Histogram all wrong but does it work anyway?

[dmartinc]

Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Exposure 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture f/6.4
Focal Length 70 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

The histogram for this shot does not have the bell-shaped curve; in fact, it's just the opposite. But does it work anyway? It's an early morning shot with the street still dark, but the taller buildings catching the bright sun. Any comments appreciated. Thanks.

[baileym76]

I am not really an expert on this type of shot, but what is the focal point supposed to be? Madame Tussards?

[Jonbar18]

Originally Posted by dmartinc

The histogram for this shot does not have the bell-shaped curve; in fact, it's just the opposite. But does it work anyway? It's an early morning shot with the street still dark, but the taller buildings catching the bright sun. Any comments appreciated. Thanks.

The histogram doesn't have a bell curve, because there are very few middle tones (the stuff in the middle of the range). You get the opposite because there are a lot of blacks (far left) and a lot of (not quite) whites (far right).

As for the picture, I agree with baileym. Technically, its a good picture, but there's no main focal point in the image.

[flytyer57]

This could have been a great setting for HDR. It would have lit up the shadows some and cut down on some of the bright white in the building that looks blown out. I think if you had shot this wider to include the right side of the street, it would have been better. Right now that red sign on the right is only shown partially and is a bit of a distraction. Shoot wider or crop it out?

[dmartinc]

I did shoot a horizontal version here:



Not sure if there's a clear focal point here either. Maybe the Tussaud's sign, maybe the video screen farther down the street.

Thanks for the comments.

[wal]

Already a nice snapshot. The bright clouds and sky, combined with the the darker part of the building area, and yet still the building feature is visible.. the only way to brighten that part is by doing it in post processing or exposure bracketing. Then again, is it necessary.?

[flytyer57]

I don't know why anyone is criticizing the focal point. This is a street scene, and it's what you would expect to see if you were walking down the street. Maybe if you shot with an aperture of f/1.2 they would be happy? The only thing I would have done different is merge bracketed shots and corrected for the lean of the buildings, and shot lower instead of the camera looking up which is very noticeable in the first picture.

[milosh]

I like the photo and find it good enough without something specific to focus on.

If you shot this in raw, you can probably lower the exposure of the tall buildings or do a second processing of the raw file and merge the two exposures together, using layer masks.

Note on histogram: it is said that a properly exposed photo should have a bell-shaped histogram, but that doesn't mean that every photo can or should have that kind of histogram. There are many situations where a photo will have a lot of darks and highlights but little midtones. You could use hdr or exposure bracketing in such a way to make the photo evenly lit, but that wouldn't look natural.

[Krusty79]

Originally Posted by flytyer57

I don't know why anyone is criticizing the focal point. This is a street scene, and it's what you would expect to see if you were walking down the street. Maybe if you shot with an aperture of f/1.2 they would be happy? The only thing I would have done different is merge bracketed shots and corrected for the lean of the buildings, and shot lower instead of the camera looking up which is very noticeable in the first picture.

I think people were pointing that out because the OP never said what he wanted to show in this image. So, they were looking for a subject. I wish that along with the exif data, it was required to state what you were going for in a shot, otherwise the rest of us have to guess.

[stevefizz]

Nice Shot i like both versions, told a story so to speak


Curious though was Madame Tussaud's sign flashing