Histogram or LCD screen


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Snappy99

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Feb 11, 2008
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Took some wedding photo recently . The exposure of the photo on the LCD screen look ok , so carry on shooting . But when i reach home and tranfer the photo on the computor the photo look under expose.

question : Do you guys look at the histogram or LCD screen for exposure;p
 

Could some kind soul post an example of a "near-perfect" histogram to target for .....so that less experienced fellas like myself can learn & improve. I am starting to try shooting more in manual mode as compared to program mode of my 350D ...success rate at most 50% (cos using LCD) & family members find it really hard to let me take 10 shots per pose ...haha. Pls help. Thanks.

cheers
 

Could some kind soul post an example of a "near-perfect" histogram to target for .....so that less experienced fellas like myself can learn & improve. I am starting to try shooting more in manual mode as compared to program mode of my 350D ...success rate at most 50% (cos using LCD) & family members find it really hard to let me take 10 shots per pose ...haha. Pls help. Thanks.

cheers

Theres no such thing really, depends entirely on the scene. Just remember, if you dont want blown highlights, then keep the histogram from going over the right hand side, and if you dont want too much shadow area, keep it from moving off the left hand side.
 

Took some wedding photo recently . The exposure of the photo on the LCD screen look ok , so carry on shooting . But when i reach home and tranfer the photo on the computor the photo look under expose.

question : Do you guys look at the histogram or LCD screen for exposure;p

You using Nikon?
 

Could some kind soul post an example of a "near-perfect" histogram to target for .....so that less experienced fellas like myself can learn & improve.


This one not exactly perfect, but closest I could find :embrass:

Basically you want most of the info to be in the middle, or slanted one side is okay too, just not cut off horribly like in the first two (too dark and too bright respectively). The third one is more like it, but still can see some got cut off at both ends.

histogram.jpg
 

Hi what if the picture is a night scene and intended to be dark. How do we know the correct exposure for the night scene since the histogram will be on the left side? Thanks.
 

using histogram to check is more accurate...:D
 

This one not exactly perfect, but closest I could find :embrass:

Basically you want most of the info to be in the middle, or slanted one side is okay too, just not cut off horribly like in the first two (too dark and too bright respectively). The third one is more like it, but still can see some got cut off at both ends.

histogram.jpg

ok ...so keep most of the graph in the centre ...does it matter if there are peaks on the right or on the left ...or all over the graph?

Does "live view" (on the 40D for example) make it easier to take better pictures?

Thanks.

cheers
 

Hi what if the picture is a night scene and intended to be dark. How do we know the correct exposure for the night scene since the histogram will be on the left side? Thanks.

Something that looks like this (drawn, not an actual histogram) will be a dark pic. Just flip horizontally if it's meant to be the high-key type.

080318.gif


Edit: Don't think the peaks matter as long as they aren't cut-off. The pic look nice can already, why worry so much? ^_^

Personally I like live view a lot better than squinting through the tiny view finder :(. Rather use the play-back to compose if I have time.

Oh btw, a small request: if quoting my reply, please take out the image, because I have to pay for extra bandwidth if it exceed the limit.
 

Something that looks like this (drawn, not an actual histogram) will be a dark pic. Just flip horizontally if it's meant to be the high-key type.

Edit: Don't think the peaks matter as long as they aren't cut-off. The pic look nice can already, why worry so much? ^_^

Personally I like live view a lot better than squinting through the tiny view finder :(. Rather use the play-back to compose if I have time.

Oh btw, a small request: if quoting my reply, please take out the image, because I have to pay for extra bandwidth if it exceed the limit.

i am your opposite. i realise i can't shoot as well when i looking at the lcd. :embrass:
 

actually histogram is not 100%... more like ~85-95%... cause the histogram is usually based on a 'processed' impression of the image and not the RAW info... but certainly much better than the LCD screen... it would probably be 99% if you shoot JPG, but not necessarily so if you shoot RAW as you can probably get away with a bit of clipping...
 

Well, actually have to admit that I look at histogram only because I can edit the photo better if there is less clipping.

For those who take pics for themselves only and don't edit, might want to consider figuring out what differences there are between your camera lcd and monitor. Eg. If your pics always look darker on your monitor than camera, they should look too bright on your camera play-back if you want them to look right on the monitor.

Still, if sharing your photos, might be better to look at histogram. Even if too dark on yours, might be okay on others. Every monitor will show the same image differently. Just go to a computer shop and look at the monitors showing the screensavers.
 

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