Can anyone help me in reading the histogram? Just a simple explanation is preferred. I never know what I'm doing with it.

I just bought a Kodak Easy Share Z7590 and am having trouble learning how to use most of the features. Also lost on how to use the histogram. all help appreciated.

The Historgram is a display showing the range of darks to lights in a photo. First, I should say it has NOTHING to do with "History" nor any moment except the present! There are two axis, horizontal and vertical. On the horizontal axis, "BLACK or rather DARK" is at the left and "WHITE or BRIGHT" is at the right. The vertical scale is usually done as a "bar graph" where the height of the bar (growing from the bottom) shows the AMOUNT of intensity present across from DARK to BRIGHT.

X
XX
XXXXXXX Would be a very dim dark photo.

------XX
----XXXX
XXXXXXX would be a very light photo

(I used -- to indicate blank - the formatting may not work out nicely in this post)


The human eye sees (and can percieve) a far larger range of dark to light than most equipment, including film cameras and digital cameras. But electronic cameras can automatically set a good exposure point. This histogram scale shows you how well it is going to do. If you have tall bars at the left, then you are "underexposed" or should brighten up the scene with more light or change the camera setttings to a slower shutter, wider aperture, etc. If the bars are full on the right, then you would overexpose the photo and should use a higher shutter speed or smaller aperture, etc.

Generally, photos will be the most pleasing if there is some "dark content" and "medium content" and "bright content", or rather the histogram bars showing tall at several places on the horizontal scale. Don't be afraid to take a picture that has a bar all the way to the top anywhere, just know that you are maxing out the camera's capability to capture that level.

I'm glad you mentioned that last bit. Do remember that there is no "right" or "wrong" histogram - it may be that you want a high-key image that blows all your highlight detail, or that you want a really dark one which, perhaps, isolates your main subject. Don't let mythology about the perfect histogram get in the way of taking the photo you want to take!

I have posted up an explaination. Though I have looked on the web I have seen some good ones, I like to use images to explain. I do not try to use the correct terminology (I probably should go find out what Adobe calls this stuff.) but try to keep it basic. If you find something confusing, I will go back and change it to make it more clear. I did not put much time into this and it shows but I hope it helps. If you have time, tell me if this helps you out.

Click Here Histogram