Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

You haven't given us enough to really help you. Please let us know what type of camera you have. What post processing software you are using and post a couple of pictures with your exposure settings especially if you were using a filter like a polarizer. Reflections from sun on water can fool your camera's exposure meter. Without that, we are flying blind. Can you calibrate the monitor on your computer or at least select different presets like movie, game, ...?

No matter what, I can still recommend shooting both raw and jpg. As your PP skills improve, you will be able to do some pretty amazing things to the raw files you won't be able to do with the jpgs.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Jacqui, your goal in any digital photograph is to avoid overexposing important highlights. Luckily most modern digital cameras have a spot meter mode, so you can narrow the view that the camera's metering system sees when reading the light in a scene. If you use the approach to meter the important highlights (where you want to keep detail) and ADD 1 to 2 stops of exposure to that reading, you will generally avoid exposure errors. It's best to test for exactly how much exposure you can add to a highlight reading. On my D810 I can do 1-2/3 stop. Shooting raw is a good way to take advantage of your camera's dynamic range.

If a raw image "looks" overexposed, but no highlights are blown, then you have a correct exposure. If you look at your images with and with compensation, you'll find that the ones where you dialed in negative compensation will "look" better, but will most likely be noisier than the ones where you used no compensation and just adjusted the exposure level in post processing.

It is simple matter to make such adjustments in raw converters. In fact it is much easier than trying to do this on a compressed jpeg.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

What Gene suggests or as an option consider investing a couple hundred dollars in a handheld meter and learn how it can help your photography. Joe Brady/Sekonic have some excellent YouTube videos on metering. They can help you understand the issues involved even if you decide not to get a handheld meter. Histograms in camera are also based on the JPEG and are not always accurate but rather a graph of the distribution of tones in an image. It seems you understand that the camera meter will take everything toward medium gray.

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

👍👍👍👍 mirrorless = wysiwyg

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Jacqui, it would be incredibly helpful if you were to let us know if you were capturing you initial images in RAW or jpg and why you chose that format.
--Bob

sclay1234 Loc: Ocean county nj

I think she is trying to ask how to read the histogram as in perspective to the picture. WHAT is the histogram telling you about the picture. I know that is what I want to know. I'm not to good with histograms. I have understood it to be a way to see the picture in digital form so if you are in a position that you cant see the picture clear (bright sun) you can quickly look at the histogram to judge the photo.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Believe she was shooting JPEG Bob...

Jacqui Burke Loc: Perkiomenville, PA

Thanks for the replies. I have uploaded a few photos that I hope illustrate what I am trying to describe. These photos of the fluke of a blue whale were taken using no exposure compensation and they appear lighter than what I saw with my eyes when I was there.

The entire point of this discussion was to try to get it right in the camera. Although the tones of the subject were dark, the sun was shining brightly. I was wearing sunglasses and it was difficult to see the LCD screen of the camera. I checked the histogram but it looked normal because the camera had adjusted the exposure due to all the dark tones in the scene.

Changing to mirrorless is not an option at this time as I am fully invested in DSLR equipment now.

I shoot with a D7100 and a D7200, mostly wildlife. I shoot in jpeg. I understand the benefits of raw but chose not to use it because of the time spent post processing. I work more than full time as a veterinarian and it is already extremely time consuming to deal with the photos in jpeg format. I always make a photo book using Blurb from each trip. To a great extent I enjoy making the books as it brings out my creativity in selecting and laying out the photos, but each book takes a couple hundred hours to put together. All our friends, family, and coworkers love the books, putting ever more pressure to keep them top notch. Adding one more step would be the straw that broke the camel's back!

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Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

It sounds to me like you are greatly overestimating the time required to make basic adjustments to an image or even a large group of images. I can recommend Laura Shoe’s video training as a simple and easy way to learn Lightroom...

Jacqui Burke Loc: Perkiomenville, PA

That is exactly the issue. The tones of the scene were dark but the sun was shining brightly and I was wearing sunglasses. Normally I use the histogram but we all know the camera will lighten dark toned scenes and darken light toned scenes. So, how do you interpret the histogram in these cases?

Jacqui Burke Loc: Perkiomenville, PA

The pictures are uploading. I live way in the country with no cable Internet. DSL is a slow way to go! Usually I upload things from work where there is excellent Wifi.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

We don't need "large" files as examples. This posts gives some ideas on how to lower the resolution for digital images that will upload / download lickity split : https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-512745-1.html

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Jacqui,

A histogram is a graph that shows you the tone range in your image, from highlights to darks, and also if an image is blown out on the highlight end or blacked out (or blocked) on the shadow end. Images taken with darker exposures generally have more noise in them, but, depending on the scene, this can be easily compensated for by decreasing shadows in software applications. Images that are blown out, the “foot” of the tone graph goes beyond the range shown in the camera, cannot be brought back as no data was captured. Having said that, it is important to know the range of your specific camera as, in general, many cameras actually have a greater range than shown on the histogram. Additionally, if one is shooting in RAW the histogram does not tell the whole story as it is based on the jpeg preview.

If shooting in RAW it is best to expose a bit to the right on the histogram, which allows for the greatest degree of information capture. However, JPEG images have a greater chance of being blown out in highlights because a JPEG capture does not capture as much data as a RAW capture so it’s best to set the exposure toward the highlight end but not to the edge as one might do with a RAW capture.

In general, all a histogram does is tell you if you have a shot within an acceptable tone range. Oftentimes, software processing is needed to create an acceptable shot, even with a JPEG image. For best results, digital capture requires that you expose on the highlights and let the rest of the image “fall where it may” and then you process for the shadows. This is the exact opposite of what film photographers used to do. You simply cannot get it all absolutely correct except in certain perfect exposure situations, cameras are simply not designed for that. You have to make a choice as you shoot as to what is important for you. Focus and shoot for the subject and figure the rest out later on. This requires a lot of shooting to become experienced enough to know what you can do in the field and what you can do later on in post.

Trust the histogram to let you know that you are shooting within a range where both the darks and the lights are being captured.

Jacqui Burke Loc: Perkiomenville, PA

I’m not sure how a light meter would have helped in this situation. It was very bright and sunny and I was wearing sunglasses. I was shooting the whales at a focal length of 300-600mm. The issue is the dark whales against the dark water. I would not be able to hand meter that from the top of a boat.

Jacqui Burke Loc: Perkiomenville, PA

Thank you. That was a well explained answer and I feel I am slowly coming to a point where I am satisfied with my understanding of this.