Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

The original title: "basic knowledge: what do you think of the histogram and how to judge the accurate exposure with the histogram?" "

The histogram can be seen either in the early shooting or in the later revision.

Histograms also play a great role in accurately monitoring exposure data, preventing underexposure or overexposure, and helping photographers set the tone.

Today, let's talk about what histograms are for.

When taking pictures, you can turn on the histogram inside the camera or mobile phone, and there is also a real-time histogram in ps when you fix the picture. Today, let's talk about what the histogram is for.

To put it simply, the histogram is used to represent the exposure, just like CT the photo, and the histogram is the accurate report of the photo. When I was just learning photography, I once took a picture outside. The camera screen was very dark in the strong sun. I looked at the photo with normal exposure at that time, but I found it dark when I went back. If you can open the histogram when taking a picture, you will immediately find that the photo is too dark.

01. How to view the histogram

The horizontal axis of the histogram represents brightness, the leftmost represents black, the more to the right, the brighter, and the rightmost represents white.

The vertical axis represents the number of pixels, and the higher the position, the more pixels, that is, the larger the area.

Let's take a look at some particularly exaggerated pictures and their histograms.

The picture below is very dark, with a large area of black and only a few highlighted areas. If you look at its histogram, the data is concentrated on the left (dark) and little on the right (bright), which precisely shows that there are more dark areas and fewer bright areas in the photo.

The following picture is dark and bright, with a uniform transition from black to white, so the histogram is from the far left to the far right, and the height transition is uniform.

In the following photo, the contrast is relatively small and a little gray, so the left and right distribution of the histogram is more concentrated.

We increase the contrast of the photo, and the photo becomes more transparent. If the contrast is too large, like the picture below, the histogram will have a peak on each side and a valley in the middle.

Learning the observation method of histogram is only the first step. How to use histogram in actual shooting and revision? let's move on.

02, the practical application of histogram to get the correct exposure, there is no absolute explanation about what kind of exposure is the correct exposure, but generally speaking, the exposure of a photo will have a highlight area, a midtone area and a dark area.

Monitoring exposure overflow generally we can't let pure black or white areas appear in the photo, this kind of exposure is too extreme, and there must be no details. Good photos are all after details, the darkest place to look carefully, you can also see some details, rather than pure black. When taking pictures, in order to correct the exposure later, we should also prevent the exposure in the photo from becoming pure white or pure black beyond the camera tolerance.

For example, in the following picture, the sun is so dazzling that it has become pure white. In the histogram, the rightmost edge is already at the top. It is best not to have the top edge on the left and right side of the histogram, it is better to leave some space.

03. The tone of the picture and the tone of the photo will also affect the mood of the photo.

Can be divided into three categories according to the luminance area, high-profile, medium-key, low-key. High-profile photos are mainly light gray and white, which will give people a clear, pure and lively feeling, and the histogram is concentrated on the right side. The low-key photos are mainly dark gray and black, giving people the impression of dignified, profound, solemn and resolute, with the histogram concentrated on the left. The middle mediates between the two, which is a regular and very common tone, with the histogram concentrated in the middle and decreasing on both sides, like a mountain peak.

According to the span of brightness, it can also be divided into long tone, middle tone and short tone. After combining with the above three kinds of classification, nine kinds of tone can be obtained. With the high tone distance, it can be subdivided into high long tone, high middle tone and high short tone. The histogram of the long tone tends to extend from left to right, the middle tone usually accounts for only 2 big 3 of the horizontal axis of the histogram, and the short tone only accounts for 1 big 3.

This article is from the official account of Wechat: photography Research Society (ID:shoujiPhotography), by Zhang Xiaozhang.

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