Evaluating in-camera Histograms

[peterc]

I was interested to read a recent LL article by Ray Maxwell regarding in-camera histograms. The 'contrast' setting makes absolute sense to me and a quick test with any image will demonstrate his principal. The footnote by MR would suggest that all jpeg controls (in my case 5D MK 11) sharpness, contrast, saturation, and color tone should be reduced to a minimum. To clarify the settings for the latter would be 0,-4,-4,-4 in the picture style Standard - does this make sense?
Peter

[thierrylegros396]

I was interested to read a recent LL article by Ray Maxwell regarding in-camera histograms. The 'contrast' setting makes absolute sense to me and a quick test with any image will demonstrate his principal. The footnote by MR would suggest that all jpeg controls (in my case 5D MK 11) sharpness, contrast, saturation, and color tone should be reduced to a minimum. To clarify the settings for the latter would be 0,-4,-4,-4 in the picture style Standard - does this make sense?
Peter

I prefer to just set the contrast to min. and increase slightly the saturation.

Because I like to see a good picture in the LCD.

After several hundreds of photos you'll know the max level as a function of what your are shooting.

Pay especially attention to the yellow, orange flowers and foliage.

Have a Nice Day.

Thierry

[Panopeeper]

The 'contrast' setting makes absolute sense to me and a quick test with any image will demonstrate his principal. The footnote by MR would suggest that all jpeg controls (in my case 5D MK 11) sharpness, contrast, saturation, and color tone should be reduced to a minimum. To clarify the settings for the latter would be 0,-4,-4,-4 in the picture style Standard - does this make sense?

The suggestion in that article is wrong. The goal is to eliminate adjustments to the raw data. The sharpening can be eliminated by setting it to the minimum (which is zero). However, contrast, saturation and tone are neutral with the zero setting, not with the minimum. This is so, because contrast et al. can have opposite effects: increasing the contrast pushes the shadows and highlights aparts, while decreasing it pushes them together. Both are adjustments to the raw data; the neutral setting, i.e. doing nothing is achieved by zero, not by -4.

[Jonathan Wienke]

The suggestion in that article is wrong. The goal is to eliminate adjustments to the raw data. The sharpening can be eliminated by setting it to the minimum (which is zero). However, contrast, saturation and tone are neutral with the zero setting, not with the minimum. This is so, because contrast et al. can have opposite effects: increasing the contrast pushes the shadows and highlights aparts, while decreasing it pushes them together. Both are adjustments to the raw data; the neutral setting, i.e. doing nothing is achieved by zero, not by -4.

Actually, you are the one who is wrong. With Canon 1-series bodies at least, the minimum contrast setting results in the best match between JPEG and RAW. None of the in-camera sharpening, contrast, saturation, color space, or tone settings have any effect whatsoever on the RAW data. They only affect how the camera interprets the RAW data to make in-camera JPEGs and histograms. The combination of settings needed to make the in-camera histogram most closely match the RAW data varies depending on camera manufacturer and model; there is no universal setting paradigm that is best for all cameras.

The best thing you can do is conduct some tests shooting RAW + JPEG, and compare the JPEG histograms to the RAW histogram displayed in Rawanalyze or an equivalent tool. Shoot a combination of neutral whites and blacks and highly saturated colors so that you can evaluate the effect of contrast, color space, and saturation settings on the relation between RAW and JPEG channel clipping.

[bjanes]

I was interested to read a recent LL article by Ray Maxwell regarding in-camera histograms. The 'contrast' setting makes absolute sense to me and a quick test with any image will demonstrate his principal. The footnote by MR would suggest that all jpeg controls (in my case 5D MK 11) sharpness, contrast, saturation, and color tone should be reduced to a minimum. To clarify the settings for the latter would be 0,-4,-4,-4 in the picture style Standard - does this make sense?
Peter

Before starting a new thread on a topic, it is best to do a search to see if other threads have addressed the issue of concern. This thread has discussed the issue at length.

[Panopeeper]

Actually, you are the one who is wrong. With Canon 1-series bodies at least, the minimum contrast setting results in the best match between JPEG and RAW

This needs to be seen in conjunction with the tone curve. The standard "S" curve is already a positive contrast setting; of course that needs to be balanced. I suggested already earlier on another thread to load a linear custom curve, or even better, an inverse of the sRGB/Adobe RGB tone curve.