What visual information does the left side of a histogram represent?

The left side of a histogram represents the black and shadow areas of an image. In a histogram, the horizontal axis typically corresponds to the range of tones from pure black on the far left to pure white on the far right. Therefore, the leftmost portion indicates darker tones, including shadows and black areas. Understanding this is essential for evaluating exposure, as a significant amount of data on the left side may suggest that those darker details could be lost, resulting in underexposed areas in the photograph. This is crucial for photographers when adjusting their exposure settings to capture a well-balanced image with a full range of tones. Mid-tones are represented in the center of the histogram, while bright highlights are located on the right side. Color saturation, being a different concept, is not specifically represented within the tonal range on a histogram.