Histogram vs Eyeball Editing

I am relatively new to Lightroom and after-the-shoot photo editing.?I have been reading Martin Evening's The Adobe Lightroom 2 Book; in particular the sections on reading and using the histogram (pages 264 and on).

I am curious whether people pay a lot of attention to the histogram, or just rely on their eye and intuition when deciding which development tools to use and how much to use them.

Also, I now understand right and left clipping, but I am still not clear what the histogram is telling me when something hits the top of the histogram.

Thanks for any comments and insights.

Jack Siegel

Histogram vs Eyeball Editing

Both!

At least, that's the answer for me. I can't tell you what the Histogram crowding one end means to you, but for me it tells me I should mess around with exposure a bit, and depending on the lighting source/direction, fill or recovery. I will eyeball the dark areas, take a quick sample, and try to get blacks around the 5 level.

Histogram vs Eyeball Editing

Yes I look at the histogram for all my shots because it gives me an idea how how well I (or the camera) got the exposure and it also gives me an idea of the overall range of brightness (dynamic range) in the shot. Do I use it much in adjusting the image, not really! I do look at it when I adjust the black level and white level of the image but in the end it comes down to what the image looks like not what the histogram looks like.

The ''height'' of any part of the histogram, does not have a scale, but gives you an idea of how many pixels at any particular level, 0 to 255, there are in the image. An ideal image, if there is such a thing would have an equal spread across all brightness levels so the histogram would be a flat shape, about have way up the chart sloping down to zero at 0 and 255. If the curve ever manages to hit the top line at a level then there is a very high proportion of pixels at or around that particular brightness level and this does not normally occur. Hitting the top line at 0 or 255 does occur of course with over or under exposed shots or shots with high dynamic range.

That is my understanding of it, hope it helps,

Dave.

''but I am still not clear what the histogram is telling me when something hits the top of the histogram.''

Jack,

When the histogram hits the top of the frame, it just means that there is a lot of that colour at that particular intensity. It isn't generally important unless it's at one end or the other, in which case it tells you that you have strong clipping.

Hal

Thanks to all who answered and who might still answer.?So far the answers were very helpful.

Jack Siegel