Nikon D300 User Manual page 657

Histogram
Back in the "good old" film days we didn't have a histogram,
so we had to depend on our experience and light meter to get
a good exposure. Since we couldn't see the exposure until
after we had left the scene, we measured our success by the
number of correctly exposed images we were able to create.
With the exposure meter/histogram combination found in the
D300(S), and the ability to zoom into our images with the
high-resolution
experience is much higher than ever before.
The histogram can be as important, or even more so, than the
exposure meter. The meter sets the camera up for the
exposure, and the histogram visually verifies that the
exposure is a good one.
If your exposure meter stopped working, you could still get
perfect exposures using only the histogram. In fact, I gauge
my efforts more by how the histogram looks than anything
else. The exposure meter and histogram work together to
make sure you get excellent results from your photographic
efforts.
Figure 9-13 shows the D300S's two histogram screens. The
first screen in Figure 9-13
and it shows a series of histograms. On the top is a luminance
histogram, followed by the red, green, and blue channels
(RGB = red, green, blue). The D300's
differs slightly from the newer D300S version shown in
Figure 9-13, image 1. On the D300's screen, the luminance
Monitor on the back, the success rate we can
is called the
657
RGB histogram
RGB histogram
screen
screen