Photography Tutorial - Perfect Exposures, The Histogram Pt 2

This how-to video from John Mireles of the Photographer's Toolkit is part of a series about using the histogram to create properly exposed images with your camera. This first installment explains in simple language what is the histogram and how to read it.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• photography education
• how to use histogram
• what is a histogram
• photoshop histogram

[pscn2001]

Best explanation of a histogram I've ever seen! Who would have thought that using a Sharpie and a piece of paper could have explained something as technical as this so simply. Great job!

[FryanHere]

wow! this videos is very useful!

thanks a lot

[antione101]

@jvwsocial lol same here. Ive been wondering how to understand the histogram intuitively for almost 2 years now.  This video changed everything.

[fedegrafo]

thanks a lot for this videos on histograms! they are really very instructive ... I have enjoyed them and now I know something more about them ... thanks again for sharing

[alesura]

@ectobuilder When he sais clipping he simply means the information it not in the photo. When you over/under expose it basicallly means that the information for the highlights or lowlights is not in the file. That's why you want a balanced exposure where you have all the information and you can see a nice scale of all the high-mid-low. Sometimes like John says you need to choose if you want to expose for the low or highlights (like the photo of the guys in a room)

[ectobuilder]

QUESTION:

- Is "clipping" as mentioned in your video simply an analogy? The reason why I am asking is because if 0 (ZERO) is "pure black" then how can a colour be "lower" than black i.e. -1, -2,....-n.?

The above question is important because if a colour can in fact be "clipped" off the histogram THEN we can apply an integral to test for this clipping. Hence the integral of the histogram should equal the total resolution (in pixels) of the image otherwise there exists clipping.

[kauxkaux]

Wonderful Video!

Thanks a lot!!

[Lawensirwan]

Thanks...helped a lot

[jvwsocial]

i think this is a great vid, learned more about using the histogram in approximately 20 minutes than i did in the nearly 2 years that i have been using my camera. Thanks. Not to belabor the point, but the music is the right balance and spices up the video just a tiny bit.

[LordProtractor]

This video was incredibly helpful, clear and easy to follow. Thank you so much!

In the course on cinematography that I'm taking, the extent of the info we got on histograms was: "They're useful. Use them." Which wasn't helpful at all, hahaha.