Highlight Clipping

All of the shots below were taken at ISO 200 and at f/11. I altered the shutter speed each time to change the exposure. My camera was mounted on a tripod. My subject is a small ornament of a family of three carved from a piece of wood.

Shot 1 – Highlight Clipping Appears (One stop over exposed) - 1”6sec

Shot 2 – More Highlight Clipping (One stop brighter/Two stops over exposed) – 2sec

Shot 3 – Less Highlight Clipping (Almost non, correctly exposed, One stop darker than first shot) – 0”8sec

Shot 4 – No Highlight Clipping (Another stop darker/one stop under exposed) – 0”4sec

Shot 5 – Again no Highlight Clipping (yet another stop darker/two stops under exposed) – 1/5sec

To demonstrate just how severe the highlight clipping of the brightest shot is I have opened a RAW version in Adobe Camera RAW and taken a screenshot of the image with the clipping warnings switched on. From this image it’s clear that a good portion of the subject has lost all detail.

Highlight Clipping Close-Ups

I took these close-up crops from the back of the child’s head as this area has a very high concentration of clipping.

Shots 1 + 2

 

Shots 3 + 4

 

Shot 5

It is clear that from the shots above, highlight clipping is most abundant in the first two shots. These were the shots that were most brightly exposed. In the brightest shot (shot 2) there is barely any detail and more than half of the crop is pure white. As the exposure time is reduced, more and more detail begins to appear and in shot 2 there is a clear break between the detail of the subject and the lack of detail in the clipped areas. With the lack of detail, there also comes a lack of colour and therefore zero saturation in these areas.

Recovery

Even in shot 3, the correctly exposed shot, there are still areas of highlight clipping. The most aesthetically pleasing shot is shot 4 however it is slightly underexposed and so I will open the correctly exposed shot in Adobe Camera RAW and experiment with the Recovery settings. The Recovery control uses the information from all of the RGB channels to ‘re-build’ the clipped channel. The channels do not all clip at the same time and therefore some of the detail may still be available on another channel.

Original Shot 3 + Recovered Shot 3

Cropped Clips

Original Shot 3 Crop + Recovered Shot 3 Crop

 

Using the Recovery tool in Adobe Camera RAW I have managed to regain some detail in shot 3’s Highlight Clipped areas. The recovered image looks less saturated and much smoother. The highlights are also a lot less obvious and overall it contains much more detail. The recovered version is much more pleasing to the eye.