The position of values along the vertical Y-axis simply tells you how many pixels are present at
that particular tonal value.
More examples:
a final image
Essentially, containing all
it significantly the information
decreases the needyour camera is exposures. It helps you choose a
for bracketing
capable of capturing.
combination of f-stop and shutter speed which will yield an optimal exposure and identifies
exposure problems at the time that you are best able to correct them--in the field.
What is Clipping?
Each end of the histogram should taper off and approach the baseline
BEFORE it “hits the wall”. A graph that runs into the wall BEFORE it
hits the X-Axis on either side indicates “clipping” and subsequent loss
of available information.
If clipping occurs on the left, detail is lost in the shadow area of the image. If you simply
increase the brightness after exposure (with Levels or Curves in Photoshop, for instance), all
you will accomplish is an increase in NOISE in the affected areas. (Noise being the digital
equivalent of grain). You can lighten the area in question, but you cannot recreate detail that has
been lost. This is a problem you must try to improve before exposure, although you do have
more leeway if you are shooting RAW.
There is no “correct”
You can correct clipping of shadows by using a slower shutter speed or a larger aperture--in other words--MORE LIGHT.
To this end, you can also use fill-flash or a reflector. You can usually judge the result of using the reflector through the
viewfinder, but if you use flash, be extra careful not to burn out your highlights. You will learn to rely on your histogram.
Fill-flash was used to photograph this crab spider. I used a two-headed Nikon R1C1 ring flash, with one flash straight
ahead at 2/3 power and the other from the side at 1/3 power. Just enough light to open the shadows, and not enough to
burn out the white highlights.
Highlight Clipping If the clipping takes place on the right side of the
histogram, highlight detail is lost. Change your
exposure to shift the histogram to the left. Common
wisdom states that, to minimize noise (the electronic
equivalent of grain), the histogram should be shifted as
far to the right as possible without clipping the
highlights.
Each
end
of
the
In this photograph of a milkweed bug, the initial histogram showed two problems. First, the milkweed silk was
overexposed (highlight clipping was evident on the initial histogram). In addition, the blacks were also blocked-up and
without detail.
The solution here was to underexpose to restore detail to the seedhead. Then in Photoshop, I was able to manipulate the
RAW file to restore some of the detail to the black areas on the bug’s wing. When I have to choose, I will always
optimize highlights first--To me, a burnt-out highlight is much more distracting than a blocked shadow. In this image,
I could have lived with the overly-dark blacks, but the burnt out highlights would have ruined the image for me. This
is a subjective call--everyone has a different tolerance level.
So, youshould
graph see thetaper
patternoffof theapproach
and graph and theinterpret
baselineit.BEFORE
Now change
it your exposure settings
(aperture and/or
“hits the wall”. shutter speed) to compensate for the clipping and recheck the histogram after
your next exposure.
A cliff-edge pattern on either side indicates “clipping” and
Issubsequent
clipping always
loss ofa information.
“bad” thing?IfNot necessarily.
it occurs on theItleft,
depends
detailupon the content of the image. In
some
is lostcases, clipping
in the shadowmay arearepresent areasIfofyou
of the image. pure black,increase
simply which contain no shadow detail. In
other situations,after
the brightness it may represent
exposure (in specular
Photoshop,highlights (reflections
for instance), all off water, metal or glass), and
likewise may not contain any highlight detail. The
you will accomplish is an increase in NOISE in the affected histogram gives you warning of potential
trouble and allows
areas. (Noise beingyoutheto makeequivalent
digital adjustments of before
grain). you see on the monitor that you can’t “fix it
in Photoshop”.
If the clipping takes place on the right, highlight detail is
lost. If highlight or shadow detail is compromised in the
Some general rules of thumb:
BEING COMFORTABLE WITH YOUR HISTOGRAM 6
A. Avoid clipping at either end unless you are comfortable that it represents either deep
black without detail or specular highlights.
B. If the contrast range is too great to avoid some clipping, then clip shadows rather than
highlights. There is software available and “workarounds” that can help you minimize
shadow noise, but once detail is lost, you cannot replace it. Blown-out highlights are
more objectionable than blocked-up shadows.
C. Move the body of the histogram as far to the right as you can without clipping
highlights.
(No, I have not forgotten about High Dynamic Range techniques or layer masks for contrast
adjustment, but those are topics in their own right and deal with issues which may be unfixable
with a single exposure in the field).
Become comfortable with the histogram. It may appear several times during the life and
processing of your digital image:
A. In-camera, as just described, you can use it to optimize the original capture.
B. In your conversion software (Camera Raw, Nikon Capture, etc.) if you are shooting
RAW.
C. In some scanner software (if you are still shooting slides or scanning your archive into
your editing software).
D. In your photo-editing software.
Remember, the more optimal your image is BEFORE you bring it into your photo-editing
software (Photoshop®, Photo Elements®, etc) the more information will be available for you
and the better the final quality of your image will be.
An adjunct to the histogram is the “highlight blinky” warning. This can be helpful in letting you know that you are
clipping your highlights, but it’s like the idiot lights on your dashboard. The oil warning light will tell you when your
engine is about to melt down because of lack of lubrication, but an earlier warning would be more helpful. Likewise,
the blinky warning will tell you that your highlights are blown, but the histogram gives you the details of which
tones and by how much your image is compromised.
light–
the sameit is a valuable
graph, but in tool
RGB,that helps
with eachyou interpret
color channelthebeing represented by its own curve (along
distribution
the same axes). of values for each image and create a final image
that
contains
The importance of the three-color histogram was
all the
demonstrated recently, when I photographed the wings
of a morpho butterfly suspended in a spider web in Costa
Rica. The luminance histogram looked fine in the field,
but when I uploaded the images into Photoshop®, I
discovered that the blue channel was burnt out, with
NO detail in several areas of the bright blue wings. Ray
Klass, a Photoshop®-savvy friend had showed me a
technique called “channel blending”, where detail can be
optimized in one channel and then re-applied to the
image, and I was able to bring out some detail in the
burnt out areas, although not all.
original
exposure,
you
cannot
restore it
in your
editing
software.