Using histograms to produce good exposures

Photo taken from Google Images

A histogram on a camera is an important feature that every photographer should use. Exposure is the key to a successful photograph. You need a properly exposed image in order to produce good quality work. I, as a photographer prefer to get my exposures right in the camera so I can limit the time and effort that others like to put into Photoshop later.

By using your histogram you are able to determine if you are using the proper settings or not. If you are going to review your image on your camera after shooting something, its best to set your camera so your histogram pops up beside the picture so you can tell if you are going to produce a usable image once its loaded onto the computer. The reasoning for wanting to display your histogram is because the image you see on the back of your camera is not always accurate. It is possible that you could also have your LCD settings set to the wrong settings and therefore could be showing you the wrong results when you look at your image. A great example of shooting something and receiving inaccurate information on your camera LCD screen is when you shoot snow or something white. After shooting the white image, you look at your camera screen and it looks like it was exposed the right way. But when you find yourself uploading the images to view on your computer you may all of a sudden notice that your images are well over exposed. Now an overexposed image is defined as highlights being completely blown out. An example of where you may see this is when shooting a bride at her wedding. The brides white dress will be completely blown out, or very bright and unflattering looking. The best way to avoid overexposing a subject is by making sure you have the proper camera settings for the scene or subject matter you are photographing.

When looking at a histogram there's 3 things you can look at; under exposure, normal exposure, and over exposure. When your histogram is showing the information in the middle, that means you have exposed the image properly. When the information is more to the left, it means there's not enough detail and you have underexposed. Lastly, when the slope is to the right of the histogram, it means you have to much detail and is therefore going to look overexposed. It's better to underexpose then over expose because you can always brighten an underexposed picture but you cant always darken an overexposed picture.