What Camera Histogram is and How to Read Camera Histogram within Your Photographs
Last Updated on November 23, 2021 by Peter Wood
Camera histogram is one of the most important concepts when taking the desired photo with a digital camera. After taking a picture with a digital camera, you can view it immediately on your device or computer. However, the digital screen does not display the original image. Instead, digital devices will evaluate exposure and reproduce your photos. Both digital cameras’ LCD and EVF have adjustable brightness. So, how can you fine-tune the image exposure if you cannot trust what your eyes see? The answer is camera histogram. Just learn more about the brief instruction for the concept from the article.
Part 1: Brief Review of Camera Histogram
Camera Histogram is a professional concept. Generally speaking, there are four histograms in a modern digital camera. The primary one is the luminosity histogram. It tells you the overall brightness of a scene. The other three camera histograms are involved with colors, representing the red, green, and blue pixels on the sensor. In short, a camera histogram is a graph that shows you some sets of pixel data.
Is there an ideal camera histogram for shooting? There is no distribution of tones. Some scenes will contain more darks than mid-tones or highlights, while others will contain almost of highlights, a few mid-tones, and no darks. Just choose the desired one according to your requirement. The camera histogram is based on a JPEG, even if you’re shooting RAW. Moreover, if you change your lens, the camera histogram will also change, even if you leave the setting the same.
Part 2: Why Do You Need a Camera Histogram
Both digital screens and your eyes are not trustable since they cannot show a 100% accurate representation of what the sensor is capturing.
Camera histogram shows you a graph of pixels arranged from dark to light. So, it provides exact data to confirm the color, white balance, exposure, contrast, and more for any area of your photo. When you edit images, you know how far you can change image exposure before clipping pixels.
The advantage of camera histograms is to help you avoid over or underexposing a photo. After taking an image with your digital camera, you may want to make the dark area darker and the white pixels brighter to get details. However, if you do it directly, there is no way to bring them back. The camera histogram tells you the exposure in a graph.
Moreover, the camera histograms for red, green, and blue channels are helpful too. If a particular color is so bright to get blown out, the combination of the three color channels may look nice. But one channel may still be clipped. With a camera histogram, you can view an individual channel to adjust it separately.
Part 3: How to View Camera Histogram on PC/Mac
A camera histogram can help you edit a photo as a professional. Of course, you can read it on your camera. How to view the information of the camera histogram within your computer? WidsMob Viewer Pro is the desired camera histogram reader and RAW viewer, in which you can learn every detail about the photographs taken by your digital camera. Moreover, you can also browse the images, create a slideshow and convert the photos.
1. Show you camera histograms information, EXIF information, and others.
2. Adjust exposure, contrast, saturation, and other parameters for a histogram.
3. Support almost all media formats, such as RAW, JPEG, MP4, HEIC, etc.
5. Include extensive bonus tools, such as image sharing, editing, and more.
How to View Camera Histogram on Windows and Mac
Step 1: Launch the camera histogram reader after installing the program on your computer. When you have set it as the default photo viewer, double-click on the images to open them directly, go to the File option and choose the Open option to import the desired photos.
Step 2: If you want to view the camera histogram of a digital photo, select it in the library and click the View menu and choose the Show Info option. Then you can view the graph of camera histograms and the other metadata, like camera maker, exposure time, focal length, and more.
Step 3: Moreover, you can also edit and adjust the camera histogram for the photos. If you want to view the desired image, click the Edit icon at the bottom next to the Trash Bin. Go to the Adjust tab. And you will get all camera histograms. Move the sliders to get the satisfying photo.
Step 4: After that, you can click the Edit menu or choose the Batch Convert option from the Batch option. Pick your favorite image format from the Format drop-down option and adjust the Quality. Once you have clicked on the Convert button, the process will start.
When you want to share the desired photos to your social media sites, click the Share icon at the bottom, choose the proper channel and enter the account information to share the images.
Conclusion
Based on the sharing above, you should understand what camera histogram is, how it works and how to read it on your computer. Though you can view the camera histogram on a digital camera, it is not easy to read it on a desktop. WidsMob Viewer Pro, on the other hand, is not only a camera histogram viewer but also an excellent RAW viewer for most of the photos. If you have any queries about the topic, you can share more details in the comments.