Histograms (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml)

[ssim]

The link that Chip gave you is good and you should be able to extrapilate a good understanding from that. This link (http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;237440425;fp;2;fpid;1585691688) discusses it but more from a post processing point of view. I did a quick google on understanding histograms and there is a wealth of resources available.

I never recommend using the LCD for anything beyond examining the histogram. As you noted if you adjust the brightness it can give you a false sense of where the image is at exposure wise. You can see if something is way out of focus but not if it is just slightly which might still yield the image unusable. I don't see anything wrong with chimping and I do so only for the histogram. I try to see this generally towards the right hand side of the graph but not bunched up on that end.

[Mark_Cohran]

If the graph is bunched up one side it indicated too bright/too dark. But what about if they go way off the top? Is this "clipping"?

Tips, advice,help would be appreciated.

Good advice in the previous posts, but to answer your specific question, clipping occurs at the right or left extremes of the histogram. The spike exceeding the range of the Y-axis isn't clipping, but merely indicates there are a great many pixels that fall into those particular light bands (more than the Y-axis scale can display).

Mark