Another Histogram Question

[bolling]

I have just purchased a canon 100 usm macro and have been taking some macro pictures and have noticed that the histogram is peaked out on both ends and not much in the middle. I understand how to adjust if it is peaked on just one end but what do I do when it on both. By the way the pictures look fine.

[petiot]

to start with:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml

but i thikn it would be good you do a bit of research before posting ;)

Dan

[Scottes]

The peaks just might that you had a lot of highlights and a lot of shadows. If the pictures look fine then leave them be. The histogram just shows the distribution of brightness levels in an image - it does not show if the image is right or wrong.

The histogram on the camera tell you if you've clipped any highlights or shadows. If you haven't clipped any, then you might be able to overexpose a bit to get more details.

The article Petiot posted is a great lesson in the histogram. The same author also wrote this one (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml) explaining how and why to move the histogram to the right to get more details.

[scottbergerphoto]

I have just purchased a canon 100 usm macro and have been taking some macro pictures and have noticed that the histogram is peaked out on both ends and not much in the middle. I understand how to adjust if it is peaked on just one end but what do I do when it on both. By the way the pictures look fine.
A histogram with peaks on both ends is unfortuantely an all too common situation. If your taking a picture on a sunny day with subjects in shade or a sunset in which you metered with the sun in the viewfinder, that's what you are going to get. If you try to expose more to get more detail in the shadows (left peak) your clip the highlights or lose detail in the highlights (right peak) and if you decrease exposure to move the highlights off the 255 you lose detail in the shadows. There are two solutions. The first is to decide whether the highlights or shadows are most important and properly expose the one you chose. The second is to use a graduated or split Neutral Density Filter to reduce the highlights so that the number of stops difference between highlights and shadows are reduced. This has to do with the limited dynamic range of the digital sensor. The same principle holds true for film and slides with slides having the least dynamic range and digital sensors the largest of the three.
Regards,
Scott

[bolling]

to start with:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml

but i thikn it would be good you do a bit of research before posting ;)

Dan
I appreciate your reply but I did do research including reading the link you posted which was very informative but did not answer my question so I thought I would post and find out some opinions.
Thanks for the link anyway

[bolling]

Thanks to all who answered, as usual it was very informative and my question was answered.

[Harry Settle]

to start with:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml

but i thikn it would be good you do a bit of research before posting ;)

Dan


You know. . .I find that this is a really rude answer. These forums are designed for people to communicate ideas and ask questions. If it bothers you that someone asks a redundant, or what you consider a lazy question in this case, ignore it and don't answer. There are getting to be way to many answers around here that merely say "do a search". In most of those cases you'll notice that others took interest and answered the question.

Just for my edification, why couldn't this forum be the primary source of information for someone with a question? There are a lot of really sharp photo enthusiasts and, for lack of a better word, artists here that are more than glad to share their thoughts and experience.

For the life of me, I can't imagine why someone asking a simple question bothers some of you so much, that you find it necessary to be downright rude.

End of Rant

Have a nice day!

[Belmondo]

Aha! This looks like a job for Super Moderator!


We encourage people to ask questions.
We also encourage people to use the search engine.
The search engine is not necessarily intuitive, and sometimes we can't be sure what kind of query is going to produce the desired results.

It probably isn't necessary to remind people of the search feature. Either they choose to use it or they don't. If they don't, you are not obliged to answer.

Ultimately it is better for the forum to make people feel welcome. Somtimes the best way to do that is to ignore them and let others answer the question.
:wink:
Thos.

[petiot]

Hello again

True, true. all my apologies. I didnt mean to be so bad (i am a bad guy i know i know). Sorry Bolling.

Dan

[nosquare2003]

Or to do it in Photoshop:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/blended_exposures.shtml

[bolling]

True, true. all my apologies. I didnt mean to be so bad (i am a bad guy i know i know). Sorry Bolling.

[bolling]

True, true. all my apologies. I didnt mean to be so bad (i am a bad guy i know i know). Sorry Bolling.


Your sorry alright
:lol:
Thanks to Harry, That's really how I felt but I'm new and was trying to be nice.

[robertwgross]

We encourage people to ask questions.
We also encourage people to use the search engine.
The search engine is not necessarily intuitive, and sometimes we can't be sure what kind of query is going to produce the desired results.


The only trouble with a search engine is trying to get the correct search terms plugged into it. A complete beginner doesn't even know what words to search for, so if somebody says "Do a search," then that doesn't help too much. On the other hand, if somebody says "Do a search on Sigma 1234 weight," then that leads the beginner to the correct sorts of answers.

Similarly, sometimes it is helpful to know _when_ a posting occurred. If somebody says "We've covered that within the last week" it can be more helpful than just saying "We've already covered that".

---Bob Gross---