I have to symbolize a digital elevation model. ArcMap offers many different setting for stretching the symbology which all give widely different results. Some stretch methods symbolize the data so that there appears to be more elevated areas than other stretches.
Without knowing too much about the area I am symbolizing, how can I be sure that I am using a correct setting? I don´t want to give the impression that the relief is higher than it really is, and I also don´t want to make the area unrealistically flat.
Here is my Histogram:
“The histogram displays the pixel values on the x-axis and the count on the y-axis.When there is no histogram stretch, the input pixel values equal the output stretched pixel values. The greater the stretch, the larger the difference between the input pixel values and the output pixel values.”…ESRI
I can see that there are two peaks. The first peak for the flat areas, the second peak for the higher areas. In the default symbology, the flatter areas are very pale.
What should I be aiming for here? To show as much relief detail as possible? or to give a realistic interpretation of the relative heights? If I stretch the lower values, I can show more detail in the flat areas..but to the detriment of the higher areas. How would other specialists visualize these data?