Flat Histogram [PICS ADDED]
- Thread starter bomberman
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- Tim
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I don't follow what you are saying here. Can you post a copy of the photo with no edits/adjustments applied? If you can upload the raw original somewhere then that would be even better.
I don't have a robin in snow, but here is a snow scene and its histogram. I really don't know what you mean by a "flat" histogram, or how warming it up makes it go "full".
For this image you can see there is a peak at the right for the brilliant snow, another peak towards the right for the blue sky and then a peak about in the middle for the grey rocks and bits of snowboard. Other tones/colours are too small to really observe separately. However, the histogram is anything but flat.
A flat histogram suggests you have a very even spread of tones all the way from the deepest shadows up to the brightest whites, with no dominant shades anywhere in the scene.
I don't have a robin in snow, but here is a snow scene and its histogram. I really don't know what you mean by a "flat" histogram, or how warming it up makes it go "full".
For this image you can see there is a peak at the right for the brilliant snow, another peak towards the right for the blue sky and then a peak about in the middle for the grey rocks and bits of snowboard. Other tones/colours are too small to really observe separately. However, the histogram is anything but flat.
A flat histogram suggests you have a very even spread of tones all the way from the deepest shadows up to the brightest whites, with no dominant shades anywhere in the scene.
OP
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I'll try and post something up which explains it a bit better. In the meantime i can tell you i'm in UFraw which is my usual raw editor. all my shots were dark. i know i'm supposed to overexpose for snow to stop it coming out grey but then a robin landed on my tripod and i wanted the shutter speed so i knocked the exposure comp back down to 0. Then in my RAW editor (UFRaw) im adjusting the exposure to the right a stop to make the snow white again but the histogram is all placed within the bottom few millimeters UNLESS i move the temperature to the right and then the whole histogram fills the chart. but this makes the snow seem yellow!
if you see what i mean
if you see what i mean
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I think I follow what you are saying but it sounds like very odd behaviour, perhaps some quirk of UFRaw, which I've heard of but never used. Since you are a Canon guy, do you have DPP installed? It might be interesting to see what that does with the scene. As far as getting the WB right, simply clicking the snow should get you in the right ballpark, since it should look white (or grey if underexposed). The exception would be if you have some snow in sunlight and some in shade. Then you cannot balance both parts at once. Usually I would make the sunlit part white and let the shady area turn a bit blue. However, if the robin is in shade then it would probably be better to make the shady part go white and crop out or simply blow out any distracting sunlit parts.
OP
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its just evenly lit snow but i'll try installing DPP. Here's a few pics to illustrate how the histogram livens up with the temp. increase:
apologies to the mods as theyre about 200 pixels too big. If needs be feel free to convert them to links and i'll resize and repost.
apologies to the mods as theyre about 200 pixels too big. If needs be feel free to convert them to links and i'll resize and repost.
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The "flat" histogram is perfectly OK for this scene. What is more important is to look at the extreme left hand edge and the extreme right hand edge, to see if you are clipping highlights and shadows too much, or really not creating enough contrast in the scene.
The shape in between those extremes is far less important. There is no right or wrong and nothing specific to aim for in terms of a shape. Once you have fixed your black and white points I'd say you should leave it up to your own eyes to make further adjustments (so long as your monitor is calibrated).
EDIT : Here's an example of one of my shots, which shows a fairly flat histogram for a good portion of the tonal range, but unlike your shot my right hand peak is not bunched up on the extreme edge.
The shape in between those extremes is far less important. There is no right or wrong and nothing specific to aim for in terms of a shape. Once you have fixed your black and white points I'd say you should leave it up to your own eyes to make further adjustments (so long as your monitor is calibrated).
EDIT : Here's an example of one of my shots, which shows a fairly flat histogram for a good portion of the tonal range, but unlike your shot my right hand peak is not bunched up on the extreme edge.
mmcp42
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what's happened in your 1st is that the extreme right shows a tall peak
which means that the over-exposed whites are swamping the histogram
if you reduce the exposure so that peak is no longer a peak - th erest of the histogram will appear!
which means that the over-exposed whites are swamping the histogram
if you reduce the exposure so that peak is no longer a peak - th erest of the histogram will appear!