Have you ever took a photo and on your display you have this graph that you have no idea what it is, what it does or even how to read it? That graph is called a histogram.
A histogram measures the exposure of your photo, which is the amount of light that reaches your camera sensor or film. In return the histogram will tell you how dark, or how light your photo will be [how exposed your photo is].
The Darker your photo is will mean that more of the graph will be to the left hand side. Whereas Lightness will be on the right hand side. The ideal histogram is a nice pyramid shape within the center of the photo; however that may not always be the case.
If the graph peaks on to the left hand side, there is a greater chance that your photo will be under exposed and have spots where it is totally black, where as there is times where it can be on the right hand side and your photo will have solid whites. Ideally we try to stay away from being totally under exposed and over exposed.
Above: We notice in the photo taken above that it is rather dark with some solid blacks in the shadows. In the best scenario we would still like some color there. We can tell there are some solid blacks because the histogram is pushed all the way to the left hand side.
Above: In this photo the sky on the upper right corner is solid white, totally washed out, and over exposed. If we look at the histogram above we will notice that a large portion of it is to the right.
Above: Now we notice that the shadows are not solid black and the sky is not solid white. This photo is a fairly decent example of good exposure.
On an extra note, I think you should fool around with your exposure and histograms and find what works best for you. You can change your exposure by adjusting your aperture, shutter speed, and iso (We will get to iso in a future lesson).
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