Pentax 19231 T30 Operating Manual - Page 62

Adjusting the Size, Quality Level, Brightness, and Color Tone Using the Histogram This camera has a function for displaying a graph (histogram) that shows the tonal range of your scene with the darkest areas on the left and the brightest ones to the right. The height of the points along the graph show the number of pixels at each brightness value. The shape of the histogram, which can be viewed before and after shooting, shows the brightness and contrast of the picture so you can decide if you want to use EV compensation to improve it. 1 "Displaying Shooting Information in Capture Mode" (p.41), "Displaying 3 Shooting Information" (p.88) Understanding Brightness Usually, if the exposure is correct, the graph peaks in the middle. If the image is too dark, the peak is on the left side, and if it is too bright, the peak is on the right side. Dark image Correct image Bright image Taking Pictures When the image is too dark, the part to the left is cut off (dark portions) and when the image is too bright, the part to the right is cut off (bright portions). With EV compensation, you can adjust the exposure so that the distribution is contained within the graph without the graph peaking on the left or right side, thereby preventing pictures that are too dark or too light. Understanding Contrast The graph peaks gradually for images in which contrast is balanced. The graph peaks on both sides but sinks in the middle for images with a large difference in contrast and low amounts of 60 mid-level brightness.