How to effectively use NINA's histogram

[Gumminess8083]

Hello everyone, I've been shooting some images the past few nights, but I couldn't really get any good results.

 

Turns out I was using NINA's histogram all wrong! I was trying to get the peaks around 1/3 to 1/2 of the way through, not knowing that the histogram doesn't work the same way as my camera's.

 

What are the things that I should pay attention to when trying to get well-exposed images through NINA?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Stuart1971]

First of all what camera are you using…?

the histogram should be just to the right slightly of the left side, so as not to clip any black pixels… So that is where you offset comes into play for CMOS cameras…it all about setting a good gain and offset, if it’s a CCD camera or DSLR then things will be different…👍🏻

[Gumminess8083]

52 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

First of all what camera are you using…?

the histogram should be just to the right slightly of the left side, so as not to clip any black pixels… So that is where you offset comes into play for CMOS cameras…it all about setting a good gain and offset, if it’s a CCD camera or DSLR then things will be different…👍🏻

Thabks for your reply! I'm using a Sony mirrorless camera, a6000.

 

Should I pay any attention to the values above the graph itself?

[Stuart1971]

2 hours ago, Gumminess8083 said:

Thabks for your reply! I'm using a Sony mirrorless camera, a6000.

 

Should I pay any attention to the values above the graph itself?

Well they all play a part, just not sure which values you mean, can you send a screenshot of them….👍🏻

[Gumminess8083]

40 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

Well they all play a part, just not sure which values you mean, can you send a screenshot of them….👍🏻

https://imgur.com/a/XKEPqQu

https://imgur.com/a/vsnADPW

This is what I'm talking about

 

All the values above the histogram under "statistics."

While I do understand some of them, I figured that some of the ones that I don't may play a part in helping me get a better image.

 

For example, I see that "min" and "max" change depending on how long my exposures are, but sometimes the number in parentheses change as well (1x, 2x, etc) for some reason, and I'm not entirely sure why that is...

Edited September 15, 2022 by Gumminess8083
Pasted link too many times

[Stuart1971]

20 minutes ago, Gumminess8083 said:

https://imgur.com/a/XKEPqQu

https://imgur.com/a/vsnADPW

This is what I'm talking about

 

All the values above the histogram under "statistics."

While I do understand some of them, I figured that some of the ones that I don't may play a part in helping me get a better image.

 

For example, I see that "min" and "max" change depending on how long my exposures are, but sometimes the number in parentheses change as well (1x, 2x, etc) for some reason, and I'm not entirely sure why that is...

The minimum is due to the offset, this should alway be above zero, but not too high, under 1000 is good, its how far your histogram is from the left side, as you should always have a number here, mine is always about 400, the max is how many pixels are over exposed, it will say 65000 and then a number with x after it, again this should not go to high, say not over about 200-300x, that means that there are 200-300 pixels that are over exposed, some are ok but the figure should be kept under about 500 if possible…

the figure in your first image are ok, the 152x is fine, the 1x could do with being higher, so you need a higher offset to get that up to a couple of hundred or so

 

so it means you have 152 pixels that are over exposed which is perfect. You will always have some, And you have 1 pixel that is clipped in the black point

Edited September 15, 2022 by Stuart1971

[Stuart1971]

To simplify you should have no pixels with a value of zero on the min side, but try to keep down below 1000

and as few as possible above zero on the max side…

[Gumminess8083]

On 15/09/2022 at 23:34, Stuart1971 said:

The minimum is due to the offset, this should alway be above zero, but not too high, under 1000 is good, its how far your histogram is from the left side, as you should always have a number here, mine is always about 400, the max is how many pixels are over exposed, it will say 65000 and then a number with x after it, again this should not go to high, say not over about 200-300x, that means that there are 200-300 pixels that are over exposed, some are ok but the figure should be kept under about 500 if possible…

the figure in your first image are ok, the 152x is fine, the 1x could do with being higher, so you need a higher offset to get that up to a couple of hundred or so

 

so it means you have 152 pixels that are over exposed which is perfect. You will always have some, And you have 1 pixel that is clipped in the black point

Hey, thanks for your reply and sorry for the delay, work's been quite busy this past week!

 

I think I get the gist of it now and will be trying put it to good use in my next umaging session.

 

Thanks again! :)