Pentax 8587 Histogram, ←Brightness→ Bright, Understanding Brightness, Understanding Contrast

1 GettingStarted

Histogram

A histogram shows the brightness	→
distribution of an image. The
	pixels
horizontal axis represents
brightness (dark at the left and
	of
bright at the right) and the vertical
	Number
axis represents the number of
pixels.
The shape of the histogram		(Dark)	←Brightness→ (Bright)
before and after shooting tells you
whether the brightness and
	Dark portions			Bright portions
contrast are correct or not, and

lets you decide if you need to use EV compensation and take the picture again.

Setting the Exposure (EV Compensation) 1p.95

Understanding Brightness

If the brightness is correct, the graph peaks in the middle. If the image is underexposed, the peak is on the left side, and if it is overexposed, the peak is on the right side.

Dark image Correct image Bright image

When the image is underexposed, the part to the left is cut off (dark portions) and when the image is overexposed, the part to the right is cut off (bright portions). This camera has a function where overexposed areas are indicated as blinking red and underexposed areas as blinking yellow.

Understanding Contrast

The graph peaks gradually for images in which contrast is balanced. The graph peaks on both sides but sinks in the middle for images with a large difference in contrast and low amounts of mid-level brightness.

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