Friday, November 11, 2005

Prelude to Black and White - The Histogram

Regardless of whether we intend to make color or black and white images, we need to expose an image correctly. As an aesthetic choice we can take photographs that are underexposed or overexposed. However, I still feel that we should capture an image with as much detail in it as possible. We can make an artistic judgment afterwards and blow highlights or make dark images in photoshop.

Now, how do we know we are capturing as much information as possible? The preview screen is inaccurate and our eyes can play tricks on us. The best way of judging whether we have captured the correct information is to look at the histogram. And just what is the histogram? This article on the Canon Europe web site gives a nice introduction to histograms and what is the best practice. Recommended reading for anyone with a decent digital camera. Very important if you want to create good black and white images.

2 comments:

Geoff said...

yeah, i still get so much pleasure from processing negatives that are completely all shades of grey....film-speak sorry!

Heng said...

Don't be sorry. I am sorry that I have to leave b/w behind because I cannot get it processed properly to get a good negative.