[Edo]

Can anyone please provide me with a link to a good, basic tutorial where I might review how to work with, understand, control, use and otherwise master the histogram? Assume I have just arrived from the planet Zingbaah, where they have no histograms.

Edo

[Greg Wright]

Here you go, See if this translates to Zingbaah. http://www.luminous-...istograms.shtml

GW

[Darrell Young]

Edo,

Here is an article I wrote several years ago. It is reasonably comprehensive and easy to understand:

http://www.planetnik...asHistogram.asp

[Riccardo]

Edo,
I held a basic course long time ago... it is in italian.

Corso, prima parte

You might want to check the examples I gave, especially those with gradients. This was Photoshop 2.5. I tried with later versions, but the distributions aren't uniform anymore, I don't know why.

Historgram Gamma


My personal opinion is that the histogram is a very dangerous tool. I know what it is, I have implemented it in my imaging software, both in its standard as in the cumulative version: Price Enhancement. I photograph since ever, but it is very difficult to use and interpret correctly. It Useful to check your white and black points and the general balance, but doing corrections? The corrections you do can do are powerful, but it is easy to make the image look not natural. It goes beyond what you would usually do in a darkroom.... especially on the black side.

There is an old adagio which says that an image always needs a spot of pure white. But the converse with black is not really an absolute wisdom, even if they tell us so today.

Enough ranting...

Riccardo

[Edo]

Thanks, people.

I was looking for your piece on histograms, Darrell, having read it before. (I think it's the same piece?) But the on-site search engine is not working since you revamped SIF. I like your text.

Ah, Riccardo, we'll have to see how far I get reviewing tech info in Italiano; I'll let you know which gives me the most grief.

Greg, I have read the Luminous Landscape's article, but thanks. (Most of the beings on Zingbaah speak Cocofah. They take Zingbbhgiss in school, of course, but even the professors have trouble pronouncing some of the common consonants.)

I try to nail the exposure when shooting and rarely have to adjust the histogram. I'm not having any real problems; I've never failed QC at Alamy. But I like to review everything from time to time, and in my mind I am missing something to do with histograms.

Edo

PS When I began shooting digital, I used to deliberately underexpose and then open up the image in PP. Boy, did that cause a lot of noise! Don't underexpose if you want to avoid noise (or you can buy a D3 or D700).

This post has been edited by Edo: 02 February 2010 - 10:21 AM

[geoffpix]

Edo, on 02 February 2010 - 03:14 PM, said:

I try to nail the exposure when shooting and rarely have to adjust the histogram. I'm not having any real problems; I've never failed QC at Alamy. But I like to review everything from time to time, and in my mind I am missing something to do with histograms.

Edo

PS When I began shooting digital, I used to deliberately underexpose and then open up the image in PP. Boy, did that cause a lot of noise! Don't underexpose if you want to avoid noise (or you can buy a D3 or D700).

Sounds like my technique for my first digital shots Edo, amazed that any sold but soon got to understand the diff with slides and digital.

For exposure I use the highlight warning on the jpeg histo in the camera and then dial back based on what's the brightest point, i.e. if there's no white I can pull the exposure back. I don't like clipped anything, unless it's topiary, so I use the gamut warnings in DPP to make sure all the info I've paid for is still there when the conversion occurs. I tend to work to 5-250. The histo is an integral part of my workflow, so I am very careful to keep it as 'un-sierra like' as possible..hence use of layer adjustments, often in luminosity mode.

These days I am trying to get more chiaroscuro in my RM work, thought I'd drop a little art-house Italian in there.

If you really get into the histo, you might like one of these plus a pair of shades.

http://www.reindeerg...id=31&Itemid=54

This post has been edited by geoffpix: 03 February 2010 - 10:36 AM