Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Step Three:
If you look at the Histogram panel at the
top of the right side Panels area, you'll see
a triangle in the top-right corner. That is
the highlight clipping warning triangle,
and ideally, this triangle should always
stay dark gray. If it turns blue, it means
you're losing highlight detail, but just in
the Blue channel (which isn't great, but
it's not the worst thing in the world).
If it's red or green, you're losing detail
in that channel. However, the worst-case
scenario is that it appears solid white (as
shown here), which means all three chan-
nels have lost detail, and your highlights
are totally clipped (I call this the “Triangle
of Death!”). But here's the critical question:
Are you clipping off highlights in an area
of important detail? If not, you can ignore
the warning (for example, if you have a
shot where you can see the sun, that
sun is going to clip, but there's no detail
there anyway, so we ignore it). To find out
where you're clipping, click on that white
triangle, and the areas that are clipping will
appear in solid red (as seen here, where the
plate has a few clipped areas).
Step Four:
In our example here, the plate definitely
should have detail. If you lower the Expo-
sure slider, the clipping will go away, but
your exposure will be too dark again. If
this happens to you (and believe me, it
will), then drag the Highlights slider to the
left. As you drag this slider, it pulls back
only the very brightest highlights (those
super-bright areas that were clipping), so it
doesn't lower your overall exposure—you
just drag to the left until the red warnings
on your photo go away, and your triangle
is dark gray again (as shown here). This
is a double-win—you get the brighter
exposure the photo needs, but you avoid
the clipped highlights and lost detail
that it would normally bring. I also ended
up lowering the Exposure a bit here.
 
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