But the reality is that we nearly always need to make adjustments after taking photographs, usually using our preferred photo-editing software.<\/p>\n
In most cases it\u2019s a matter of studying a histogram and using the Levels<\/em> and Curves<\/em><\/a> features or, in the case of PaintShop Pro, an actual Histogram adjustment<\/em> tool.<\/span><\/p>\n The histogram itself is simply a way of showing the varying light levels captured in your image from the dark tones on the left (the Blacks<\/em>) to the white highlights on the right (the Whites<\/em>).<\/p>\n A bump in the middle, representing the middle tones, can also be adjusted.<\/p>\n The histogram can also be used for adjusting the individual Red<\/em>, Green<\/em> and Blue<\/em> (RGB) colour levels in the same way, making it a very flexible and powerful tool in your image processing<\/a> armoury.<\/p>\n In this article we will look at how to use PaintShop Pro\u2019s Histogram adjustment<\/em> tool to improve the colours in an image.<\/p>\n Being an astronomy website, of course, we\u2019re turning to astrophotography<\/a> and are going to look at how a histogram can be used to imoprove an image of a nebula.<\/p>\n We\u2019re using an already stacked<\/a> image of the North America Nebula<\/a> and Pelican Nebula<\/a> (below).<\/p>\n The stack of 78 images was taken with a modified Canon 300D DSLR camera through a telescope.<\/p>\n As the resulting stack is a little green and lacklustre, the first action in PaintShop Pro is to select and click the following from the top menu: Adjust<\/em> > Brightness<\/em> and Contrast<\/em> > Histogram adjustment<\/em>.<\/p>\n This brings up the Histogram adjustment<\/em> box (as shown below).<\/p>\n There are plenty of options here, so first ensure you tick the Preview on image<\/em> so you can see any changes taking place live on the screen.<\/p>\n For now, the rest of the options can be left as they are, but the first job is to deal with the greenish tinge.<\/p>\n To do this select Colours<\/em> and then Green<\/em> from the drop-down list in Histogram adjustment<\/em> box (see below).<\/p>\n This shows the histogram for the green part of the image, so now use your mouse to click and hold the left-hand black adjustment handle at the base of the histogram and carefully slide it to the right until it\u2019s close to the start of the green section.<\/p>\n The green is now darkened, removing the cast, but it\u2019s showing up some blue in the image that you might not want.<\/p>\n To deal with this, keep the Histogram adjustment<\/em> box open and repeat the steps for the Green<\/em> adjustments, but instead choose Blue<\/em> from the drop-down list and adjust it slightly (see below).<\/p>\n In both the Green<\/em> and Blue<\/em> sections, make subtle adjustments until you\u2019re happy with the result and then click OK<\/em>\u00a0at the bottom of the box to apply them to the image.<\/p>\n If the image still looks a little dim, you can adjust it by re-opening the Histogram adjustment<\/em> box.<\/p>\n If the Settings<\/em> menu says Last used<\/em> then press the Reset to default<\/em> to the far right of the box, otherwise the last set of adjustments will be applied again, and you don\u2019t want that.<\/p>\n The Reset to default<\/em> sets the Histogram adjustment<\/em> function to the default of Luminance<\/em>, which allows you to adjust the black adjustment handle at the left and slide it slightly to the right.<\/p>\n Again, do this in small increments and watch carefully how the image changes until you\u2019re happy with the result.<\/p>\n Although this has darkened the image slightly, you can amend this by moving the middle Gamma<\/em>\u00a0adjuster a little to the right to change the curve of the histogram.<\/p>\n Again, do this in small adjustments until you\u2019re happy with the result.<\/p>\n At this stage you haven\u2019t needed to move the white adjustment handle for this particular image, but it may benefit from a slight adjustment.<\/p>\n Remember, it is down to personal taste how much you push the adjustments. When you\u2019re happy, click OK<\/em> to finish the Luminance<\/em>\u00a0adjustment.<\/p>\n The image has been improved, but if you\u2019d like the nebulae to be a little redder, you can now open the Histogram adjustment<\/em> box again and click Select<\/em> > Colours<\/em> > Red<\/em> (see above).<\/p>\n This time, move the white adjustment handle inwards a little at a time, watching how the image changes. Once you\u2019re satisfied, click OK<\/em>\u00a0to close the box.<\/p>\n These simple steps have removed the green and slight blue cast, darkened the background to a more natural view of space and brought out the hydrogen-alpha (Ha) red emission of the nebulae, all by using one tool to make multiple small adjustments.<\/p>\n The image can be further processed, if necessary, using the Saturation<\/em> tool but, for now you can enjoy the final, processed image of the North America and Pelican Nebulae (see image at the top of this article).<\/p>\n This guide originally appeared in the November 2021 issue of <\/strong><\/em>BBC Sky at Night Magazine<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Paul Money Published: Saturday, 23 October 2021 at 12:00 am When you take an image with a camera, in a perfect world you would get every exposure spot-on, meaning there would be no need to make any further adjustments. But the reality is that we nearly always need to make adjustments after taking photographs, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":25915,"template":"","categories":[34],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"5"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/how-to-use-a-histogram-in-photography.jpg",1200,798,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/how-to-use-a-histogram-in-photography-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/how-to-use-a-histogram-in-photography-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/how-to-use-a-histogram-in-photography-768x511.jpg",768,511,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/how-to-use-a-histogram-in-photography-1024x681.jpg",800,532,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/how-to-use-a-histogram-in-photography.jpg",1200,798,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2021\/10\/how-to-use-a-histogram-in-photography.jpg",1200,798,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Paul Money Published: Saturday, 23 October 2021 at 12:00 am When you take an image with a camera, in a perfect world you would get every exposure spot-on, meaning there would be no need to make any further adjustments. But the reality is that we nearly always need to make adjustments after taking photographs,…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/25914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""How\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2021\/10\/How-use-histogram-2b4809b.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412"\" "\\"\"How\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Getting started<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Remember to reset<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>3 tips for using a histogram<\/strong><\/h2>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"