by Gavin Seim: Taking the time to watch the histogram is invaluable. Left is dark, right is light on a histogram. But beyond that you can better understand and work the highlight and shadow detail your way, before exporting to Photoshop, printing etc. And it’s not hard.

I recorded this video and hope to do more soon. In it we analyze what the histogram tells us about an image and how we can learn to better understand our images using it.

Starting with presets is a great way to get an image going, but don’t be afraid of those curves sliders to move things around. You can control tone and dynamic range beautifully on the RAW file without losing contrast. Just watch for artifacts or noise if you push things far (see the Six Keys).

Get comfortable with your histogram. It can tell you a lot, both in camera (trust your histogram more than what you see on the camera screen) and in post (just about everything you need to know). Powerful stuff indeed. Lets take a look…