How to read the photographic histogram?

Jean François O'Kane | The Studio Coach explains how to read the photographic histogram.

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[Selukanati]

Thank-you for your explanation of the histogram.

[cenxoyo]

Very good. You made it easy to understand. Thank you.

[poooontang]

Very useful. Personally though I find it very easy to pick up stuff against a wall with a shovel, so I'm not sure about that analogy.

[xnemesisxgirlx]

Loved the shovel analogy. Perfectly explained.

[meganong93]

Your explanation is so easy and clear! I finally understand what a histogram is and how to read it! FINALLY! I'm so happy. =) Thank you so much for breaking it down.

[jhmaminta]

very informative...

[willieofroanoke]

@Marmit42424 The whole point you miss, is if you're a decent photographer, you shouldn't need Photoshop or any other post production software as a crutch to fix your mistakes.

[Marmit42424]

@willieofroanoke Furthermore the more balanced your shot is when you take it the more work you 'can' do in photoshop! It's better in every way :)

[willieofroanoke]

No, but the closer you come using the camera to make a good shot the less adjusting you need to do post processing. Photoshop and other similar software are great, but don't let them become a crutch. Too many fall into that trap and never really learn how to use their camera.

[calvinnemail]

@willieofroanoke Great explanation! would you say that you need to get a good histogram in the camera in order to get a great image after post processing? an ok histogram cannot make a great image in photoshop?

[willieofroanoke]

Cont 4

Generally speaking if you're going to error, error on the side of being slightly underexposed. This is fairly easy to correct post production. If your image is badly overexposed it tends to "blow out" the highlights meaning you have large areas of no detail, just bright areas, common in shots with lots of clouds or any large bright objects. This is next to impossible to correct post production since there is nothing left in the "blown out" areas to adjust back to.

[willieofroanoke]

Cont 3

If your hues appear off, most often that can be easily correctly by adjusting the camera's white balance which when properly set will remove color cast.