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I am shooting wine product images in my new studio using 2x Godox AD200's and 1x AD600Pro, plus 2 x small strip boxes and diffusers etc using Canon 5D mkii and 100mm macro lens. I have shot 12 wines for a client and am happy with the pics but the gradients are missing all the middle information please see pic Can anyone tell me why this happens and what can I do to achieve a better histogram using my strobe lights?

histogram

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    Can you also post the resulting image?
    – OnBreak.
    Apr 29, 2020 at 14:26
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    What is the final photo like? If this is a bottle of ref wine with a white label shot on a white background, the histogram could be normal. Another possibility is that the histogram is showing linear values and not logarithmic ones....
    – xenoid
    Apr 29, 2020 at 14:26
  • The above requests for an image sample are dead-on. If you post one (edit your post), others here can look at the histogram on their software. If they see mids, that you did not, then there's something off in your gear. But, I would lay 99:1 odds that you just lack mids, due to to use of flash and how subjects were composed (e.g. no background catching flash).
    – ZenGeekDad
    May 3, 2020 at 17:56
  • Thanks for your replies. I can't post the pic from my phone right now. I see now you are of course correct. There simply were hardly any mid tones in the image. ( It was a red wine bottle on a big bright background) It was good for me to realise this. I understand better now. Thanks again!
    – Liz Packwood
    May 4, 2020 at 21:28

2 Answers 2

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There is no such thing as a "good" or "correct" histogram... the shape and placement of the histogram should reflect the subject/scene recorded. E.g. that histogram looks about right for a picture of a red wine bottle (dark bottle/label) on a white background.

This image of mine also has nearly no mid-tones in the histogram; and it shouldn't.

enter image description here

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The most obvious answer is because everything in the scene is either very dark or very light, with not many mid-tones for your camera to capture.

Especially when using flash in a dark environment (such as many studio settings where there is little ambient light in order to allow precise control of the light from flashes), highly reflective objects will show up on the far right of the histogram, while objects not very reflective, or not reflecting the light from the flash(es) towards the camera, will stay in the dark areas of the histogram.

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