DPP Exercise 6 Highlight Clipping

An interesting exercise with what I found to be surprising results.

I very rarely use my camera in Manual mode generally preferring 'Aperture Value' allowing me to achieve the best depth of field for the shot and leaving the rest to the camera. However for this exercise this was not appropriate because if I changed the aperture value by 1 stop the camera changed the shutter value to compensate. Had to read the instructions to remind me (if I ever knew) how to change the shutter values whilst leaving the aperture value unchanged.

Bury was fortunate in having a pleasant sunny day so I decided to use the ambient light and take photographs in my garden. All images were taken as RAW at f11 with a 50mm lens.

This shot was the one at which the highlight clipping warning on the camera just appears and was taken at 1/200. Additional shots were taken at 1/250; 1/160; 1/125 and 1/100 giving 5 images in all. As expected the shot at 1/250 showed increased highlight clipping whilst the others showed no highlight clipping on the LCD.

 (I have not included the remainder of the shots in this blog as they all look the same because the highlight clipping warning does not appear in the actual image.)

All images were processed in Camera RAW conversion software at the 'default' setting. I then followed the instructions in the exercise notes with the following results:

1/200

• There was no loss of visual information
• There was no visible break between areas of white and near white
• There was minimal colour cast along fringes bordering the clipped highlight
• Colour saturation was acceptable but as with most RAW images would have needed a boost

1/250

• Visual information lost completely
• No visible break between area of white and near white
• Fringing visible at high magnification (200%)
• Colour saturation weak

1/160

• No loss of visual information
• No visible break
• Minimal fringing at high magnification otherwise not evident
• Colour saturation was good

1/125

• As 1/160

1/100

• As 1/160 except there was no colour fringe at high magnification and colour saturation was marginally the 'best'.

The surprising element to me was that in images where there had been no highlight clipping warning on the Camera LCD the RAW file displayed a warning that clipping had occurred. I was not expecting this result. I assume that the LCD display, having been converted in camera to a JPEG, and therefore there was some loss of information was not totally accurate.

I further processed the images. I used the 'Recovery' slider, as suggested, with a range of effects from none to a strange colour change that looked like a smudge.  

The final processed image that gave the best result in my opinion is:

Lessons learnt:

1. Now know how to use the camera in manual mode that extends my skill range and should lead to improved pictures in difficult situations.
2. That the 'blinkies' on the LCD screen are not a totally accurate indication of clipped highlights in the image.

I was already aware of the use of the Recovery slider and the effect it has upon the image.