Displaying the histogram in LR4

[davidedric]

Hi,

I am working my way through the LR4 Kelby Training videos. I was surprised that that the instructor says that he normally works with the histogram off. He does work with a laptop so screen size is limited, but still. I'm not very experienced in PP (hence the training!), but I do prefer to leave it on - that way I get some idea of what the various sliders are doing, as well as being able to see the result on screen. With a decent sized monitor, and only having one adjustment panel open at a time, space isn't a problem for me.

I wonder if this is just my inexperience. Is there any consensus out there amongst you experienced PP'ers as to whether you switch it on or off.

[Carl in Louisiana]

Dave I leave it on so I can tell when the shadows or highlights are clipping. I think this is a very good question and will be watching this thread closely to see some of the Pro's responses.
I also work on a laptop and it's no problem for me.

[DanK]

I can't see any benefit to turning it off. More information is better than less. I use it all the time, both to see when I am getting close to clipping and to compare the effects of different exposure adjustments. When I want more space for the image, I temporarily hide whichever panel(s) I don't need.

[Glenn NK]

Frankly I'm quite surprised - I actually work WITH the histogram - that is I use it considerably.

The histogram on the camera uses a JPEG generated by the camera (even if one is shooting RAW), and can be somewhat inaccurate when it comes to clipping at either end, whereas the histogram on LR or ACR is accurate - if it shows clipping, the image is clipped. AFAIK, the LR/ACR histogram is the best histogram we have. Why turn it off?

In fact, if I had two monitors, and it was possible to put the histogram on one monitor to enable a LARGER histogram, I would do it.

Perhaps someone has some information I'm not aware of and can enlighten us.

Glenn

[davidedric]

Thanks. That's good. I thought I might be missing something blindingly obvious.

What the instructor was saying was that since he (or I suppose he might have meant his audience) only used the histogram to detect clipping, that could be more easily done by holding down Alt (on Windows) whilst moving the relevant sliders. Maybe true, but it doesn't seem to me to be an either/or, so I'll keep the histogram there, and continue learning how to interpret it.

[Ady]

There are occasions when I will deliberately hide the histogram, primarily when I realise I'm spending more time looking at the histogram than the image, after all it’s the aesthetic qualities I’m looking for not technical perfection.

Cheers,
A