Five Tips to Becoming a Better Photographer - Tip Number Three By: Robert Davila

Nov 07, 2017

Hello again, and Happy Friday!  Today we continue with another tool, which will assist you in becoming the photographer you always wanted to be.

Tip Number Three:  What’s that little graph for?

If you preview your image and keep on pushing the info button a little graph may come up.  This is called a histogram.  I have to say I just love this tool.  I use this tool more than my light meter.  The basic thing to understand about this tool is that it counts the colors of the pixel in the images and represents it in a graph.   The ideal histogram will look like a hill in which starts off low then slowly goes up somewhere in the middle, then comes down before the end of the graph (good tonal range).   If that hill or peek is not in the center but push to the left or to the right and is missing part of it, then you are losing detail in your highlights (move to the right) shadow (move to the left).  If you see big gaps so that you have two peeks, this means that you are losing part of your tonal range.   This tool will prevent the photographer from going out and Photographing something then getting home to realize that your subject is lost in the highlights or shadow areas.  The small screen on the back of your camera is sometimes too small to view your image to realize this.  It is only apparent once you get home and view it on your computer screen.   

Next week, I will discuss Tip Number Four.    Have a great weekend and take some photographs.