Understanding Histograms

Apa itu histogram? Adakah kita benar-benar fahami tentang histogram? Aku sendiri pun tidak tahu sangat macam mana nak baca histogram dengan betul. Kata orang, kalau histogram kita betul, gambar kita akan “betul” jugak.

Kalau nak tahu sangat pasal histogram, baca jer la kat bawah ni. Jangan baca sahaja, kalau tidak faham tidak ada gunanya jugak kan?

–

“I was flicking through my camera’s menu today and came across a little graph labeled ‘histogram’. What is it and should I take any notice of it? Is there such a thing as the ideal histogram? What should we be aiming for?” – Brent

What is a Histogram

Histograms are a topic that we could (and probably should) spend a lot of time talking about but let me give you a very brief answer to get you through in the short term.

Histograms are a very useful tool that many cameras offer their users to help them get a quick summary of the tonal range present in any given image.

It graphs the tones in your image from black (on the left) to white (on the right).

The higher the graph at any given point the more pixels of that tone that are present in an image.

So a histogram with lots of dark pixels will be skewed to the left and one with lots of lighter tones will be skewed to the right.

The beauty of a histogram is that the small LCD display on your camera is not really big enough to give you an great review of a picture and you can often get home to find that you’ve over or under exposed an image. Checking the histogram can tell you this while you’re in a position to be able to adjust your settings and take another shot.

Some Examples of Histograms

Let’s look at a couple of examples of histograms on shots I’ve taken over the first year of my son’s life (it’s his birthday this week so we’re going through some shots).

Compare these two shots and their corresponding histograms:

The above shot has a lot of light tones – in fact there are parts of the shot that are quite blown out. As a result on the right hand side of the histogram you can see a sudden rise. While there are quite a few mid tones – everything is skewed right and with the extreme values on the right hand side indicate an over exposed shot.

This second shot has a lot of dark tones. This is partly because of the black and navy clothes in the shot – but also because it’s slightly underexposed shot. The resulting histogram is quite different to the first one – the values are skewed to the left hand side.

–

Is there such a thing as a ‘good’ histogram?

As with most aspects of photography, beauty is the in eye of the beholder and there’s always a lot of room for personal taste and different ways of expressing yourself as a photographer.

There is no such thing as the ‘perfect’ histogram – different subjects and photographic styles will produce different results. For example taking a silhouette shot might produce a histogram with peaks at both ends of the spectrum and nothing much in the middle of the graph. Taking a shot of someone at the snow will obviously have a histogram with significant peaks on the right hand side…. etc

Having said this (and to generalize) – in most cases you’ll probably want a fairly balanced shot with a nice spread of tones. Most well exposed shots tend to peak somewhere in the middle and taper off towards the edges.

–

Using Histograms While Shooting

So now you know what a histogram is – grab your digital camera’s manual and work out how to switch it on in playback mode. This will enable you to see both the picture and the histogram when reviewing shots after taking them.

Keep an eye out for histograms with dramatic spikes to the extreme ends of either side of the spectrum. This indicates that you have a lot of pixels that are either pure black or pure white. While this might be what you’re after remember that those sections of the image probably have very little detail – this is a hint that your image could be either over or under exposed.

The histogram is really just a tool to give you more information about an image and to help you get the effect that you want. Having your camera set to show you histograms during the view process will tell you how your image is exposed. Learning to read them will help you to work out whether you’re exposing a shot as you had hoped.

–

Another Example of a Histogram

You can see in this shot a much more even spread of tones. It’s still not perfect and I’d do a little post production work but it’s a much more evenly exposed shot and the histogram reflects this.

–

Sumber dari : http://digital-photography-school.com/

–

Jin’s @ Jin-X Empire

Freelance Photographer/ Jurugambar Bebas

Wedding Photography/Jurugambar Perkahwinan

Kuching, Sarawak

+6012.890.44.11

Treasures Of The Rainforest

Apakah yang dimaksudkan dengan “Treasures of the rainforests” ?

anda berminat untuk turut serta ??? maklumat lanjut ada disini –> klik disini

–

Jin’s,

Freelance Photographer/ Jurugambar Bebas

Wedding Photography/Jurugambar Perkahwinan

Kuching, Sarawak

+6012.890.44.11

Cuti-Cuti Malaysia

Semalam Rabu 18 March 2009, aku bersama keluarga aku pergi bercuti di Damai Puri Kuching, Sarawak. Sebenarnya aku memang tak ada plan pun nak bercuti. Oleh kerana ada urusan tertentu aku mengambil cuti pada hari Rabu. Kebetulan pada hari selasa kakak aku menelifon aku mengatakan dia ada booking room kat Damai Puri selama 2 hari (isnin – selasa). Aku pun mengambil kesempatan untuk turut serta. Hari Selasa aku balik  awal sedikit dari biasa dan balik rumah kemas-kemas barang dan senjata aku serta membawa bini dan anak aku ke Damai Puri. Memang seronok sebab dapat bercuti dgn free. Bilik yang cukup selesa dan luas. Ingatkan nak shoot sunset tapi cuaca pada petang selasa tu hujan renyai-renyai dan tak dapat nak shoot . Sedikit gambar dari aku semasa aku dan keluarga aku kat Damai Puri. Klik pada gambar untuk melihat gambar yang lain. –

Jin’s @ Jin-X Empire

Freelance Photographer/ Jurugambar Bebas

Wedding Photography/Jurugambar Perkahwinan

Kuching, Sarawak

+6012.890.44.11

Pernikahan Pyan dan Mieja 15 March 09

Pada minggu lepas, aku dan rakan – rakan setugas aku dapat satu tugasan lagi. Kali ini tugasan tersebut bertempat di Perumahan R.P.R Fasa 1. Pengantin lelaki bernama Pyan dan pasangannya bernama Mieja berasal dari Sarikei.

Sebelum pernikahan tersebut mereka memberi tugas kepada kami untuk mengambil gambar Pra-Wedding.

Kami bertemu bakal pengantin tersebut di rumah Mak Andam dan sempat merakam beberapa keping gambar sebelum mengambil gambar Outdoor.

dan 1 minggu berikutnya ,  berlangsunglah Pernikahan kedua-dua mempelai tersebut. Wajah gembira dan ceria terpampang di kedua-dua muka pasangan apabila hari yang bakal dinantikan sudah menjelma.

Sedikit gambar-gambar saat manis seumur hidup kedua-dua pasangan tersebut. Klik pada gambar untuk melihat gambar-gambar yang lain.

–

Jin’s @ Jin-X Empire

Freelance Photographer/ Jurugambar Bebas

Wedding Photography/Jurugambar Perkahwinan

Kuching, Sarawak

+6012.890.44.11

Finding Fresh Angles to Shoot From – Digital Photography Composition Tip

Sekali lagi aku ingin berkongsi artikel tentang composition .

Aku kadang-kadang lemah dalam komposisi untuk gambar aku .

Di sini aku kongsikan tip-tips tersebut agar dapat membantu kalian semua

–

One of the most effective ways to make your digital images more interesting to the eye is to change the angle that you’re shooting from.
Let me use an illustration of a couple of pictures I took of a big pineapple (don’t ask – it’s an Australian thing).

1                                                                  2

In my opinion the first picture is more interesting than the second. While the second one might be good for putting the big pineapple in context of it’s surroundings and giving an accurate picture of ‘how big’ it is – I’m much more likely to get a ‘wow’ factor using the first one (although it’s by no means a brilliant shot for other reasons).

There are a number of differences between these pictures in terms of composition. For starters the first is closer and fills the frame (I’ll write about this in a future post) but for the purposes of this composition tip I want to talk about the angle that I shot the two shots from.

The second shot is taken by me standing some distance from the pineapple as I approached it. In the first shot I got much closer and crouched down to accentuate my smallness and the pineapple’s bigness. I could have gone a step further and lay down on the ground to shoot it for even greater impact.

Not only does changing the angle that you shoot from impact the feeling of size of your subject but it can have a real effect upon the light and shade and patterns on it. You can see in the picture on the left that the patterns on the pineapple are more pronounced as a result of the angle I shot it from.

Ideas for New Angles

The variety of perspectives that you can shoot images from is only limited by your imagination. In addition to standing in front of your subject you might like to try:

• lying or crouching in front of it
• climbing above it
• putting the camera on the ground and chancing it (some cameras with swing out LCD displays make this particularly easy as you can frame your shots rather than chancing it)

I’m not finished yet with this topic – in the days ahead I’ll post about finding new angles to shoot portraits from and then one on photographing children. Stay tuned for more.

Sumber dari : http://digital-photography-school.com/

–

Jin’s @ Jin-X Empire

Freelance Photographer/ Jurugambar Bebas

Wedding Photography/Jurugambar Perkahwinan

Kuching, Sarawak

+6012.890.44.11