DPReview TV: Waveforms are better than histograms (and stills cameras should use them)

By now, most serious photographers are familiar with histograms, a tool we've used for years to judge exposure. But what about waveforms? In this episode, Chris and Jordan explain why this tool from the video world may be the best way to judge exposure for photos - and why still cameras should use them too.
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[@kbmats]

I took me days to understand histograms and I just learned how to understand waveforms in less than 8 minutes lol

[@millerdp]

Yep, leave it to Chris and Jordan and all is well and everyone is educated!

[@katumus]

Just the opposite, if you would be learning waveforms first you would be scratching your head weeks. And then you would learn histogram in seconds as it makes far more sense than waveforms that is meant for color distribution and not for exposure.

[@paulalanputnam4592]

Ok. I’m sold. Let’s use DpReview’s power on social media and such to push camera manufacturers into providing us with waveform graphs in our screens.

[@louis993546]

Hopefully in a few years: Fuji: waveforms as free updates to super old cameras Panasonic: surprisePikachu.gif

[@waynecake5867]

Panasonic: loading false color.vlt Boom there is false color, wave forms suck!

[@josecolon8143]

Louis Tsai lol

[@josecolon8143]

wayne cake 🧁

[@legendp2011]

if we all let fuji know they might add it in a few months :) ........probably put it in the xh2 first

[@fjodorf7341]

I love Fuji but it’s a joke that I don’t even get zebras, let a lone a waveform, on my Fuji X-H1, which is marketed as a video camera.

[@davidweidhofer9284]

in "darktable" it is possible to switch from histogramm to waveforms

[@MattVickers]

I was looking for that exact comment

[@Lysergesaure1]

Darktable has had that feature since 2013 too :-)

[@geoffreybassett6741]

Thanks for letting me know this, I'm using it now for personal work.

[@p3rrypm]

Can you do tethered shooting? If not, then it's of limited use for balancing the exposure in camera.

[@KarlStevens]

@@p3rrypm Yes, darktable supports tethered shooting.

[@LordMardur]

Lantern Magic adds this to Canon cameras in Live View. The example of your face against the white background, just using spot exposure metering completely solves the issue with any digital photo camera. The waveform feature is present in video cameras, because there you cannot just spot meter and then reframe. The exposure needs to be adjusted while recording and also through changing light conditions in one video.

[@chcomes]

Not only it would be more useful, histograms are currently showing levels on jpeg and not raw, which is basically bullshitting raw shooters into wasting dinamic range and making worse pictures by "protecting highlights" that are still well protected in raw bc the jpeg is using only the bottom of the exposure due to... no reason?

[@grahammcdonald]

Exactly why don’t use the hgram.

[@chcomes]

@@grumpyrocker i didnt know that!

[@xmlthegreat]

What! I didn't know that the histogram was based on jpg!

[@josecolon8143]

Harry Neary !!!!!! Damn I need to read my manual

[@TheInternetEnzyme]

Yeah i suppose just the way these signal processing pipelines are designed makes it that processing a realtime histogram based off of jpeg is just easier. But it is wholly confusing. I literally dont use my on camera histogram at all. I’ll just do aperture priority with auto iso and a minimum shutter speed and correct for exposure and dynamic range in post

[@qbgabe12]

Future camera firmware update: "As suggested by Chris and Jordan, waveforms is now available in photo mode"

[@HoggetBlanker]

Majic Lantern has waveforms in Liveview for the cameras it supports :)

[@legendp2011]

funny thing is my old t3i/600d has a waveform with magic lantern in all modes

[@ilovethismightyfineplace]

Now that you mention it, I can’t think of any reason why we’d need a histogram over a waveform. Interested in why this hasn’t happened yet.

[@Athaeus]

I'm wondering if it's simply a matter of processing power. It may be that waveform simulations take more processing power, so manufacturers stick with histograms until waveforms are no longer taxing the processor and battery.

[@ilovethismightyfineplace]

That’s a fair analysis. It probably does take slightly more processing power. But they use waveform in video cameras, and video generally uses more processing power than stills. So I think the difference may not be enough of a reason.

[@brois841]

Too much complexity which is unnecessary. Video DR is reduced compared to photo.

[@legendp2011]

+Athaeus ............you can install magic lantern hack on a canon 600d/t3i or 5dmkii even and get waveform monitoring.......so I don't think proccessing poower is it. it's possible they want to protect higher end cameras.........but if that's the case than I don't know why blackmagic doesn't have waveform.........so I don't know

[@stalman]

I’ve been saying it for years! Also, vector scopes could be more useful with a slight redesign

[@dragonstone6594]

I'm all for it. Bring them waveforms to photo mode. It's a fantastic idea.

[@luisdiegosalas]

Thank you for this video! I agree, and sincerely hope Adobe, Phase One, and camera makers are listening.....

[@freecycling6687]

What about instead of superimposing a different form of display on top of the image, using a **heat map** instead? Press a function button and instead of seeing the image colors, the heat map colors would be shown, e.g. red for blown-out, magenta for 90-100%, etc. etc. IOW, a more informative "blinky" display. Could be made configurable as to # of colors / exposure bands to show.

[@geoffreybassett6741]

This would be incredible, another great video feature that would be great in photography.

[@IvoPavlik]

That's actually a pretty good idea!

[@vishnuramachandran5548]

I think having ZEBRA on ur cam really helps... It doesn't take up any space and really gets the job done of protecting the highlights...

[@pavelrezny1969]

Especially with the ability to set the % at which Zebra is shown. Waveform inform only about one dimension of two dimensional image. Zebra inform about all pixels but only in two levels. Maybe false colors is another interesting theme ;-)

[@Rico-ns5dt]

I agree too. Wave forms are nice and cool but with zebras, I just compensate, adjust or dial back and I'm good. It's intuitive and instantaneous.

[@ColinRobertson_LLAP]

Zebras work well but can be very distracting when trying to compose.

[@johnmccann4041]

Wouldn't work in the example where the face is way too bright but not yet pure white.

[@StringerNews1]

Zebras only work when a large area is overblown; they're useless for small areas. Waveform monitors are _not_ one-dimensional, they cover the entire picture, not just one line, though pro models _can_ do that. If the WFM is too much to grok, I suppose that's why in TV they leave the important controls and displays for the engineers, and leave the pointing to the camera ops. Maybe some just need an "idiot light" to say "turn it down" or automatic mode. But for those who can chew gum and shoot at the same time, a WFM will help good shooters from clipping black & white levels.

[@GrandHuevotes]

As a photographer ive never needed or wanted even histograms. I always just eyeball it by feel and use exposure comp. the less I have to jerk with and worry about the better

[@millerdp]

Catch the wave! Chris and Jordan, thanks for the excellent bit of education (for this non-videographer). Funny, whenever I explain a histogram I invariably say, “Look here, that means SOMEWHERE in the frame it is completely overexposed.” Now I know there is technology to make that legible. Sierra Hotel!

[@1025mahoney]

as a professional film colorist and editor, histograms are maddening to me. thanks for this

[@tanegaranchu]

I use a Small HD focus with a sony a7III, and the waveforms work fine in still mode.

[@1fareast14]

Darktable, a free raw processor defaults to displaying a waveform :)

[@thomasbowan7864]

Thank you on this video... I'm new to today's types of cameras and knowing how to get better photos and videos by using this method is awesome and I so thank you.

[@wanderlost.productions]

Affinity Photo has the ability to display waveforms. I edit most of my photos this way 💜

[@made_by_phil]

THANK YOU DPReview! Finally someone speaks out loud what everyone was thinking! Please, could you do another video on scopes in Photo Software? Adobe needs to implement the lumetri scopes from premiere - and I mean ALL of them - to EVERY image editing software including Lightroom!!!!

[@derekbrown6832]

Interesting video, Chris & Jordon, lets hope this is something the camera companies, pick up on, in the near future, would come in handy for stills photography.

[@mcconkeyb]

100% agree! Histograms are better than nothing, but there are many other better tools to evaluate exposure. Waveforms are also an old tool used in the video industry and are marginally better than histograms. But why use tools that are 50 years old? Why not bring in tools of the modern age? Like 'heat maps' or 3D graphical plots? These would be able to show the user the exact information that they need without having to learn how the tools work and the limitations of these 50 year old tools. Newer tools can present information clearly, concisely and intuitively!

[@cotswoldphotographers]

Really interesting and informative video guys. Makes you wonder why we really bother with a histogram when a waveform is far more useful. Hopefully, we’ll see this incorporated soon 🤞

[@DeyvsonMoutinhoCaliman]

Indeed, I barely look at histograms because often it doesn't help me to properly expose the subject, it measures the whole picture. When I read "waveform" I thought it would be something complex, but it's very intuitive.

[@marcherrmann9635]

Very interesting thoughts! Let's see when producers will understand and follow...

[@DavidDatura]

I only occasionally shoot very short video clips on my iPhone. So I have no experience of waveforms or even knew what they looked like or how they work. Due to this video, now I do and what a revelation! They are so much bloody better than a histogram! (Which I’ve never really found to be all that helpful anyway) Manufacturers start offering this option for stills photographers! It’s like the difference between an ancient boxy CRT TV and a flat panel OLED one!

[@fabianfeldmann4500]

Good Point. I noticed that waveforms are way more useful, as soon as i got into video and also wondered why it wasn't available for the photo side of things!

[@whitewalker9622]

i´m on your boat.. used to be a news photographer.. waveform is a great tool! both in camera and in software..

[@tonyjames5444]

When I started in photography I spent weeks learning Sensitometry and subsequently a great deal of time understanding the 'Characteristic Curve' or 'HD Curve', this basically relates to density & exposure. In graph form you'll see an S curve with the bottom or 'toe' as it's known representing the shadows, the straight line the middtones and where it curves out at the top, (the shoulder), the highlights. Personally for me seeing a readout of this on the camera cam be helpful if you know what your looking at, to steep a curve and you've got high contrast, to low and a flat image. (You could say the screen tells you allot especially with highlights but not so much shadows).

[@no-trick-pony]

Zebra works just fine for me and they are much quicker and more intuitive on EVFs. And you usually see how "close" you are by the amount of area that is blown out on e.g. faces. If it's just tiny dots, it's just some reflections on pores/very tiny glossy spots. Wave forms just use the x-axis location, right? So I can't tell what exactly is blown out to what extend if I have to motifs above/below each other with similar color and where EXACTLY in the image something gets blown out.

[@jeremyg9305]

Yeah, and with Zebras, at least on Sonys, you can set it to hit below the max highlight exposure too, so "85% Plus" would put the zebras to varying degrees over everything 85 and over.

[@scottgmaclean]

Jordan -- no one on KZbin gets a better image out of a GH5 than you, especially your outdoor shots and your skin tones. Great work (Chris you're ok to I guess:-)). I'd love, LOVE, a video on your filming/editing process - it would benefit so many other GH5 users too.

[@thatjordandrake]

We're friends now.

[@rocheuro]

great stuff, I use ML RAW on my Canon DSLR and EOS M mirrorless. with Magic Lantern you actually have waveforms and other amasing functions on many of older Canon Cameras (that are actually still very very good) After you use them once, you're not gonna go back to simple histogram!

[@bedoinuk]

Personally I like Olympus' implemetation of a clipping warning which highlights both extremes in real time in blue/red, just as Lightroom does (you need to enable it in the menu first). And you can have waveforms in the post already provided you're using Affinity Photo...

[@FrankNeulichedl]

Histograms are fine, in raw you have enough dynamic range to approximate with histograms. In video where you are stuck with 8 or 10 bit you need to nail exposure ... I'm not fostering lazyness, just to not overly obsess about the tools

[@-grey]

I shoot jpeg. Getting it right in camera is important for me. And maybe more would move back to that easier workflow if accuracy was more available in the moment.

[@brois841]

@@-grey yes, but it's relatively easy to tell with a histogram and "blinkies," as Chris calls them, are a good way of seeing what's clipping. We aren't dealing with dynamic scenes and low DR. I mostly prefer JPEGs SOOC too, but to Frank's point, we are dealing with a ton more DR and can get really good shots without a waveform. If you're dealing with the type of DR that's described in this video you'll need to shoot RAW and recover regardless.

[@markjohnson7761]

The issue is that even thou you shot raw, the histogram in your camera is based on the jpeg. I often think expose to the right baed on histogram to then import in lightroom and find it underexposed to what I expected based on that original histogram. That said, if the wareform is baed on jpeg then same issue.

[@hedydd2]

For the average Joe, the beauty of the advanced mobile phone is that you don't need things like waveforms. They just get the exposure right using computational photography. Keeping it simple for the photographer. Besides which, cameras like the Sony A7 III with eye and face focus gets there by exposing for the face in focus. I know that there are situations that require something different, but really, just how often and how essential would anything but a few clicks of the EV compensation dial be? Or DRO or on static subjects, multi-shot HDR.

[@milanrychtr2080]

This is realy great idea! Would be great to have this during the shooting on our cameras.

Great job, as always! I never learned histograms, and have been using waveforms for decades (ever since the were in CRTs in TV stations and video editing suites).

[@simon3461]

Zebra patterns on Sony cams also make it very easy to find the highlights in the picture and to adjust the exposure, especially because you can set the amount of brightness where the camera shows the zebra pattern, like 90%, 85% and so on...so I don't need waveforms but if we finally get it sometime in the future it would also be a nice addon.

[@chrisroot7182]

Yes, waveforms are much more intuitive. I have worked in the video broadcast industry for years and have wondered why still cameras haven't adopted them.

[@africanfilmmaker179]

I definitely agree with this. Many times I'm in Lightroom and wish I had a waveform to look at

[@DJEntroP]

rgb waveform and vectorscope is the best combination! im using it shading for live tv all the time

[@mrheng562]

I agree. I personally find waveform more useful and combine with RGB parade would be perfect for both photo and video use. It bugged me too that my GH5 went let me use the waveform for photography.

[@rc_mac]

We love Waveform, we are videographers!

[@GeneWaddle]

I totally agree. I only recently started using waveforms in video editing, but I think they are a great tool and would be very helpful while shooting both video and stills.

[@DustinBKerensky97]

I never knew how to use waveforms so this was educational just for that. But I can definitely see the benefit for regular shooting. As for how to integrate waveforms into the viewfinder; how about since the waveform interprets the intensity of light across the image just put a 25% opacity exposure line across the entire image? Especially if you have a function key that toggles it off and on, you can just overlay the waveform over the actual image so you know exactly what object is causing highs and lows on the image. An option for this is since more worry goes into overexposure of an image just have a the bottom of the image be the 50% mark of the waveform and a line rises off that as your exposure moves up past the 50% point and if the line gets to the top of the image you're overexposing there.

[@fritzlanbin9412]

I love you guys innovating photography, such a good and simple idea.

[@zguy95135]

Waveforms are so much better and it makes it very easy to expose for skin tone and adjust on the fly with precision. YPbPr waveforms are even cooler because you get the overall waveform on the left and the red/blue channel waveforms too so matching cameras is much easier. We do broadcast level video stuff at work so this kind of stuff is our everyday. It's nice to see features like this on more cameras, we have to buy dedicated scopes that costs thousands of dollars.

[@johnhjic2]

I must admit that as a photographer not used or seen wave forms as they seem to have been a video tool, But I love your explanation and they look like a very interesting tool for both videos and photography. So yes in the future it would be nice to see.

[@fjodorf7341]

Great video. People, push your favorite camera manufacturers to incorporate waveforms! (especially fuji, hehe)

[@john3Lee]

I have thought the same for a long time.... Good video..Thanks.

[@eirjordan337]

Damn, I didn’t realize to look into the EVF for the GH5 - awesome tip! ...... Just also realized that the theme of this video is to combine video and photo...led me to imagining a Chris and Jordan hybrid creature....LOL

[@laolsaouce]

Yes I'm all for the incorporation of motion equipment and tools into stills!

[@junjiah]

a very self-explanatory title that basically sums up the whole video

[@DavidSalahi]

Great point! I shoot with a GH5 also and it’s frustrating not to be able to use the waveform feature when shooting stills.

[@Timmy2Jpolev]

As a stills shooter I use a light meter to approximate the balance of various lights, then histogram to approximate exposure and then look at values (0-255) in CaptureOne to perfect exposure by mousing over areas. To me the waveform works with video because there's moving subjects and camera. With stills I'd adjust light between two scenarios but video has to get it all in one take. Waveform would help catch the exposure problems that stills don't even have- better dynamic range.

[@ej_tech]

6:06 Didn't even mention Canon. lol

[@jonathanlogan6953]

Sadly Canon hasn't earned a place beside Nikon, Sony, and Fuji for hybrid mirrorless cameras.

[@brois841]

@@jonathanlogan6953 and Panasonic....

[@46ace]

Who????

[@peteryungcp]

It's because historically, Canon think EOS and EOS C are 2 separated product lines that Canon think will never merge together. That's why their EOS mirror / mirrorless system won't have an "up to date" video camera design compared with other competitors. I think it's understandable that Canon won't transfer anymore video camera technology to EOS mirror / mirrorless system in short future...

[@rsmith02]

Didn't Magic Lantern have waveforms?

[@Raychristofer]

Thanks Chris I always felt like an amateur when Jordan talked about waveforms and I had no clue. Keep in mind zebras are great too and precise in showing where the blown out bits are and they do work in photo mode at least in my g7.

[@DaCarnival]

Zebras give you a highlight warning, but they don't tell you how close you are to blowing out, or how the exposure is as a whole. Waveforms provide a lot more info. The waveforms with color information you see in editing software, THAT I'd like to see in a camera.

[@Raychristofer]

@@DaCarnival thanks for the insight Carnival. I'm curious though if they were to add it on the camera during video if it would steal much of the processing power, for example if a camera is running at 100 megabits per second and you turn on the waveform if it would have to run for example 80 megabits per second 2 run that display. Maybe I'm overthinking it though

[@DaCarnival]

@@Raychristofer a waveform is probably a bit more taxing than a histogram to both calculate and represent visually, but I don't think the processing hit would directly affect data rate (nor would it be feasible to make that compromise). Most of the processing power of a modern camera goes towards the image compression, so in some instances a more compressed (lower bit-rate) codec could tax the camera more a less compressed one. I think adding a histogram to an already released camera would possibly make it sluggish to operate, maybe affect the refresh rate of the LCD/viewfinder, but the (video) recording would be protected as first priority. For photos, maybe you would have to sacrifice on burst speed. But I'm no expert on this... However, I think that most recent smartphones have a more capable processor than even 8.000-10.000$ cameras these days. Camera manufacturers just have to embrace the fact that they are now in the computer business, especially as AI powered imagining starts bringing crazy dynamic range, noise and auto-focus improvements. But now I'm off on a tangent...

[@Raychristofer]

@@DaCarnival you know what's interesting since you mentioned the smartphone, when I use my phone for video it doesn't have trouble hunting for focus and it locks onto faces immediately it makes me wonder how it is able to do better than my Lumix G7 because my Panasonic will put the crosshairs on my eye but still take 10 seconds to focus on it. And to go one step further they say larger sensors do better but I've seen movies shot on a small iPhone sensor that look outstanding.

[@grantshields5712]

mind = blown Great and informative video!

[@lighthunter1980]

Great timing. Just yesterday I played with waiveforms in Magic Lantern on my 6D but didn't understand how to use it!

[@simianinc]

Zebras! You can set the threshold limit for when they appear and they’re already in many cameras. As a GH5 user, I have access to waveforms but still prefer zebras because they take up no space on the screen. But I use waveforms a lot in post

[@josephasghar]

Your histogram will clip IF ANY of the channels are clipping, irrespective of if there’s details in the other channels. I use a sekonic light meter that’s calibrated to each of my cameras for that reason. Excellent to have a separate, dedicated tool.

[@pjw2000]

Quality educational vid, y'all. Thanks!

[@eeltauy]

great video! please make more of these!

[@vicibox]

Well it seems to take the Photography Industry forever to catch up with the imaging industry. They arent waveforms they are actually called Line-Scans. There is no waveform involved anywhere in the process; its a two dimension histogram. I have been adjusting images on Electron Microscopes using Histograms and Line-Scans since the late 1970s; what took you so long Photography? This still seems rather primitive, the power of Line Scans is being able to select different features and changing the magnification. I mostly used this feature to judge the effect of smoothing (or what photography calls noise reduction). I needed to remove the noise enough to see subtle peak shapes without distorting their shapes too much to measure; tricky as noise reduction is a powerful tool. The truth is our name is more accurate, if photographers could actually see the effect of noise reduction on a line scan they would be totally shocked. This is the reason I dumped Nikon and switched to Panasonic and Leica; Nikon reduction removes more detail than any other camra system I have used. Well you didnt think they routinely won DX0 Mark noise scores by doing something benign did you? Silly boys. Take the advice of this girl and use noise reduction sparingly, she has seen the line scans and they shock - winks

[@vicibox]

P.S. By the way, the Line Scan is not primarily an exposure tool, that always was the Histogram, it is most used for adjusting contrast; you maximise the difference between minimum and maximum exposure ;-)

[@kelvinhelmholtz]

There's a really lame disconnect between the scientific and engineering imaging people and the 'photography' people. Actually the worst is scientific and engineering imaging people that are oblivious to traditional photography, they have no excuse. Obviously those people aren't on this forum but go into many laboratories and you'll find people imaging that don't know what a viewfinder is. I blame it all on camera makers loading their interfaces with proprietary bs to divide the market and maximize profits.

[@vicibox]

I cant really speak for labs now. I was always going to be a photographer, my father was a photographer, a photojournalist and owned a D&P lab. It was assumed i would follow in the family business. I was taking photos in 57 when I was 6 on my little box brownie. I was born into the darkroom and studio; I loved mixing the chemicals for the big tanks and watching the prints peel offfrom the huge rotary glazer. However, at the beginning of my degree and after my Art Foundation year I decided to switch to Earth Science and Physics full time as I was working in the surface lab. I had to design all my own imaging systems at work which were, of course, analog and all images were recorded on film from a high quality CRT display. By the time that digital systems were comming in I had been moved to management so i have no knowledge of current practice. But not before I had written the Mosaic digital imaging suite for my first digital capture system befopre the men in suits dragged me upstairs. I guess I wasnt a typical scientist, nobody ever was at Harwell. However a good proportion of my colleagues did photography in their spare time and of course i loved interacting with the lab photographic group using Linhof large format and Hasselblads; 35mm wasnt allowed on site, I kept a Pentax hidden in my desk drawer forquick customer shots of samples and such. The time of my life is the correct phrase I think ;-)

[@kelvinhelmholtz]

@@vicibox Cool. In that you still have to 'sneak' non- standard cameras into the lab, things haven't really changed. Scientific, machine vision, professional, consumer, high speed, cinematic, whatever the camera is classified as I'm happy if it gets the results I want.

[@stephenscharf6293]

I think this comes down to what exposure graphical representations are fit for purpose. I didn't need a waveform to know what part of the photo is blown out, I can simply look at the photo. If I want more detailed information, I can use the Info palette tool in PS to know the exact numerical value. Also, histograms are more useful in the sense that they go from 0 to 255, rather than 0 to 100; this lets you assess more readily during editing of still photos if the gray levels are getting stretched apart that could result in posterization. This is particularly useful in apps like Capture One, where the Levels tool is a key part of the initial RAW image file editing. So, as far as I am concerned, waveforms are solution in stills photography for a problem that doesn't need fixing. And, if it ain't broken, don't fix it. Which is probably why the camera companies have not implemented for stills photography, also. As for my photos: I simply want them well-exposed and in-focus.

[@nolansnook1268]

Great clear explanation. Thanks!

[@TracyDavis904]

Just got my first big boy external monitor (Atomos Shinobi) and I was wondering about how to use all of the monitoring options like waveforms on there. Thanks. Would love to see a video about false color too!

[@HolgerNestmann]

Cool, so now you just need to find out on the y-axis where it's blown out. You can try guessing the colors or just use zebras (blinky) which is in a lot of cameras already. This could be improved to show proximity by widening the zebra or use a different color

[@paouvous]

I think in general on the image industry video>photos. From the lenses to the rest of the equipment. Now waveforms are absolutely the best thing ever, but they do take much more processing power than a histogram. It should not be a problem though for modern processors.

[@DelightfulVegans]

If Darktable can show waveforms for processing stills than our cameras should have the option to as well :D

[@stalman]

Give me false color, also in Lightroom and Photoshop

[@digitalspecter]

Well, I didn't know of the existence of this type of visualisation until I saw this video. Then I went to see if the tool of my choice, Darktable, has them and of course it does! I'm going to play with them and see if it makes editing easier as well :) Thanks!

[@LucioDaou]

Magic Lantern enables waveform on live view for many Canon cameras, and also on image review. Also, they can be based on raw instead of the jpg preview.

[@TheodoreMcNeil]

I 100% agree with this. Please manufacturers add this to your cameras.

[@itcamefromabox]

Great video, dang it you guys are such a pleasure to watch.

[@jimbean532]

Great info! You guys crack me up. Thanks for being you.

[@half-decentphotography6544]

Two possible workarounds: (1) a lot of hybrid shooters use a HDMI monitor/recorder for video purposes - and at least some of these, such as the Atomos Ninja V, have waveform features. It's also possible to shoot still photos using such a monitor as a larger, brighter, live-view screen - so maybe it's possible to use the waveform functionality when doing so? I've no idea, since I don't own an HDMI monitor - but maybe someone who does could check this out and see if it's possible. (2) another possibility would be to shoot tethered, using software that is able to display waveform data, either in a live-view mode or at least, for captured images. Such features may not be available right now, but I imagine it's possible to develop plug-ins for Lightroom, Capture One etc. which provide useful waveform features for photographers shooting tethered. So... Does anyone have any comments on either/both of these ideas?

[@lawyerdch]

Very helpful. Thanks as always.

[@Stealther]

Absolutely agree! I have Jordan's setup :D

[@patcollins1779]

(late on this thread, I know) For most of my stills photography, I don't have time to look away from the subject and at the histogram, or a waveform either. In a studio or with other fixed subject the histo is helpful when you are setting the scene and composition. For "real time" stills photography, the zebras can be helpful, but a true, intelligent "heat map" in the viewfinder would be great... at the touch of a button, overlay heatmap information onto the EVF image. Let me choose parameters for the heat map (color range for blown out, black, etc). Even better, allow me to select my subject based on the heatmap, then maintain exposure when I recompose. You can kinda do this now, but not with an exposure heatmap overlayed into the EVF.

[@NotTheLarryDavid]

My best guess for manufacturers not implementing waveforms is that a waveform requires much more processing power coupled with not being a standard (and therefore demand) in the photography world. That said, waveforms are better than histograms in every possible way - thanks for putting this out there.

[@kerebronemtadrata5459]

Let the revolution begin!

[@fjbtube67]

Darktable shows the wave form. And Magic Lantern adds the wave form to the EOS cameras.

[@mela28xcom]

The last time I checked Nik Software was free available to download for Lightroom. I do think that it needs to be updated. Or bought by Adobe and then integrated into Lightroom. You can find good features that help you get that balance you seek.

[@dch2896]

5:40 have a software update and display the wave form in the EVF while having the regular picture in the back display.

[@katumus]

Photographers are better to see the light than videographers. And we have the best tools already, spot metering, matrix metering, weighted, highlight clipping, shadows clipping, average etc. We work quickly for the quality and for accuracy. Something that videographers don't need. I never use histogram as it is slowing down, or is like trying to frame the photo by using viewfinder with a prime, instead look around without camera even at hand and zoom for your framing you visualised. Blinkies are as well way better, you get to know it faster and accurately than stated in this video, as idea is not to have them, but not to have them. So once you see them, you are over and go back. I take as well Olympus EVF as it's over any waveform as it shows exposure so accurately in live view. In last 7 years I still am going to get situation where it fails me to give accurate exposure with 1/3 stop accuracy... So I don't care... We already have best tools, of soon-to-be wouldn't just use Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Sony nor Panasonic...

[@thatcherfreeman]

What similarly baffles me is why photo programs like Photoshop, Lightroom, Darktable, etc. don't have vectorscopes. Those are a game changer for getting consistent skin tones.

[@wydergerry]

This, together with false colors, would allow us to finally work with contrast ratios and the Zone System without having to rely on a light meter.

[@MrKreweesti]

It's nice to have, but as you say "it take a lot of space"! I don't miss it because I use mirrorless for years and they become more and more standard. What you see is what you get with mirrorless.

[@modrisklingenbergs]

Very educational. Thanx! 👍

[@HandleName_CB]

I guess the reason maybe that still photo has larger data streaming and makes processor harder to calculate in real time. You need to calculate the histograms for each horizontal line separately.

[@jaffarbh]

I shoot in raw generally so as long as I don't clip I can always get things right in post. Still, I would love to test waveforms in photography

[@bcnewsvideo]

I prefer to use false-color instead of waveform or zebra stripes, but you need to use an external monitor. There's Lots of budget monitors on the market that have these features. Atomos Shinobi 5" monitor is probably the best one. Camera manufacturers should incorporate false-color into their cameras.

[@fotowalo]

thx a lot... you're right. would be nice to use it even in photowork and older cams like my Nikon D7200.....

[@nealcarlson8128]

Panasonic, answer the challenge: Firmware update to allow waveforms in GH5 in photo mode.

[@akbarfoto]

on my Eos M (the first one) with MagicLantern, you get live waveform and histogram at the same time. very good, small and not distracting. there is no excuse for manufacture not to include this feature!

[@petrub27]

sometimes even by looking at the evf/ lcd you can correctly appreciate the exposure , without using histogram or waveform; now, if the sun/ other light source hits the lcd directly , yes, you will need those tools; i am afraid thou that many so called filmmakers here on youtube just use auto exposure anyway, and then correct the image in post by taste, being care free of any scientific concepts don't forget to throw in that m31 lut and call yourself a filmmaker