How to Use Your Camera’s Histogram for Better Photography

Use the histogram for perfectly exposed photography every time

Mirrorless cameras have so many advantages, and the in-camera histogram is one of my favorites. You won’t have to guess how your camera is metering before you take the shot, and you won’t have to look at the photo after the shot to determine how it was exposed. Interpret the histogram during the composition, press the shutter, and compose the next photo!

Is it cheating to use the camera’s histogram? Absolutely not – the histogram is a tool that we should use if it’s available. Technology furthering art. The histogram used with the Zone System is a lethal combination for nailing exposure.

Use Your Camera's Histogram for Perfect Exposures

Watch this video on YouTube.

Traditional metering isn’t always ideal

Most documentary-style photographers are frequently in and out of different lighting conditions. Metering each scene and locking in a manual exposure can take time you don’t have. Letting the camera meter the scene automatically…God knows what’ll happen if you leave it to the camera.

Knowing how to use the in-camera histogram as a meter provides a much more accurate way to see what’s happening with your exposure. After switching to mirrorless systems, I prefer the histogram over the traditional meter.

The photo below is a perfect example of when you could use the histogram in a scene with dark tones, midtones, and bright tones – we’ll dissect this later. I just needed to glance down at the lower right corner of my EVF to the histogram, and I know what the exposure looks like.

With practice, you can look at a scene and know what the histogram should look like, and vice-versa.

How to read the camera’s histogram

Reading a histogram is easy once you understand the basic concept. And knowing the basic concept is all you need to understand about it.

Basic histogram construction

The histogram is a graphical representation of the brightness of all the pixels in your composition. In total non-technical terms:

• The left side shows the amount of dark pixels, and the right side shows the amount of bright pixels.
• The graph’s height shows how much of that brightness is found within the image.

If the mass of your graph is in the middle, you have an image with even middle tones.

Histogram interpretation example

Returning to our first example and splitting the histogram into three zones, we can interpret the graph from left to right.

• A small area of dark trees on the left side of the scene accounts for a very small percentage of the overall photo. There will be a very small “bump” in the shadow area of the histogram.
• Most of the scene is comprised of blue sky and blue water. Accordingly, most of the histogram is in the middle.
• A small portion of the scene is made up of bright snow, which is almost white. We see a small portion of the histogram in the “highlight” area.

If our image is underexposed – too dark – we see that the bulk of the histogram is in the shadow area. But this is all sky – it should be in the middle! The snow, which should be white, comes down to the gray area of the histogram. We don’t want gray snow!

When our image is overexposed – too bright – now that sky is approaching the highlight area. Blue water and blue sky will lose their color if it’s in that highlight area. Note the trees, which are supposed to be in the shade, also almost come up to the highlights.

If you have a very bright scene, the bulk of the histogram should be on the right. Some pixels could be pure white.

If you have a very dark scene, the bulk of the histogram should be on the left. Some pixels could be black.

The histogram in high-contrast scenes

In a high-contrast scene, you usually have to choose which area to expose for.

In the example below, the wood is in the highlights and the shadows are in the, well, shadows. The wood should be in the mid-tones though, so I pull the exposure down to put the bright areas (the wood) in the middle. That places the shadow areas further into black, which is fine because I think seeing the detail in the brighter areas of the wood is more important.

Enabling the histogram in Canon EOS R cameras

Enabling the histogram in Canon EOS R mirrorless cameras is very similar to doing so in Nikon Z cameras, you press the INFO button until you see the display with the histogram overlay.

You can further customize what’s displayed for your different INFO screens:

• In the main menu, go to the wrench icon pages and look for Shooting Info Disp.
• Enter Screen Info Settings
• Select the options you want to see for the different pages

There is no perfect histogram

There are numerous charts and infographics on the Internet, like on Pinterest, with examples showing what the “perfect” or “best” histogram is. But these are never accompanied by actual images to show why.

Secret: there is no “best” histogram. The only perfect histogram is the one that is true to both your subject matter and how you want to expose it.

If you want a bright, optimistic image or are taking a picture of a sunny snowscape, of course it will be on the right.

If you’re taking a dark, moody photo in a poorly-lit forest or a night photo, of course it will be biased to the left.

Practice with the histogram

You won’t be able to read this post or watch a YouTube video and be a histogram expert. It’s going to take some practice, which should give you even more reason to get out and shoot! As long as you now understand how to use the camera’s histogram, you’ll be on your way to better exposures!

You can check out a variety of our photography courses for further information about exposure and using the histogram. Use the code “blog20” for 20% off.

Do you have any questions or comments? Please leave them below!