This exercise looked at highlight clipping and how a digital camera records highlights and overexposed parts of an image.
Following the instructions given in the Exercise 2, I made a sequence of seven images, each separated by one f-stop. Five images were required for this exercise but I decided to extend the sequence to seven to observe the impact of both highlights and shadow clipping at the extreme ends of under- and overexposure.
All images were shot at f/11, ISO 50, 24mm.
Image 1.
The image was exposed for 1/125s at f/11.
The highlight clipping just began to occur in the isolated spots and at this exposure only the whites of the clouds are affected.
Analysis of the magnified image shows that very little loss of visual information has occurred at this stage.
A break between nearly-white and total white is almost unnoticeable. There is no obvious colour cast and the colour saturation does not seem to be affected.
Image 2
This image was exposed for 1/250s at f/11. The highlight clipping is not present. Instead there are areas of shadow clipping occurring in the most underexposed parts of the image. The whites of the clouds are perfectly exposed.
![]()
Analysis of the magnified image shows that some loss of detail (visual information) occurred in the shadow areas. There is noticeable colour cast along a fringe bordering the clipped shadow.
The colour saturation of the highlights bordering the clipped areas of the image is affected slightly, although this might be more to do with the sun playing on the shiny metal surfaces.
Images 3 and 4
Image 3 was exposed for 1/500s at f/11 and image 4 was exposed for 1/1000 at f/11.
The highlight clipping is not present and the areas of shadow clipping are progressively dominating the scene. There are wide areas showing complete loss of visual information, where it’s hard to distinguish any detail.
![]()
There is more pronounced colour cast along the border of the clipped areas and the colour saturation of the whole image is increasingly affected, including the highlights. The colours are no longer represented correctly across all areas of the image.
In the shadow areas, a loss of visual information is beginning to appear.
