How reliable is the in-camera RGB histogram for RAW when Picture Control affects the JPEG preview?
Asked 2/9/2013
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I shoot RAW and noticed that my camera’s RGB histogram changes depending on the Picture Control, because the histogram is based on the embedded JPEG preview rather than the RAW data itself. For example, the same manual exposure can show a different histogram with Neutral versus Vivid, yet both RAW files look the same in Lightroom and neither appears clipped.
Given that, how much can I trust the in-camera histogram when exposing RAW files? Is Neutral the best Picture Control to use, or is there a better way to make the histogram closer to the actual RAW data?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
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The trouble with UniWB is that you sacrifice color display for histogram accuracy. It is a bit too much for my taste, I leave WB on auto usually.
Instead of using a neutral setting, I even set contrast and saturation to lowest settings. The result matches the RAW relatively well on my camera. Just give it a try.
Originally by user16017. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user16017
13y ago
0
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The in-camera histogram is only an approximation for RAW shooters because it is generated from the camera’s JPEG preview, which is affected by Picture Control, contrast, saturation, and white balance. So yes: changing Neutral to Vivid can change the histogram even when the underlying RAW exposure is the same.
For a more useful RAW histogram, use a flatter preview setup: Neutral is a good start, and lowering contrast and saturation further can make the JPEG preview track the RAW more closely.
If you want the most accurate in-camera histogram possible for RAW, UniWB is the usual workaround. It makes the preview look unpleasant, but it can give a histogram that better reflects RAW clipping, especially near the right side of the histogram.
So: you can trust the histogram as a guide, but not as an exact measure of RAW clipping. Neutral or a low-contrast/low-saturation setup is generally more reliable than Vivid.
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AI13y ago
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