Raw histogram and why does it matter

Did you even try moving the exposure slider in your editor over to the left a bit? RawDigger is more a diagnostic tool, not an editor/processor. The editing still needs to be done in Lightroom/ACR or whatever you use…

I have no idea why you are now showing me this raw file that has no clipping, it is beyond me? and when this was mostly about your shirt and that it showed clipping in RD

Raw digger is not a raw converter it is software that allows the user to inspect the raw files data.

Looking at your image Your camera has a baseline exposure of 0.35 so we can work out how much ARC is shifting your tones in the image. This is what RD can tell us and one of its uses

ARC is placing the tonal range of your raw file much more to the right of the histogram in the raw converter so to neutralize this you need to set the
exposure to -0.40
brightness to 0
fill light to 0
contrast to 0
and just as important your WB to temp to 2316 and tint to -150 this is the uniwb for that model of camera

The image looks much darker because this is a more realistic view as to how your camera has captured the data
It is green because this is also a more realistic view as to how the image was captured with no WB, it is green because much more light in the green channel was recorded for this illuminate
If we look at the very brightest portion of you image

You have room to play with as the brightest area in your image has a luminosity value bellow 80

why would i do that, the original raw is not clipped and raw digger says the image is underexposed 1 stop in the histogram🤨
anyway why would you diagnose a raw file . what does it tell me ACR doesnt thats going to help with camera settings.

thanks for that , so dont use the program other than figures ?
my PP image
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(/a/JFmBP5gLebNXlyPsFbkrvCtGyClyGZOu5lQcmfbp5gstAAO2lyShMid84whcxu9e/3208/?shva=1)

ACR is processing your image before you even know it so how can you follow what the raw converter is telling you

ACR is showing you this

to understand and know what the camera setting are doing you really need to see this

This has been told to you numerous times arc is not showing you what is the raw data but processed data and that processing will tell you nothing about how to setup your camera.

no the shirt did not show clipping in the raw file like i posted and the raw histogram. Only the exported Tiff showed clipping and i wanted to know why ?
Don

Dont understand how raw digger is any better than my incamera histogram and so far no one has proven any different. my process is very fast and very refined. i was wondering if i was missing something as everyone talks highly of raw digger.

disagree, and you need to up grade you PS ACR as it wouldnt have the latest sony a74 profiles , now this is how you see if anything is blown.😎
and btw nothing is blown.

To see how much more exposure* you could potentially add after the camera histogram shows clipping before clipping the actual raw data.

Typically on most digital cameras you can safely add half to one stop more exposure* after the camera histogram shows clipping before you actually begin to clip the raw data. This extra exposure* helps reduce visible noise, because of the higher SNR due to the extra exposure*, after you adjust the image lightness of the raw data back to what it would have been had you left the camera settings where they were when the camera's histogram showed clipping and not added the extra exposure*

For example, for a given scene and lighting:

Say f/5.6, 1/200s, ISO 100

outputs a camera histogram where the histogram data is beginning to touch the right side.

But assume you know from experience with RawDigger (or something similar) that you can add 1 stop of exposure* at this point before the actual raw data will clip.

So you now set the camera settings to

Say f/5.6, 1/100s, ISO 100

Now, of course the camera histogram will show significant clipping but the raw data itself is not actually clipped.

When you open the f/5.6, 1/100s, ISO 100 raw file in ACR and set the 'exposure' slider 1 stop to the left, to reduce image lightness by 1 stop, the image will have have less visible noise than the 1/200s shot.

Hence the benefit of analysing raw files with something like RawDigger.

The raw histogram tells you when the actual raw data is clipped. The ACR histogram cannot possibly tell you with the same accuracy how much extra exposure* you could have potentially added before the actual raw data would clip.

* exposure - amount of light striking the sensor per unit area while the shutter is open
** optimal exposure - the maximum exposure* within dof and motion blur requirements without clipping important highlights.
*** under exposed - more exposure* could have been added with the DOF and blur constraints still being met without clipping important highlights.

what im finding is raw digger is not accurate at all. for the girl image these are what im seeing.

Around and around we go, how much is ACR shifting your raw data to the right do you know? if you don't know then how can you know what is clipped when look in ACR so please tell me how much behind the scene processing is being done?
What without knowing how much your 3 channels are being multiplied for a given WB how can you tell what is clipped in the conversion? Please tell me how much is being done for a daily light WB? can you tell me this and if you can not how do you know what is clipped within the raw conversion?

No IT REALLY TELLS ME HOW LITTLE YOU REALLY KNOW
What it is telling you is where in a color space that color falls
Oh no look at my red at 255 they are soooo close to clipping

but wait a minute the very same color show this how can it be? the red is not even close to the side of the histogram what gives

one grab tell me that color of red is at 255,0,0 and the other is 179,70,26
So please tell me which value is the correct value with how that color looks with in the image. I would start there. Its seems like you are unwilling to learn anything outside of what you think you know

Like I said it really tell me how little you know.
The best thing would be to rather than assume what you know as correct and start looking to see where and how you are incorrect

I think i finally get it, tell me if im right or wrong . the greens in raw digger are showing slightly over EV0 correct ! but when i take the raw into ACR the WB has been processed thus reducing the 2 green channels ! and then not showing clipping ,is that whats happening ?

No what is you baseline exposure for that make of camera and what processing is being done that is hidden you in the raw conversion.
WB correction is only being added to the blue and the red

If RawDigger is not accurate as you say, then what should have RawDigger displayed?

Without having the actual raw file I cannot say what is happening.

What I can say from the raw histogram is that the greens are about 2.5 stops underexposed assuming 16000 is the clipping point for 14 bit data.

The reds are nearly 4 stops underexposed and the blues are 3 and bit stops underexposed.

So based on my previous post you could have safely added 2 stops of exposure* than what you actually did for the shot the raw histogram is related to without clipping the raw data. Now of course the camera's histogram would have shown significant clipping if you added 2 stops of exposure* but the actual raw data would not have been clipped.

If you had added that 2 stops of exposure* and then opened the raw file in ACR and lowered the image lightness by 2 stops using the 'exposure' slider then the resultant image would have less visible noise than the original image where you did not add that 2 extra stops of exposure*

here is the brightest portion of your scene found within that raw file after we have corrected for the BLE and other processing done behind the scene by ACR while still using your in camera WB setting

No what you are seeing is the hidden processing done by your raw converter

At the top of this grab is the histogram of the image in PS with the selected area, this raw has been converted for the in camera WB but with the hidden ACR process and BLE removed. The grab bellow is the raw histogram from RD notice how the green channels of the top and bottom fall very similar from the right

So what is showing you the incorrect data the RD or how ACR is processing the image
Stop and think about it if all I have done is removed the BLE and some of the processing done by the ACR hidden to you and they show similar results how can ACR be used to aid you as to how your camera should be setup if this hidden processing is not known to you in the first place?

this is quite funny as i post a neutral grey and you post red 🤨😵‍💫 weird if you ask me.

tell me what settings need to be changed on my camera given you have the raw file ?