In this lesson I quickly explain what a histogram is and how to read it on the Sony a7R II/a7S II. We’ll also check how it behaves when over/under exposing, and whether we can trust it for RAW shooting:
Takeaways
Important things to know about the histogram:
It’s 8-bit, or 256 shades of grey from white to black.
The histogram is based on the JPEG image and not RAW. So if you clip, it doesn’t mean you don’t have highlight/shadow detail if you shoot RAW.
The histogram is not indicative precisely of each color channel. E.g., the red channel might clip but the histogram might not. The only way to make sure is to play back your image after you have shot it and verify.
The a7R II and a7S II both have a lot of information in both shadows and highlights, easily 2 to 4 stops but not as a rule. In the lesson ETTR, we go into greater detail on how much highlight can be recovered. If you’re a serious RAW shooter, you’ll definitely want to watch that lesson.
