Histogram

[Jbong]

I recently took some pictures and got home and I have a couple questions about the histogram. I use PS elements 8 and before editing the picture it allows me to fix the color. And on each side there is a to arrows if you click on the right arrow pictures turn red in some areas. and if you click on the left arrow it shows some areas with a purple. To make the picture perfect does all the red and the purple have to be off the picture. I am sorry if I am not making myself clear. I will post screen shots when I get home. But maybe someone will help me sort my madness.

Jason

[Stephen Marshall]

I know exactly what you're talking about.

The Arrow your talking about on the right is indicating your highlights that have been overexposed to the point where there is no data, so the pixels are white.

The Arrow on the left if the shadows, or areas that are underexposed to the point of there being no data, or black.

Generally some of this can be restored if you're shooting in Raw by using the Recovery slider. I'm not sure what settings there are in Elements. For a photo to be perfect, some red or purple is ok, but overall you do want to avoid this.

[Jbong]

Thank you. I wonder where that recovery slider is in elements. I will have to investigate.

[Stephen Marshall]

From my experience from Photoshop, the recovery tool is only for RAW files. If you are using RAW I've found that PS has a separate control panel when you open the image. If Elements has this I don't know as I've never used it myself.

[Matt Ottosen]

RAW images will open a RAW editor when you open them in PSE 8.