Has anyone ever had a histogram be in the middle?

[AndrewWG]

Ok, I know this will be discussed eventually, but I have to ask as I have noticed histograms more and more thanks to Lightroom. Has anyone ever had one be in the middle where it is "supposed" to be? Off the cuff, I would say that at least 75% of mine are bunched to the left and 25% are bunched to the left. I have NEVER seen one in the middle. Why? My pics don't seem to be exposed badly, but according to this, I gues that they are? I wish they never came up with those things.

In case it matters, I shoot with a Canon 30D.

 

[fitzperry]

You don't necessarily want it "in the middle."

It sort of depends on what you mean when you say they are "bunched to the left." It could just be that the image has a lot of darker values. What you don't want is a histogram with high values at either end, which would indicate clipped highlights or shadows. If you have high values at both ends, you have a scene with a larger dynamic range than your camera can capture. You also generally don't want empty space at either end of the histogram, which means that there is little or no contrast in the image (i.e., all midtones).

 

[jann1033]

occasionally i have a nice "mountain" with only a few foothills but like fitzperry said sometimes it's just the nature of the subject ie a snowy shot would be more to the right than a night time shot just because of what it is.
it's ok usually as long as you don't have spikes touching either side since that means blown highlights or no detail in the shadows...mine usually bunch a little more to the left since i intentionally have my exposure set slightly left of center.

 

[AndrewWG]

Thanks. Everything I have read about this says that it should not be bunched up on one side and should be more towards the middle. Now, I don't take the best pics, but overall I am pleased with them so far and seeing that almost always to the left like that was getting me concerned that I was doing something terribly wrong somewhere.

 

[Furgus]

Thanks. Everything I have read about this says that it should not be bunched up on one side and should be more towards the middle. Now, I don't take the best pics, but overall I am pleased with them so far and seeing that almost always to the left like that was getting me concerned that I was doing something terribly wrong somewhere.

Andrew,
This might help. Understanding Histograms

 

[cpbjgc]

Andrew,
This might help. Understanding Histograms

I was just going to mention this article as well. It actually did help me to understand histograms!

 

[AndrewWG]

Andrew,
This might help. Understanding Histograms

Cool. I'll check it out. Thanks!

 

[seashoreCM]

If the histogram mountain comes back down again at the left and at the right, your picture is not necessarily badly exposed. Making sure the mountain is in the middle is for perfectionists.

Generally if the mountain is too far to the left, add to the exposure compensation and retake the picture. If the mountain is too far to the right, deduct from the exposure compensation and retake the picture

Still, only you can judge the exposure. The mountain might be at the left meaning that a lot of shadow detail is buried, but the highlights you are specifically interested in are on the verge of blowing out if you increase the exposure. Or the mountain might be at the right meaning that lots of highlights are washed out but the shadows you are specifically interested in are on the verge of being buried if you decrease the exposure..

If you are using automatc exposure and you take the same picture again, if you don't aim precisely the same way, the histogram may ahve a vastly different shape because more or less bright and dark material is in the second picture.

If you have two mountains, one at the left and one at the right, take three pictures, one as-is, one with the left mountain more to the middle, and one with the right mountain more to the middle. Back at home, see which you like best, let alone use Photoshop(tm) and combine the best parts of each.

Digital camera hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/digicam.htm

 

[jann1033]

andy since i use adobe raw or canon software instead of lightroom not sure how much this would apply but on the top of the histogram when you convert from raw it has 2 little triangles...i think as long as those are both black you are ok and sometimes if you are going to crop something you can adjust enough so that even if they are close you'll be ok...

 

[seashoreCM]

I haven't used Photoshop or Adobe but I used a different brand of software with the two triangles. The left triangle as opposed to the left of the histogram stood for black and everything further to the left is buried. The right triangle stood for white and everthing further to the right is blown out.

This was a modification to the picture after it was taken. Highlights already blown out (already off the histogram to the right) and shadows already buried could not be recovered.

So if there is just a long tail out to the right or left, that means there are very few highlights or shadows and you can feel free to move the triangle inward, if that is the way it works for your software.

Moving the triangles inward increases the contrast of the material in the middle brightness range.

 

[jann1033]

I haven't used Photoshop or Adobe but I used a different brand of software with the two triangles. The left triangle as opposed to the left of the histogram stood for black and everything further to the left is buried. The right triangle stood for white and everthing further to the right is blown out.

This was a modification to the picture after it was taken. Highlights already blown out (already off the histogram to the right) and shadows already buried could not be recovered.

So if there is just a long tail out to the right or left, that means there are very few highlights or shadows and you can feel free to move the triangle inward, if that is the way it works for your software.

Moving the triangles inward increases the contrast of the material in the middle brightness range.

these triangles don't move like the ones in the levels do, they just change color according to i think the color that is too dark or blown out( uhhh guess i should look up what the colors actually mean huh)...anyway i know once they are both black it'll be ok.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I always try to get my capture so that the histogram is as far to the right as possible without clipping anything I don't want clipped. The more exposed pixels have more information and less noise.

When I'm post processing, I adjust my picture so that it looks correctly exposed. For a picture with lots of light colored areas, that might mean more bits on the right of the histogram. For a picture with lots of dark colored areas, that might mean more bits on the left side of the histogram.