Where red overlaps blue, magenta is displayed.īy hovering your cursor over an image, the percentages of red, green and blue in that area appears underneath the histogram. Where blue overlaps green, turquoise is displayed. Where red overlaps green, yellow is displayed. The grey color represents areas that are a mixture of all three (Red, Blue, & Green). The histogram shows color distribution through having three tonal graphs, red, green and blue, overlaid on top of each other. Understanding the Colors of the Histogram The diverse range of tones that can be in an image will change what the histogram looks like.Įxample pics – black background, snow pic etc. The histogram will vary with style, time of day, season, and more. It is important to understand that there is no such thing as a perfect histogram. High tones are where there are bright colors with less contrast making details more distinguishable.
Highlights are graphed just to the right of the whites. The right side represents pure white, this is where tones are so bright that details and colors cannot be differentiated. This is where the eye can differentiate between clear details and different colors. The middle represents midtones or grey tones. These tones are also dark but the eye can differentiate some detail and color. Shadows are graphed just to the right of the blacks. The left side represents pure black, this is where the pixels are so dark that the eye cannot differentiate and see details. The vertical axis represents the frequency or intensity of each tone, with peaks for high frequency and valleys for low. The horizontal axis moves from the darkest to lightest.
Learning to read the histogram starts with understanding the graph, peaks and troughs presented. The color histogram shows just that, the color and saturation of an image – the colorful. The image histogram shows the number of pixels related to the tonal distribution and value of an image – the grey. With photography, there are two types – the image histogram, and the color histogram. Photographers can learn a lot about their images from being able to read the histogram properly. It measures the brightness of an image by representing the frequency of each tone as a value on a chart. The histogram is a graphical representation of the tones and colors in a photo. Photo by Betto Robles What is a histogram? Note, that the develop tab is most useful as it is where changes can be made to the histogram. Here are a few tips to help creators understand and use the LR histogram in their workflow.įirst off, the histogram can be found at the top right corner of the Library and Develop Modules. You can use it to identify RGB values and clipping indicators as well as a tool that explains where to make Basic Panel adjustments.
Grasping the histogram allows photographers to improve their images in ways the eye can’t see. We are here to make it a little easier to grasp. Most photographers have been at the point where they realize they should probably understand this histogram better.