Larger histogram

[eleganteye]

I am searching for a tool that can generate a larger histogram. Has anyone found anything that they like?

Picassa shows a histogram that is about 216x60 pixels.
Photoshops histogram, at its largest, is ~ 258x102 pixels.

I am looking for something that could generate a histogram as large as possible, up to 1280x720 (low HD video size) so I can screen capture it and use in tutorials.

[herbert]

Hi Aaron,

Most histograms will use 256 levels (8-bits can represent this many values and JPEGs are 8-bit). So a histogram wider than 256 pixels would be stretching the data but adding no more information. In this case I would just use an image resize routine on the histogram you have and ensure you use nearest neighbour interpolation. Make the histogram 2, 3 or 4 times larger and it will be big enough for your tutorials and still have the block-like appearance. Bilinear or cubic interpolation will make the graph edges soft.

If using a raw image with a bigger bit depth you could draw a lot more vertical bars. However they would be very thin and patchy due to sparse distribution of data. In this case it is common to collect values together to make the histogram a bit more smooth, e.g. 0-5, 6-10, etc. So you may never really need a histogram with more than 256 vertical bars anyway.

Alex

[eleganteye]

Hi Aaron,

Most histograms will use 256 levels (8-bits can represent this many values and JPEGs are 8-bit). So a histogram wider than 256 pixels would be stretching the data but adding no more information. In this case I would just use an image resize routine on the histogram you have and ensure you use nearest neighbour interpolation. Make the histogram 2, 3 or 4 times larger and it will be big enough for your tutorials and still have the block-like appearance. Bilinear or cubic interpolation will make the graph edges soft.

If using a raw image with a bigger bit depth you could draw a lot more vertical bars. However they would be very thin and patchy due to sparse distribution of data. In this case it is common to collect values together to make the histogram a bit more smooth, e.g. 0-5, 6-10, etc. So you may never really need a histogram with more than 256 vertical bars anyway.

Alex

Alex: I appreciate what you are saying and agree with it. I am mostly using 14-bit and 16-bit images. In some cases, a thin, patchy histogram is what I want to show and compare. I am looking for a smooth 16-bit graph, not an up-sized 8-bit graph. I also have some other reasons for wanting a larger histogram, but that is tangential to my question.

[John Morton]

Hi, Aaron;

I've managed to dig up a wide histogram plug-in for Photoshop (it goes into the 'filters' folder) that I downloaded for free many years ago (and had completely forgotten about) but I don't know how to get the file to you...

[eleganteye]

I am uploading a couple of images to help illustrate a couple of things I've found so far.
One is an enlarged 8-bit graph.
The other is a large, smooth histogram. It looks, however, like an interpolated 8-bit graph (I am guessing). The smooth one is closer to what I am envisioning, but not exactly.

[John Morton]

Sorry I don't have any / have never used screen capture software so I can't send you an image but the plug-in I mentioned has display options for 512, 768, and 1024 pixels in width; as well as displaying either RGB, its individual channels, or Hue, Saturation, or Intensity.

I just checked and it doesn't do CMYK or LAB color spaces. It is a standard Photoshop .8BF file but I've never attached one of those to anything so I don't know if/how I can send it to you...

[xpatUSA]

It is a standard Photoshop .8BF file but I've never attached one of those to anything so I don't know if/how I can send it to you...

Hello John,

If you're using a PC with a standard keyboard, screen capture should be available somehow. In Windows XP you go shift-PrtScn (just to the right of the F12 key). This puts your whole screen image into the Clipboard which you can paste into a new image in PhotoShop. In PSE 6, you go File, New, and it offers "from clipboard" as one of the new file options. You then have a file open to crop and edit as required. I use it a lot for posts.

Maybe I haven't understood but, if it's a standalone separate file, there should not be a problem in attaching to an e-mail, just like any other file. If your e-mail program doesn't like it, you could put it in a .zip format (need WinZip to do that). Or, you can cheat and change the file extension to something else (.doc, .jpg, .html, etc) then he changes it back to .8BF after downloading it. Another way is if you have a website, you can upload it there and give him a link. Or, with a Google account you could put it up in their on-line documents place - but recently they've started calling it "Drive" and complicated it :-(

[John Morton]

Thanks, Ted - got it! Learn something new every day (and that'll come in handy).

Here is the "Wide Histogram" plug in set to it's widest, and displaying the luminosity of the image it has been applied to:



I'm looking for a way to attach the plug in filter's file onto a personal e-mail to you but I don't see that here at CiC...

[xpatUSA]

I'm looking for a way to attach the plug in filter's file onto a personal e-mail to you but I don't see that here at CiC...

You're welcome, John.

The second part of my post addressed attaching .8BF files to e-mail - did you try that?

I looked on my computer in the PSE 6 program files and found:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements 6.0\Plug-Ins\Effects\Filter Gallery.8bf

above is not a link!

I was able to copy the file - so it is indeed a separate entity from the PSE .exe file. Then, in Google Gmail, I attached the file to an e-mail - it listed the attachment as:

Filter Gallery.8bf (application/octet-stream) 3456K

Then I sent the e-mail to myself. The file showed up at the bottom of the e-mail as:

Filter Gallery.8bf 3456K Download

Which I could have down-loaded and put in the Plug-Ins folder if I had not already got it.

[John Morton]

Well Ted, I have the file sitting on my desktop and I've always assumed I can just attach it to an e-mail but CiC does not appear to allow attachments to be added to inter-member emails and I don't have any other address to send to to Aaron through. So he can 'personal message' me his own email address and I can send him the file, or... not, I guess.

[xpatUSA]

Well Ted, I have the file sitting on my desktop and I've always assumed I can just attach it to an e-mail but CiC does not appear to allow attachments to be added to inter-member emails and I don't have any other address to send to to Aaron through. So he can 'personal message' me his own email address and I can send him the file, or... not, I guess.

Haven't tried that here, so can't help with that. Up to Aaron now, I'd say . .

. . if he returns to this thread . . ;-)

[Sussex825]

Is this what you are talking about?

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multime...istogram.shtml

Ed

[John Morton]

Yes, that's it - problem solved! Thanks, Ed.

[Cantab]

Ed, I'd just found the softpedia site then saw you'd located it! I see you're another CiC member living here on the island. There are at least four of us.