Exercise 6: Highlight Clipping

For this exercise I chose to photograph my bathroom window during the day - the textured window pain distorted the outside detail making the image abstract while a large range of tones from dark to highlight were represented.

I fixed the camera on a tripod changing the exposure compensation +/- 4 EV (in the second row of images I have taken screenshots from Lightroom with the highlight and shadow clipping warnings selected - highlight shown in red, shadow in blue):

The default exposure setting the camera has chosen has generally exposed well for this scene with only slight overexposure in the extreme highlight area at the top left of the frame. At -1EV this is almost gone and at -2EV the highlight area is exposed correctly although there is a small amount of shadow clipping in the bottom left of the frame. As the exposure is decreased the blue/orange/yellow tones become more saturated in the picture, conversely the higher the exposure setting the more muted and washed out the tones appear. Examining each image at close magnified detail I found that the texture of the window is lost until -2EV, although this is not very noticeable at -1EV.

In the +EV range saturation decreases along with increased exposure compensation. The screenshots showing highlight clipping show clearly where detail is lost on the textured window.

For the next part of this exercise I experimented with the raw files adjusting the highlight and white sliders in Lightroom. At 0EV I found that most detail could be shown in the highlight areas but could not be completely returned. At -1EV full detail could be achieved although the resulting image was appeared much 'flatter' than the -2EV shot, the histograms were significantly different as well with the altered -1EV shot being compressed towards the left while the -2 EV shot contained a full range of tones from highlights to shadows. Using the exposure slider instead resulted in much more similar looking images without any obvious negative factors such as noise. There was a slight difference in colour saturation however with the -2EV picture appearing more natural. The 'best' result I achieved was decreasing the exposure in the -1EV image by one stop and then decreasing the highlight slider by -48.

Deciding which image has the 'correct' exposure is difficult - to my eye each of the shots has a different quality which appeals to my eye. In theory the -2EV image is the most correctly exposed as it has a full range of tones with neither shadow or highlights being clipped. This makes the picture very dark however with the histogram heavily weighted toward the left. The shot does have an appealing low key feel however and the colour saturation is pleasant. Although a small amount of detail is lost in the -1EV image this is my favourite as it has the best balance between highlight and shadow while having a good amount of contrast - for this image the loss of detail in the window texture does not really matter.

In manipulating the raw files of these images I could not really see any negative elements being introduced into the image such as noise. Despite this being a high contrast scene my camera has exposed the scene well, maintaining detail in both the highlights and shadows which leads me to think I should trust the cameras metering system because I will have a great deal of freedom to alter images in post production. This view does not take into account photographic intent however, and relies on the photographer making decisions about an images' use when at the computer. This concept is problematic for me - on the one hand received wisdom suggests notions like 'the decisive moment' and the idea that 'true' photographers only ever press the shutter when the picture is perfectly framed and exposed in the camera. While this is unrealistic, the opposite end of the spectrum is the photographer that snaps away at everything and then tries to make something of value out of this using software. This exercise has made me think a little more about where I sit on this spectrum. The truth is I fluctuate day to day. Currently I am trying not to get too hung up on overthinking and trying to follow my instincts more, pressing the shutter when I previously may not have.