A Healthy Mum

[jcdeboever]

I have been doing my black and white conversions from eye sight on the PC monitor. I do not understand the histograms. I just adjust until I like what I see. Looking for direction on a comprehensive study on reading histograms. I like the way this looks but I want to be sure by looking at histograms?

 

[TMorrow]

Nice! You make it look almost sculptural. I hope someone weights in on the histograms as I would like to learn too,

 

[Gary A.]

This I like ... but for me, this calls for the black background. I am very impressed with that Sigma Macro. Well done.

 

[KenC]

I like the way this looks but I want to be sure by looking at histograms?

I don't really spend much time looking at them. They'll show you whether you have some true black and some highlights that are near white, but for contrast and general tonal values you can get that pretty well by looking. Sometimes if I want to figure out what direction to go I look at some RGB (or K for B&W) values in the info palette and decide which parts of the curve need to be lighter or darker.

 

[otherprof]

I have been doing my black and white conversions from eye sight on the PC monitor. I do not understand the histograms. I just adjust until I like what I see. Looking for direction on a comprehensive study on reading histograms. I like the way this looks but I want to be sure by looking at histograms?

View attachment 129280

Beautiful, interesting image. Great tonal range. Trust your eyes.

 

[jcdeboever]

Nice! You make it look almost sculptural. I hope someone weights in on the histograms as I would like to learn too,

Thanks

 

[Ysarex]

P.S. This is the histogram for the mum above.

 

[jcdeboever]

This I like ... but for me, this calls for the black background. I am very impressed with that Sigma Macro. Well done.

I may try to clone some black in it. Thanks

 

[jcdeboever]

I have been doing my black and white conversions from eye sight on the PC monitor. I do not understand the histograms. I just adjust until I like what I see. Looking for direction on a comprehensive study on reading histograms. I like the way this looks but I want to be sure by looking at histograms?

View attachment 129280

Beautiful, interesting image. Great tonal range. Trust your eyes.

Thanks.

 

[jcdeboever]

View attachment 129300

P.S. This is the histogram for the mum above.

Thank you, that is what I was looking for.

 

[bulldurham]

A Black BG is not going to help this image. Your blacks in this case are just too black in the mid-section shadows for the black BG to work. An option when I am posting is perhaps to crop it real tight and then work your mid-tones down a bit (more toward the darker than light side on the tonal range.) As you can see by the new histogram, while the blacks are still overpowering the histogram, with the mid-tones brought more toward the middle and flattened a bit, the blacks are not nearly as overpowering - well, better anyway.

The second image I used from one I posted last night (Tetons Sunset) which is a pure wash of bright light against the peaks with a mostly normal range of color throughout the foreground. The histogram reflects more of a push from left to mid, and right to mid. It could be argued there needs to a be a pure white and a pure black, but I think I'd argue that point vigorously. I use the histogram pretty aggressively when doing PP as a great checks and balances tool.

As always, my opinions are just that and never meant to disparage or degrade anyone's work, but rather to either offer a possible solution or give an explanation based on my own experience.

 

[jcdeboever]

A Black BG is not going to help this image. Your blacks in this case are just too black in the mid-section shadows for the black BG to work. An option when I am posting is perhaps to crop it real tight and then work your mid-tones down a bit (more toward the darker than light side on the tonal range.) As you can see by the new histogram, while the blacks are still overpowering the histogram, with the mid-tones brought more toward the middle and flattened a bit, the blacks are not nearly as overpowering - well, better anyway.

The second image I used from one I posted last night (Tetons Sunset which is a pure wash of bright light against the peaks with a mostly normal range of color throughout the foreground. The histogram reflects more of a push from left to mid, and right to mid. It could be argued there needs to a be a pure white and a pure black, but I think I'd argue that point vigorously. I use the histogram pretty aggressively when doing PP as a great checks and balances tool.

View attachment 129377

View attachment 129376

As always, my opinions are just that and never meant to disparage or degrade anyone's work, but rather to either offer a possible solution or give an explanation based on my own experience.

Thank-you, I like it. Good info and explanation. Appreciate it.