Your Camera’s Histogram is Important

I’m going to talk to you in my language…this is not technical at all, BUT it will help you understand your histogram in your camera.

I’m just not a technical person, but I do want you to know that I do have the technical knowledge… I just don’t like to teach that way unless a student asks me for it.

If you’re looking for technical information, then just leave a comment and I will do my best to make a video for you and others that would like this kind of information.

So let’s get to it…

Our cameras record light coming into the sensor.  There are only three light colors that make all the colors we see in our images.   Red, Green, and Blue make the magic that we see. When we look at our histogram, we can see the amount of that particular color (it will rise up on the graft) and we can see how dark and/or light each of these colors are. The darkest part of your picture will be to the left of the graft and the brightest part will be to the right of the graft. I explain this and more of the fun in the video below.

The histogram is an amazing guide for you to use while you’re shooting.  Look at your histogram and make your adjustments in the camera.   You’ll be much happier when you upload your photographs to the computer.   Here is a small tip… if you’re photographing in RAW format, you’ll be able to push your colors brighter or darker just a bit in post-processing.

I said in the video that to correct oversaturated colors you’ll need to work on a custom white balance. Look out for that video soon 😉

 Do you use the histogram? If you do…how does it help you with your photography?  If you don’t, let me know why and I’ll try to help you understand it more.

 

With the histogram, you can really fine-tune your colors and exposure.  I did a deep dive on exposure…you can read about exposure more here.

Have a great day!  Cheers!

Janice Sullivan