Added: 9 months ago
From: GregoryCazillo
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  • 10+

  • thanks for the great tutorials!! make also night photography

  • Very informative video, Greg. Love it. But I'm unsure about something.

    Should I try and prevent highlight clipping when exposing to the right? If they clip that means I've gone too far, yes? Can it easily be brought back in Lightroom however? And is it less destructive to bring back the highlights than rescuing an underexposed image (exposing to the left)?

  • @JanErikEdvartsen It depends on the image. If the clipping is because of some lights in the ceiling then don't worry about it.  If its because of someone's white shirt or a bride's dress then you need to be careful and keep the detail. Some detail can be brought back but it depends on how overexposed it is. If the spike is 3/4 of the height of the histo then not all of it is coming back.

    Did I answer your question?

  • @gregorycazillo Thank you for the quick feedback. And yes, your answer was great :) Keep doing these tutorials, I love them :)

  • Very tight vid! Thanks man! I suppose the only time u'd really work with the rgb histogram is when ur working with trademark colours. I'm a new photographer, and have a bizzilion questions. Would it be safe to say assume that inspecting a particular channel of colour would give a better range to work with in photoshop if u were trying to match a specific colour?

  • @optix1973 not sure what you mean?

  • @gregorycazillo

    Like i said i'm new to photography but I'm trying to figure out why the good people at canon or nikon would include the rgb histograms if they serve no purpose. The only thing I can think of is precise colour matching. For example "coca cola red" is a trademarked colour. If the red was clipped on the original image, wouldn't it make it difficult to recover a true pantone match for print. I could be wrong, it happens more than id like to admit. Cheers.

  • @optix1973 I don't see how you can use the histogram on the camera to match a color. That should be a post processing task, not in camera. To match colors you would use a gray card or color checker chart to make sure your white balance is accurate.

    Some people do prefer the RGB histogram because it allows you to see where each color is at, especially if its spiking. Just not my preference...

  • this video makes me feel better about histograms, becoz before this video i never cared of my histograms while shooting..thnks u greg

  • thanks for this - clear and concise! :)

  • Great!! Thanks for the tutorial Greg. Now I know what that little graphy thing on my camera is, and I can show off to my girlfriend and be like "Oh THAT thing? That's a histogram darling, it's a graphical representation showing a visual impression of the distribution of data, in this case black to white pixels" and she'll be like "HOLY SHIT you're smart, now get over here and take your pants off"...So errr....thanks for the vid

  • Hi Greg, this video was so helpful but it raised a question for me in terms of metering. Other than adjusting the usual "triangle" settings, could one also use a different metering method to "push the data" over? Particularly in the group portrait example you showed, would Center Weighted over Matrix metering to achieve correct exposure make a difference at all? Many thanks for a great tutorial.

  • @heycharityo Using different metering modes may or may not give you a better result. For example if using spot metering on a white shirt vs black shirt it would be different exposures. Most of my photos I shoot matrix metering (whole scene) and then compensate from there. Best case is to shoot your photo, check the histogram, then adjust exposure accordingly for the rest of the images in that scene.

  • Thank you! That was very useful & easy to understand.

  • very helpful

  • Greg,

    Great tutorial...one question though - In "General" I tend to shoot for as accurate exposure, unless i'm trying for an artistic touch, however, the thing that has me is the "Shoot to the right." You ( and I don't mean YOU Greg) have to be careful not to shoot TOO far to the right...otherwise you'll lose data in the whites and will not be able to retrieve it. Often I will nail my exposure and underexpose by 1/10th if I can....what are you thoughts?

    Josh

  • @amount811 There is no need to get that precise about exposure, 1/10th of a stop? What camera are you using that allows that? My D3s only goes down to 1/3 stops WHICH IS PLENTY accurate.

    Shooting to the right is a generalization and depends slot on the image. Most photos have a bit of overexposed area in a light source or highlight anyway, if they didnt it wouldn't look realistic.

  • This was excellent! I'm newish to DSLR photography.. and this was very helpful! Now I know why all the Fro fans were upset you left, much better content!

  • What a GREAT video Greg, keep it up, your doing so good.

  • great explination now I understand how to get the best from my images, I guess now the tricky part is putting it into practice. Thank you for the video dawg (:

  • Thats a GREAT video Greg keep them coming :) .

  • Hey Greg, can you explain how the histogram and and the light meter get affected with different scenes such as all while with snow or where is have darker tone? thanks Greg!

  • Never really looked at the Histogram until now great video, When you say shoot to the right , is that done by changing settings , or is it left until post processing ?

  • @Pur3Kiwi shooting to the right means adjusting exposure so you don't have flat spots on the right side of the histogram. It is image dependent meaning the way you want to create the image takes precedence over how the histogram looks.

  • WOW Man Wow! That was a great video! Thank you so much, I never knew there was this much info in the histograms. Great analogy with the bucket of water!

  • I feel like I should be paying for these lessons. Thanks greg!!

  • you are an amazing teacher Greg

  • @ar4216 I gave @piccicacca an suggestion on how he could set the brightness-level on his LCD. I did tend to underexpose when I had my camera-screen darker than my 22" Samsung was.

    However if you're gonna troll, don't.

  • @johanneswingerlang Look, your comment pissed me off but that's my problem, not yours. But I shouldn't have attacked you like that. And to be honest, I think you do have some very nice photographs. The picture of the pier in particular struck a chord with me, it's quite beautiful. It reminds of a Michael Kenna photograph. And there's nothing wrong with dog pics, especially when the dog is as photogenic as yours. I take plenty of dog pictures myself. :)

  • @ar4216 Well I actually don't know why I pissed you of, but I guess you misunderstood me somehow.

    Thanks a lot, that particular shot (I guess you mean the one with the rope) is my favorite shot, and kind of shots.I'm trying to get more animal and "humans" since I've mostly done landscapes. Have a lot of cool shots not uploaded yet... it's coming some day :) What's your flickr name?

  • @johanneswingerlang It's the one called "Snowfog". It looked like a pier going out into the water to me but perhaps it's just a walkway obscured by snow? Anyway, that's the photograph I really liked. Quite beautiful. You should look up the photographer Michael Kenna- that's who that photograph reminds me of. Quite stark and mysterious. I'm not on flckr or any of those sites. "The black Lemon tree" is also quite beautiful. Yeah, you've got some really nice shots. But "Snowfog"- that's special.

  • @ar4216 Oh I see. Yes, Snowfog is a fav. I love minimalism and landscape, and even better that two in combination. When I took "Snowfog", it was about 20cm thick ice, 20 cm deep snow, and 99% coverage of "snowfog" in the air, it was quite stunning, barely could separate the ground from the sky.

    Thanks for the notation about Kenna, love the style! Gotta watch more of that photos.

    Thanks once again, too bad you aren't on flickr, superb place! My own fav photo is mine called "Rope in sunset".

  • @johanneswingerlang Yes indeed, that is also quite stunning. Magical colors.

  • Greg, your video/tutorials are great!

    Congrats!

  • @ar4216 Now that was pretty stupid wasn't it? Try watch Gregs (this video) awesome video and get a hint on what's it all about.

  • Gratz for being on both Fstoppers and Petapixel.

  • I have never seen anyone else describing how this works and I'm very grateful for the help. Thanks.

  • awesome video, have to watch it again to fully understand it, but now i have a little bit of an idea what that histogram means!

    thanks very much!!!!!

  • Awesome explanation, thanks Greg!

  • great video, very well explained! only con - get your own intro/outro thing. It sounds kinda lame doing jared's thing.. You dont need to copy him (i do think jared does some great as well, by no means disrespecting him). Just think it would be better if you did your own thing entirely! :) Regards Bendik

  • Greg: Great video. "Shoot to the right." I had never heard it explained that way before. I enjoy all your videos. Keep it up, and have a great Memorial Day weekend.

  • GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEG. You NEED an original intro/outro. kisses.

  • great, well articulated lesson. You are a great teacher and do an amazing job conveying this info. Thanks for your help.

  • another awesome video greg.. keep up the good work :)

  • Awesome videos Greg, please keep them coming, learning so much from you!!!

  • Tone curve video please. :)

  • that is a good theoretical explanation.what i recommend is getting a gray card and meter with its help and learn by looking and understanding the results with it. i am not a big fan of 'oh my histogram has a flat spot on the right, that means i have to exposure the same image again but a stop longer and later in photoshop i just shift my histogram some way'.

    i think most people dont know that you meter for the amount of light you got and not for the light reflected by the shooting subjects.

  • there's just one thing i don't get in the video. You are explaining the histogram of the picture of the family in the park with their bikes. If I remember correctly the first picture it's ISO 200 f/8 at 1/250th. The second picture is clearly better exposed and the histogram shows that but the settings are the same... I would have expected a different shutter speed, ISO or aperture but i don't see it... what did you change to get a better result?

  • @parkthefrog Its movie magic ;). Those were just simple examples to show the histogram not exposure numbers.

  • @gregorycazillo fair enough!! :)

  • great stuff man i think u are doing a top job and really helping the people that are past beginner but still need help

  • i wonder who's that full of crap he meant at 1:03 =D

  • Greg do me a favour do a set up on how you would set up the Nikon D7000 please,And then i will know if my camera is almost set up correctly please Greg.

    Ps quality videos on showing people everything we all need to know,And not stuff we dont want to watch.Cheers fella tell me if you can do that for me please Greg Sime aka TROTTY68

  • Now Greg, do you recommend a Nikon or Canon 5 gallon bucket..? (just kidding)

    Great tutorial as always,

    Cheers

  • Outstanding, thats that learnt then !. cheers Gregsta,

  • Fantastic video Greg! Examples help a million. Keep up the good work man

  • This was AMAZING!!!! I knew a bit about Histograms but know 1000X more now! To think there will be more to learn.... Can't wait! Great Channel you've created Greg, nothing but great advice! I appreciate you taking the time to make this video!!

  • Great job, Greg! Great! Please, keep going.

  • Thank you

  • Jared has to watch this and learn!^^

  • @34TR3m Jared is mostly about boasting about how few of the features he uses in the camera and in software to make you think 'Wow, this guy doesn't need to use all these helpful features cos he just knows it all in his head!' If only the clients cared about this. My clients do not give a shit what features I used or how I never used fill light, they care about their end results: the photos.

  • Another video maybe of some examples of when the histo SHOULD have alot of data to the left or right depending on the scene or look you're going for - which doesn't necesarilly mean under or overexposed. I've read it's a graphical representation of where your data is in the photo - sometimes your data WILL mostly be to the left or right depending on the look of the image

  • Thanks, Greg, you've shared very valuable information here in a very well explained manner. Good job, keep up the good work.

  • Great video Greg. What does it mean when the histogram spikes through the top of the histogram in the middle, or anywhere thats not on the edges? Keep 'em comin'!

  • if i shoot jpg should i overexpose just to fill up the light side of things, or should i just use my camera's lcd to judge whether the exposure is correct. when you shoot raw and always make sure to fill up the right side of histogram dont you after doing that drag the exposure back in the lightroom?

  • @valdezapg Everything is relative and you need to figure out how you like your images. You should use the lcd and the histogram to judge exposure, there is no right answer for every image you just need to get more experience setting your camera to what you like.

  • Lots of great information, good job Greg. Would love to see the theory put into use on a shoot. Maybe your next video? :p

  • Thanks Greg.. do you think you can do more on this please.. yes Im one of those in a class who dosent look at a Histogram and now I can see the value.. still unsure of what you mean by shooting to the right though.. is that right of subject or another term?

    Thanks for your time

  • @WarrenAckary180 it means moving the data to the right of the histogram, not underexposing which would leave a flat spot on the right side. Rewatch the last segment which shows a few photos underexposed through edited.

  • Glad you don't have Jared to block your great knowledge anymore...quite frankly the Fro Knows Photo show has become boring...this is real stuff a photographer must know

  • Well done!! 

  • I too do not mind about histogram, now I know I am such a noob. thanks greg

  • I liked, I want more. =-)

  • Great quality information without the fluff.

    Good work!

  • GREG!! please answer me on this one! how bright should your LCD screen be on your camera?

  • @piccicacca Sorry I don't know, I never changed it on my cameras its at default.

  • @piccicacca How about keep it so it resembles what your screen/ prints looks like w/o editing?

  • Definitely an interesting lecture.

  • top marks again , i will be using it more often

    a big hi from scotland to eveyone,

  • Sorry 1/2 stop is silly, I meant 1/6 or 1/3 stop

  • Greg, I normally shoot in aperture priority, if it's best to keep the histogram over to the right, should I set the fine tune contols to over expose slightly? Maybe 1/3 or 1/2 stop? Of course I use RAW and use light room so I can recover later. Great informative video!

  • @dstubbso Not really, unless thats how you like your images. Its best to try and nail your exposure as best you can.

  • So in terms of keeping as much data as possible it's better to overexpose than to underexpose? Do you get more data from an overexposed image or a perfectly exposed one?

  • @Wuzzysbrand06 ideally you don't want to do either, but get a perfect exposure. You lose data with over or underexposure which is why I talked about clipping.

  • @gregorycazillo

    I’m a little confused, still. I shot an image which placed the information at about the center of the histogram, not touching the sides or clipping, and it looked great on my camera LCD. I then shot the same image again, this time tying to get the information closer to the right, like you stated, without touching the sides or clipping, but the image now looked a little brighter with far less color, saturation etc., but not overexposed. Which image should I choose?

  • @opulido104 As I replied to someone else...its all about how you like your images. Just don't rely on your screen, thats what the histo is for.

    "Everything is relative and you need to figure out how you like your images. You should use the lcd and the histogram to judge exposure, there is no right answer for every image you just need to get more experience setting your camera to what you like."

  • Thanks, Greg. As always, you're material is a tremendous help.

  • Great job Greg! You present in a really informative and professional manner!

  • :)

  • Finally someone explained me how this histogram stuff works! Great video!

  • p.s. good job, good video. I like your straight-shooting ("if anyone says otherwise...they're full of crap"). Plus good information!

  • The histogram for this may have a little bit too much blacks in it...(is that a fat joke?) I kid, I kid :)

  • @jwgilb61 ROFLOL

  • "They're full of crap!" lol

  • Thank you very much for making these videos! this really helped me alot.

    This is just what I was looking for.

    Thanks!

  • wow great video. I thought I knew all there is to know about taking photos but didnt know the details of the histogram. Thanks for your help Greg. Amazing stuff

  • Thanks Greg. Very informative video. This will most definitely help me when I shoot from now on.

  • Wow, I didn't know half of the data was in the far right section of the histogram. I am thinking back and realizing I have left out half the data on a lot of my shots! This video will greatly improve my photography!

  • to be honest i have been shootin for few years now and i never paid attention to th histogram .. actually i've always thought its useless .. and you flipped all that in just 12 mnts .. great job man.

    just one question, how the histogram is related the light meter you find inside the viewfinder ?? are they the same ?? and if not, how each one of 'em is different than the other ??

  • @WATSABI0 You should be using the in camera meter BEFORE taking the photograph, then if you need to evaluate that exposure with the histogram AFTER the image has been taken. I use the histogram to evaluate a scene to check my exposure, then finish shooting in that particular scene without rechecking as long as the light or other factors haven't changed.

  • @gregorycazillo one more point for you for replying fast .. its midnight over here .. anyways .. so they assist each other .. but what came in my mind is, is it possible to read the histogram before the shot was taken ?? you knw, to get that perfect shot you imagined in a single try.

    plus i might shoot an event tomorrow in a closed hall, i use D90 with the 18-105mm kit lens and i dont wna use flash. are there any tips you might bless me with?

  • @WATSABI0 Nope, histograms are for evaluating images after exposure. Not sure what to tell you about the shoot, hopefully there is plenty of light if not make sure you keep your shutter speed 1.60th or higher and your ISO is probably going to be high too.

  • @gregorycazillo gna try my best, thanks man =)

  • @gregorycazillo there is an option to monitor the histogram before snapping the photo, using the live view instead of the view finder. it's true for Canon users, I'm not sure about Nikon.!

  • Comment removed

  • WOW!!! I've seen a lot of histogram videos on YouTube...... A LOT. Most of them say expose to the right but none of them said why, now I know. The only thing I can think of to help people better understand is to do some real world shooting in dark and light situations, maybe under and over expose some images so everyone can see the thought Process you would go through to correct it. Other than I think you covered it, thumbs up if you agree. Great video Greg, Thanks

  • Comment removed

  • i like how you were not reading this information from anywhere, which shows that you actually know and understand what you are talking about. good job greg keep it up learning lots from you!

  • @ErnieCosmo In my example I adjusted the black levels, but any of the image adjustments will affect how the histogram looks.

  • great job Greg, love your videos they have helped me a lot, thank you.

  • Greg,

    Great video, alot of thing about my images are making so much sense now.

    Thank and keep the videos coming

  • Greg,

    Great video, alot of thing about my images are making so much sense now.

    Thank and keep the videos coming

  • GREAT.

  • thx again learning every vid

  • Awesome...

  • big thanks. a lot of new information for me! cheers

  • I learned à lot, and yes I wil shoot in to the lights ;-)

  • Great video. Thanks!

  • I bet jared watched or gonna watch this and might do a vid about histo. haha

    great job greg, i learned a lot. :)

  • ur a far better teacher than the fro.... keep up d good work...

  • Fantastic vid! Very informative! I like it.

  • Wow, now that's what I call a great video tutorial.

    Well done Greg.

  • I only knew the basics of what a histogram is so this was great. Keep up the good work Greg!

  • thank for the fast respond!

  • nice intro to histograms, now examples of editing :)

  • I love these videos! Great job, Greg.

  • wow, i thought i knew all about histograms until i saw this vid. learnt heaps. thanks pr. cazillo. just one question though, what does the height of the histogram mean? if you view the histogram like a hill, what do the higher hills mean? hope you understand my question. good job!

  • @plawkzer Higher lines or areas mean more saturation/luminance in that color range.

  • Great explanation and examples. I didn't know about the high range half data thing but I can understand why. Thanks Greg!

  • I watched this video while listening to Katy Perry - Firework in the background. Definitely made the video more of an enjoying watch. Greg, you're a firework!

  • Thx father Greg, I like your stuff. forwarding done.

  • Great Job Greg! I learned alot from this vid!! I will now look @ that now that I know what it means..

  • thanks for this vid greg! new stuff to me: 1/2 of detail info is on the right!! maybe a secound vid about histogram should be how to work with histogram in processing (lightroome etc.)

  • Very nice! Finally!

    A lot of new info to me, very useful video

    Thank you very much.

  • Awesome, just awesome. :D

  • Yes!!!! The episode I was waiting for!

  • how about a video where you use the histogram and talk about the changes your making to try and get a well exposed image??

  • @lopezae33 As I said in the video this will probably end up being a series on the histogram

  • @gregorycazillo cool, sounds good. i really like and appreciate the more technical side. i wont mention any names but those other videos were getting kinda hard to watch. sooner or later people need to learn the technical stuff. THANKS!

  • great job again!

  • great job Greg! definitely learned ALOT right now.

  • @earliozz Thats the goal, for everyone to learn something from each video.

  • thank you very much greg

    ive been waiting for this explanation for ages

  • I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS. YEAHH MAN.

  • Fantastic as always greg, careful saying "i shoor raw" or you may be hearing from the fuzzy haired mans lawyers :D Keep the vids coming, very informative and useful. well done...

  • amazing *-*

  • Greg, you are the best!! Thank you very much!

  • awesome!

  • Awesome, thanks Greg

  • Comment removed

  • Yes !!! Thanks a lot !!! I really wanted to understand histograms !THANKS A LOT GREG! YOU ROCK !!!

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