Some people think that the histogram is some sort of panacea for digital photography, a means of deciding whether an image is “perfect” enough. Others tend to disregard the statistical response it provides completely. This leads us to question what useful information is there in a histogram, and how we go about interpreting it.
A plethora of information
A histogram maps the brightness or intensity of every pixel in an image. But what does this information tell us? One of the main roles of a histogram is to provide information on the tonal distributions in an image. This is useful to help determine if there is something askew with the visual appearance of an image. Histograms can be viewed live/in-camera, for the purpose of determining whether or not an image has been corrected exposed, or used during post-processing to fix aesthetic inadequacies. Aesthetic deficiencies can occur during the acquisition process, or can be intrinsic to the image itself, e.g. faded vintage photographs. Examples of deficiencies include such things as blown highlights, or lack of contrast.
A histogram can tell us many differing things about how intensities are distributed throughout the image. Figure 1 shows an example of a colour image, photograph taken in Bergen, Norway, its associated grayscale image and histograms. The histogram spans the entire range of intensity values. Midtones comprise 66% of pixels in the image, with the majority tiered towards the lighter midtone values (the largest hump in the histogram). Shadow pixels comprise only 7% of the whole image, and are actually associated with shaded regions in the image. Highlights relate to regions like the white building on the left, and some of the clouds. There are very few pure white, the exception being the shopfront signs. Some of the major features in the histogram are indicated in the image.
There is no perfect histogram
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, there is one thing that should be made clear. Sometimes there are infographics on the internet that tout the myth of a “perfect” or “ideal” histogram. The reality is that such infographics are very misleading. There is no such thing as a perfect histogram. The notion of the ideal histogram is one that is shaped like a “bell”, but there is no reason why the distribution of intensities should be that even. Here is the usual description of an ideal image: “An ideal image has a histogram which has a centred hill type shape, with no obvious skew, and a form that is spread across the entire histogram (and without clipping)”.
But a scene may be naturally darker or lighter rather than midtones found in a bell-shaped histogram. Photographs taken in the latter part of the day will be naturally darker, as will photographs of dark objects. Conversely, a photograph of a snowy scene will skew to the right. Consider the picture of the Toronto skyline taken at night shown in Figure 3. Obviously the histogram doesn’t come close to being “perfect”, but the majority of the scene is dark – not unusual for a dark scene, and hence the histogram is representative of this. In this case the low-key histogram is ideal.
Interpreting a histogram
Interpreting a histogram usually involves examining the size and uniformity of the distribution of intensities in the image. The first thing to do is to look at the overall curve of the histogram to get some idea about its shape characteristics. The curve visually communicates the number of pixels in any one particular intensity.
First, check for any noticeable peaks, dips, or plateaus. For example peaks generally indicate a large number of pixels of a certain intensity range within the image. Plateaus indicate a uniform distribution of intensities. Check to see if the histogram skewed to the left or right. A left-skewed histogram might indicate underexposure, the scene itself being dark (e.g. a night scene), or containing dark objects. A right-skewed histogram may indicate overexposure, or a scene full of white objects. A centred histogram may indicate a well-exposed image, because it is full of mid-tones. A small, uniform hill may indicate a lack of contrast.
Next look at the edges of the histogram. A histogram with peaks that are placed against either edge of the histogram may indicate some loss of information, a phenomena known as clipping. For example if clipping occurs on the right side, something known as highlight clipping, the image may be overexposed in some areas. This is a common occurrence in semi-bright overcast days, where the clouds can become blown-out. But of course this is relative to the scene content of the image. As well as shape, the histogram shows how pixels are groups into tonal regions, i.e. the highlights, shadows, and midtones.
Consider the example shown below in Figure 4. Some might interpret this as somewhat of an “ideal” histogram. Most of the pixels appear in the midtones region of the histogram, with no great amount of blacks below 17, nor whites above 211. This is a well-formed image, except that it lacks some contrast. Stretching the histogram over the entire range of 0-255 could help improve the contrast.
Now consider a second example. This picture in Figure 5 is of a corner grocery store in Montreal and has a histogram with a multipeak shape. The three distinct features almost fit into the three tonal regions: the shadows (dark blue regions, and empty dark space to the right of the building), the midtones (e.g. the road), and the highlights (the light upper brick portion of the building). There is nothing intrinsically wrong with this histogram, as it accurately represents the scene in the image.
Remember, if the image looks okay from a visual perspective, don’t second-guess minor disturbances in the histogram.
Next: More on interpretation – histogram shapes.
Crafting Pixels 