Mid points on histogram.

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Riz

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I was on holiday last week.

No matter what combo of iso/f/shutter i used. My midpoints on the histogram were through the roof. The highlights were fine. This was mainly on the beach (very bright)

It was extremely sunny and i didnt use any filters.

Examining the photos here, they seem ok when adjusted in the raw interface.

Is this deemed acceptable with the conditions? Or was i missing something.

Ps I am on my phone, so will put pics later. Also i have only just started appreciating the histogram now.
 
Put them up, but sounds quite normal to me. If the subject is predominently a lot of similar mid tones, then that's what you should get.

Changing shutter speeds and aperture settings won't do anything, unless you change the exposure at the same time. And what that mainly does is shift the whole histogram left or right.
 
HoppyUK said:
Put them up, but sounds quite normal to me. If the subject is predominently a lot of similar mid tones, then that's what you should get.

Changing shutter speeds and aperture settings won't do anything, unless you change the exposure at the same time. And what that mainly does is shift the whole histogram left or right.
Click to expand...


Yeah i tried that and it was either skewed to the left or over to the right. Is it supposed to be recitified or a breaking the rule job?
 
Do the photos look ok to you? are you pleased with the results? Then look at the histogram, find the power button and turn camera off .... job done :)

Dont let it bother you, its the cameras idea of a good shot, not yours. They are just a guide and not the law.

We spend so much time with charts and graphs we forget what its all about.

If your happy ..... your happy

Tom
 
Riz said:
Yeah i tried that and it was either skewed to the left or over to the right. Is it supposed to be recitified or a breaking the rule job?
Click to expand...

What's wrong with it? To repeat, if the subject is all mid tones, like an elephant in the grass, then you should get a big lump in the middle. A polar bear in the snow would be a big lump to the right; black cat in coal cellar, a big lump to the left, and a close up of a zebra would be lumps at either end. Try it with a zebra crossing ;)

Most subjects are a mixture of light and dark tones, with a lot of mid-tones too, which delivers a histogram with data left and right, and a lump in the middle, but the fact that's it's common doesn't make it right for everything. Far from it.

There's no such thing as a normal or perfect histogram for everything, it depends entirely on the subject. And BTW, they are 'the law'. What they show you is exactly what you've got on the sensor, generated off a JPEG conversion. If you know how to read them, and it's really pretty simple, then it's hard to go wrong.

I think the mistake some folks make is to believe that a) histograms are complicated, and b) there is some kind of ideal they should be aiming for. They just show you the range of tones in the image, and the area they occupy.
 
I guess i was concerned as it was way off the scale in the middle
 
Riz said:
I guess i was concerned as it was way off the scale in the middle
Click to expand...

It can never be off the scale in height, because the camera automatically rescales it to fit the screen. Basically if there were numbers up the sides, they would change, so that nothing can break above the top, so to speak. What the histogram shows is the relative distribution of tones (range and area) rather than the absolute values.

Do you use blinkies? The flashing highlight over-exposure warning, enabled in the menu. I should have mentined this earlier because they're a fantastically valuable aid. The danger with digital is over-exposure, and if you go too far, the highlights blow and will be completely lost. The blinkies show exactly which parts of the subject are either blown, or on the brink of blowing, so using in combination the LCD, the histogram and blinkies (to peg the highlights at a known value) you have all the tools to ensure optimum exposure.

This is more reliable than any meter reading, which is always a bit of a guess and prone to all kinds of variables, even if it's usually a pretty good guess. The LCD/histogram/blinkies show an actual recorded image, so in that sense they cannot be wrong.
 
I do use blinkies. I was concerned with the middle of histogram. I thought blinkies were for highlights?
 
Riz said:
I do use blinkies. I was concerned with the middle of histogram. I thought blinkies were for highlights?
Click to expand...

Like hoppy says it doesn't matter how high it goes, its just a graphical representation what proportion of your image is made up of a particular tone from black (shadows) to white (highlights on the right). It's only blowing out when it clips to the right and blinkies will show you 'where' in the image its happening, a histogram can't do that.
 
lensflair said:
Like hoppy says it doesn't matter how high it goes, its just a graphical representation what proportion of your image is made up of a particular tone from black (shadows) to white (highlights on the right). It's only blowing out when it clips to the right and blinkies will show you 'where' in the image its happening, a histogram can't do that.
Click to expand...

Cool thanks. Using the histogram has really upped my game. Shame my composition is pants
 
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