Page 23 - Learning How to Photograph with your DSLR Camera 2nd Edition Jan 2021

In the underexposed example the histogram is shifted to the point it is heaped up along
the left line at 0. This means a good portion of the image is pure black, and there is little
to no detail in those areas of your image. Some of this might be recovered in post-
processing software like Adobe Lightroom if it were not so much. In the overexposed
example, the histogram is pushed and heaped up on the right. That is pure white and
will have no recoverable detail. This would not be something that even Lightroom could
fix. Any time a histogram is pushed and heaped up on the line to the left or right it is
called clipping of the blacks or highlights. We do not want to clip.

Highlight Warnings (Blinkies)

Highlight warnings or Blinkies, show up
on your image if you enable this in your
camera menu. Check your manual on
how to activate the highlight warnings.
It is a good idea to be able to see this,
as you will recall clipped highlights
record zero data. When activated what
you will see on your image in review
mode on the LCD is flashing areas over
all the clipped highlights and or blacks
in your photograph. This can be
verified on your histogram as you will
see the exposure data shifted to the
right or left.
Figure 9 Red areas that will blink if the highlights are clipped

on a Nikon LCD screen.

Assignment

So, for an assignment, I would like you to check your camera manual and find out how
to review your histogram on your LCD screen. Also, look for the setting to activate
highlight warnings, “blinkies”. This is something you should set up now and use
frequently to check your exposure.

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