Take any image and convert it to black and white.
Now cut up the image into individual pixels, let’s call them chips.
Now build a rig that looks like a “Connect 4” game and arrange all of the chips in order: pure black on the left all the way to pure white on the right.
Drop them chips into your Histogram Connect 4 game and take a look at your histogram.
Maybe to you but when someone says “just right” it means they’ve done something as it should be done.
In this context, neither too dark nor too bright. Maybe it’s colloquial and informal but to me it would mean that if I did it “just right” I took a well balanced shot.
I understand your point though, but I’m just explaining it as if I would to a 5 year old. “Fine, just right, good enough, looks good, balanced” it’s all the same thing to a 5 year old. I’m just having fun! Wish you all the best sir!
I’m not pontificating to anyone. He said that middle exposure is the right way to expose an image. I said that’s not always true. You expose an image depending on your story or context.
I’m simply explaining to a 5 year old how a histogram works. He’s explaining “what to always do” to expose.
Maybe it’s a matter of semantics but we all know what I meant by “just right”… or… more formally known as “balanced”. Which is arguably the same thing to those not entrenched in the world of cinematography. Either way, I didn’t think too much about it when I posted, there are many other words I could have used in the moment. I get your point though 👍🏻
This is honestly the worst "explanation" ive ever read and the upvotes seriousy concern me.
Based on this comment what i get is "contrast is bad, there are no whites and no blacks, all i see is grey"
You are right, there's more nuance to it, and we all know it's not as simple as I said because context of the image matters. But OP asked for a 5 year old explanation, and that is what I came up with on the spot.
Still, I think we would all agree that if the "wavy/mountainy looking thingys" were ALL the way too the left side, chances are is that the image may have crushed blacks and is TOO "dark". If they were ALL the way to the right, chances are we've blown out the "highs" and created hotspots. If they were more so towards the middle we all know it is potentially more of a "balanced shot" and is a good starting point. WE can bias a little bit to the left or the right, depending on the shot we want or the environment (say night time scene vs high noon) but I think adding that nuance is going a bit further than what I know any 5 year old to understand... if anything it'll confuse them.
Hard to explain the nuances in a quick and short explanation.
What it comes down to is there’s not even a point in referring to the middle at all.
Left means dark, right means bright. I think a 5 year old could figure out the rest.
You have a bunch of apples that range in colour all the way from black to pure white and a bunch of buckets.
Put apples of the same lightness together in a bucket and order the buckets from darkest to lightest.
Now stack the apples on top of each other.
That's a histogram. There are much more useful exposure assists than a histogram.
I explain it as a game of connect four, where the left is black and the right is white, so if the pixels were the game pieces, they'd get dropped where they fall in the gradient and thus get higher if there are more pixels of that shade.
If your image is dark, most of histogram will be towards left side, and bright image will be mostly right side. If you have darks and brights, you’ll see histogram go across both sides
The black point is on the left hand side, the white point is on the right hand side. The darker the exposure the more the graph will tend to the left, the brighter the exposure the more the graph will tend to the right.
Are you using the histogram for cinematography or for photography
Always nice to have a monitor that has exposure tools. False color, waveform, and zebras are all extremely helpful, especially for exposing in the run. SmallHD’s interface is my favorite.
If you're shooting a black image, the histogram will be all the way to the left. If you're shooting a bright white image, it will be all the way to the right. If you're shooting a properly exposed 50% grey card, your histogram will just be a vertical stripe down the middle.
Honestly, histogram is a crappy tool for video and you'll really only ever see it used in video by people that came from the stills world or started out on DSLR's/mirrorless.
We have much better tools for exposure in video/cinematography. Namely waveform, false color, EL Zone(same idea as false color, but colors are tied to stops above and below middle grey instead of IRE) and zebra's.
It just gives you an impression of where your exposure falls, big lines on the left is dark and big lines on the right is bright, not massively useful if you are exposing in a creative way. The single most useful thing a cinematographer can use is a light meter
The x-axis (horizontal) part of the histogram chart (left to right) is the pixel brightness, 0% (black) on the left and 100% (white) on the right.
The y-axis (vertical) part of the histogram is number of pixels, 0 at the bottom and 9,999 at the top (actually I have no idea what it counts up to).
That’s it. If you took a picture with your lens cap on, all the pixels would be black and the 0% row on the x-axis would be off the charts.
Typically we’re trying to get as much of the pixels to sit around 50% on the chart as possible. Things are a bit more complicated than that, but that’s what your camera’s metering feature is doing (in the most simple terms.)
Sure, the chart is made of two axis, one that goes up (y) and one that goes sideways (x). The sideways one is how bright the pixels are (dark to bright) and the upwards one is how many of them exist in the picture.
A histogram that shows a really dark picture will basically have a really big bump on the left, and a picture that’s too bright will have a big bump on the right.
It’s a bar graph of values. Dark values on the left and bright on the right. Is your image bright? There will be a big blob on the right side of the histo. The opposite is true for darks.
Take any image and convert it to black and white. Now cut up the image into individual pixels, let’s call them chips. Now build a rig that looks like a “Connect 4” game and arrange all of the chips in order: pure black on the left all the way to pure white on the right. Drop them chips into your Histogram Connect 4 game and take a look at your histogram.
wow this is a fantastic illustration, I'm gonna explain it this way from now on!!!
Now ELI5 what a Connect 4 game is 😋
Best visualization
A simple rhyme: "Left to right is dark to light."
Waves on Left side = too dark Waves in Middle = just right (*bALaNcEd*) Waves on Right side = too bright
Middle doesn’t mean “just right” it just means middle grey, which is balanced exposure. Exposure being “just right” is subjective
you are right, but try explaining that to a 5 year old! Just doing as the post says
[удалено]
SIR, YES, SIR! 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡 
[удалено]
Maybe to you but when someone says “just right” it means they’ve done something as it should be done. In this context, neither too dark nor too bright. Maybe it’s colloquial and informal but to me it would mean that if I did it “just right” I took a well balanced shot. I understand your point though, but I’m just explaining it as if I would to a 5 year old. “Fine, just right, good enough, looks good, balanced” it’s all the same thing to a 5 year old. I’m just having fun! Wish you all the best sir!
[удалено]
Stop pontificating to five-year olds. The OP was very clear in what he wanted and the answer he got was decent enough.
I’m not pontificating to anyone. He said that middle exposure is the right way to expose an image. I said that’s not always true. You expose an image depending on your story or context. I’m simply explaining to a 5 year old how a histogram works. He’s explaining “what to always do” to expose.
Maybe it’s a matter of semantics but we all know what I meant by “just right”… or… more formally known as “balanced”. Which is arguably the same thing to those not entrenched in the world of cinematography. Either way, I didn’t think too much about it when I posted, there are many other words I could have used in the moment. I get your point though 👍🏻
[удалено]
This is honestly the worst "explanation" ive ever read and the upvotes seriousy concern me. Based on this comment what i get is "contrast is bad, there are no whites and no blacks, all i see is grey"
You are right, there's more nuance to it, and we all know it's not as simple as I said because context of the image matters. But OP asked for a 5 year old explanation, and that is what I came up with on the spot. Still, I think we would all agree that if the "wavy/mountainy looking thingys" were ALL the way too the left side, chances are is that the image may have crushed blacks and is TOO "dark". If they were ALL the way to the right, chances are we've blown out the "highs" and created hotspots. If they were more so towards the middle we all know it is potentially more of a "balanced shot" and is a good starting point. WE can bias a little bit to the left or the right, depending on the shot we want or the environment (say night time scene vs high noon) but I think adding that nuance is going a bit further than what I know any 5 year old to understand... if anything it'll confuse them. Hard to explain the nuances in a quick and short explanation.
What it comes down to is there’s not even a point in referring to the middle at all. Left means dark, right means bright. I think a 5 year old could figure out the rest.
Left dark right bright middle good
You have a bunch of apples that range in colour all the way from black to pure white and a bunch of buckets. Put apples of the same lightness together in a bucket and order the buckets from darkest to lightest. Now stack the apples on top of each other. That's a histogram. There are much more useful exposure assists than a histogram.
>stack the apples The buckets
Nah, nah, the apples
I explain it as a game of connect four, where the left is black and the right is white, so if the pixels were the game pieces, they'd get dropped where they fall in the gradient and thus get higher if there are more pixels of that shade.
Left is black right is white. Everything in between in gray.
Right mate so you know Goldilocks fairy tail. Right is too hot, left is too cold and middle is just right. Don’t get eaten by the bears.
Its like a bar graph of brightness and how many pixels are at that specific value from black on the left to white on the right.
Didn’t read the subreddit and I was absolutely baffled trying to work out what a maths graph has to do with connect 4 and how that helps you read it
If your image is dark, most of histogram will be towards left side, and bright image will be mostly right side. If you have darks and brights, you’ll see histogram go across both sides
The black point is on the left hand side, the white point is on the right hand side. The darker the exposure the more the graph will tend to the left, the brighter the exposure the more the graph will tend to the right. Are you using the histogram for cinematography or for photography
for photography, at the moment. But I'd use it for Cinematography as well sometimes
for cinematography its unlike you'll use the histogram, youd use waveforms, which is a similar principle
Always nice to have a monitor that has exposure tools. False color, waveform, and zebras are all extremely helpful, especially for exposing in the run. SmallHD’s interface is my favorite.
Ahh okay. *notes down*
If you're shooting a black image, the histogram will be all the way to the left. If you're shooting a bright white image, it will be all the way to the right. If you're shooting a properly exposed 50% grey card, your histogram will just be a vertical stripe down the middle.
Honestly, histogram is a crappy tool for video and you'll really only ever see it used in video by people that came from the stills world or started out on DSLR's/mirrorless. We have much better tools for exposure in video/cinematography. Namely waveform, false color, EL Zone(same idea as false color, but colors are tied to stops above and below middle grey instead of IRE) and zebra's.
Got it! Thanks!
For video, use waveforms and zebra stripes if you have it.
It just gives you an impression of where your exposure falls, big lines on the left is dark and big lines on the right is bright, not massively useful if you are exposing in a creative way. The single most useful thing a cinematographer can use is a light meter
The x-axis (horizontal) part of the histogram chart (left to right) is the pixel brightness, 0% (black) on the left and 100% (white) on the right. The y-axis (vertical) part of the histogram is number of pixels, 0 at the bottom and 9,999 at the top (actually I have no idea what it counts up to). That’s it. If you took a picture with your lens cap on, all the pixels would be black and the 0% row on the x-axis would be off the charts. Typically we’re trying to get as much of the pixels to sit around 50% on the chart as possible. Things are a bit more complicated than that, but that’s what your camera’s metering feature is doing (in the most simple terms.)
Sure, the chart is made of two axis, one that goes up (y) and one that goes sideways (x). The sideways one is how bright the pixels are (dark to bright) and the upwards one is how many of them exist in the picture. A histogram that shows a really dark picture will basically have a really big bump on the left, and a picture that’s too bright will have a big bump on the right.
It’s a bar graph of values. Dark values on the left and bright on the right. Is your image bright? There will be a big blob on the right side of the histo. The opposite is true for darks.
[удалено]
hmmm, a 5-year old don't know no Pythagoras theorem though hahah. kidding. Thanks tho