What Histograms Tell You

The luminance histogram is a guide to the contrast and tonal distribution of the image, indicating the dynamic range of the subject plus any underexposure or overexposure.

Image

Dynamic Range and Contrast

You may have read that a ”good” histogram is bunched towards the middle of the graph. This is incorrect. There is no such thing as a good histogram; a histogram is just conveying information about the tonal values of the image. The histogram of a correctly exposed image may bunch up in the middle, or lean to the left or right. It depends on the tonal range within the image.

The histogram represents brightness values of zero ...

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