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Histogram??? How to read it???
- Thread starter golf_bht
- Start date
It's not the most useful thing they could have put there to help with exposure - a mini waveform monitor would be more helpful.
It's a statistical bar graph that counts the number of pixels at each brightness value.
The brightnesses range from black on the left to super-white on the right on the horizontal, and the vertical shows how many pixels of each are contained in the current image.
If you see tall stacks of lines on the left side, pushing against the edge of the graph, you know that a lot of your pixels are clipping black or close to it. If you see crowding on the right you know that you have a preponderance of light pixels and white clipping pixels.
(BTW - "clipping" means that you blacks or whites are at their absolute extremes and that the camera won't record and gradations beyond that)
If you see the pixels taper off on the left and right and there's a nice scattering of pixels in between, then you know that your image has little or no clipping at either end. It doesn't mean that you have a beautiful picture (many of the more beautiful pictures, in my opinion, contain clipping) but it does mean that you have gathered the best range of information possible to tweak it in post. If you know in post what you want to do with the image, you should shoot with the histogram leaning that direction.
Again, it's not the best tool, because it's relative and shows the amount of pixels of a particular brightness and not the absolute brightness at all areas of the image as a waveform monitor would, but it lets you get a sense of what your image will look like (with experience).
It's important to take into account the nature of the image when analyzing it with the histogram. An image with a lot of light sky will show a bias to the right on the histogram that might not be acceptable for an indoor image, for example.
Also I've found that the EX1 histogram is not 100% reliable for clipping. It's possible to clip certain color channels (the red, the green or the blue) without showing clipping on the histogram (which shows luminance values). Clipping one color and not others can make many post color correcting operations difficult or impossible.
It's a statistical bar graph that counts the number of pixels at each brightness value.
The brightnesses range from black on the left to super-white on the right on the horizontal, and the vertical shows how many pixels of each are contained in the current image.
If you see tall stacks of lines on the left side, pushing against the edge of the graph, you know that a lot of your pixels are clipping black or close to it. If you see crowding on the right you know that you have a preponderance of light pixels and white clipping pixels.
(BTW - "clipping" means that you blacks or whites are at their absolute extremes and that the camera won't record and gradations beyond that)
If you see the pixels taper off on the left and right and there's a nice scattering of pixels in between, then you know that your image has little or no clipping at either end. It doesn't mean that you have a beautiful picture (many of the more beautiful pictures, in my opinion, contain clipping) but it does mean that you have gathered the best range of information possible to tweak it in post. If you know in post what you want to do with the image, you should shoot with the histogram leaning that direction.
Again, it's not the best tool, because it's relative and shows the amount of pixels of a particular brightness and not the absolute brightness at all areas of the image as a waveform monitor would, but it lets you get a sense of what your image will look like (with experience).
It's important to take into account the nature of the image when analyzing it with the histogram. An image with a lot of light sky will show a bias to the right on the histogram that might not be acceptable for an indoor image, for example.
Also I've found that the EX1 histogram is not 100% reliable for clipping. It's possible to clip certain color channels (the red, the green or the blue) without showing clipping on the histogram (which shows luminance values). Clipping one color and not others can make many post color correcting operations difficult or impossible.
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A waveform monitor in the field can become cumbersome unless your production environment will accommodate it.
A very useful exposure tool is the built-in zebras. They'll instantly tell you where your highlights are and, from that, you can determine whether or not you need to make any adjustments.
You can also set them to tell you if your important exposure points are where they need to be. For example, if I'm shooting green screen and want the green to be at 50%, I'll set the zebras accordingly and make any needed adjustments to the lighting or camera. BTW, I have not shot any green screen with the EX1. Only with an HVX-200.
A very useful exposure tool is the built-in zebras. They'll instantly tell you where your highlights are and, from that, you can determine whether or not you need to make any adjustments.
You can also set them to tell you if your important exposure points are where they need to be. For example, if I'm shooting green screen and want the green to be at 50%, I'll set the zebras accordingly and make any needed adjustments to the lighting or camera. BTW, I have not shot any green screen with the EX1. Only with an HVX-200.
You can also set them to tell you if your important exposure points are where they need to be. For example, if I'm shooting green screen and want the green to be at 50%, I'll set the zebras accordingly and make any needed adjustments to the lighting or camera. BTW, I have not shot any green screen with the EX1. Only with an HVX-200.
Actually the histogram is a really useful tool for green screens - I think more useful than the zebra. Whenever you have a large area of a consistent brightness, it forms a nice spike on the histogram. Locate the spike at the IRE you like on the histogram and you are there. It's good because, unlike zebras, it tells you how overexposed or underexposed you are. Also, the less pointy the spike, the more spread out it is, the more uneven your green screen lighting is.
michael@lael@lenses35.com
New member
I find for a full dynamic range without clipping the EX1 histogram need go only from 15% to 85%. If you strech the histogram fully you will over-expose. Maybe a firmware update can correct this.