Jerry G Loc: Waterford, Michigan and Florida

I know Lightroom does not have blinkies but it does have highlight clipping warning. Today I was out early to shoot some birds. I took two quick shots and checked my highlights and histogram, my highlights were clipped so I adjusted exposure comp and took several more shots that the highlights were not clipped. I imported to a file on my computer and then imported them to Lightroom, when I open one of the photos with clipped highlights in develop mode Lightroom does not show any clipped highlights. Does Lightroom make some adjustments to raw files when on opening? If so how can you be sure your highlights are not clipped? Could just be a difference in the number of channels clipped?

Rongnongno Loc: FL

This is because you shot raw and your camera looks at a JPG. Not an issue.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

You can ask LR to show the highlight warnings. In the Develop Module, use your 'J' key to toggle the Red (high) and Blue (low) warnings over the image display.

Jerry G Loc: Waterford, Michigan and Florida

I have the highlight warning in Lightroom on, they show up if I move the exposure slider to the right.

Jerry G Loc: Waterford, Michigan and Florida

That could the answer but I have my picture control set to flat so the jpg should not increase the highlights too much, but it could still it.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

A JPEG generated in-camera histogram is not likely to show you the actual max ETTR limit - there is usually another stop or more before you actually saturate the A/D. You might consider using the camera “blinkies” rather than the histogram. Whichever method you use, the best strategy is to do some controlled testing with your specific camera to get familiar with exactly where the upper limit is based on either the histogram or blinkies.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

The highlight warnings in your camera are based on the raw file, not the JPEG. You can confirm this by capturing an image where the highlights are just beginning to show and then capture a second exposure using the same ISO, aperture and shutter speed but with a different setting for style or Active D-Lighting. On your computer the highlight (and shadow) warnings are based on the JPEG.

On all three of my Nikons the highlight warnings start just under one stop below the raw limit for the green channel which is the brightest channel when you are looking at a white target. I can add 2/3 stop of exposure to that before blowing the raw highlights.

With a white target the blue channel is about 2/3 stop lower than the green channel and the red channel is about 1/2 stop lower than the blue channel. This will change when the target has some color.

The warnings start about 1/3 stop sooner (earlier warning) for my Sony A7 II and about 1/2 stop later (almost no warning) for the Fuji X100T.

To be absolutely sure you can get a copy of RawDigger and test these limits with your camera.

In any case, the highlight warnings on your camera are a much better way to check for blown raw highlights than the camera's JPEG histogram which can be influenced by styles or HDR compression. Besides, the warnings tell you where in the image the highlights are getting blown.

Jack 13088 Loc: Central NY

Then Lightroom still works and the your capture is not clipped in the selected file.

Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

I have been considering getting a copy of RAWDIGGER to do a better job of evaluating exposures and pushing my histogram to the right as far as possible without blowing the highlights. I am not very conveniences that my in-camera histogram is accurate and, using Sony gear, are my settings for Zeebras are correct or can I push them further. Seems like Rawdigger might help if I can figure it out. Not much of a technician here. Any recommendations on which version of Rawdigger to get?

tcthome Loc: NJ

Up in the upper right corner is the histogram for your photo. There are little boxes to the upper left & right of the histogram. The left will be the shadows being clipped & you guessed it , the right will be the highlights. Click on the boxes & they will light up sort of. If your photo has any clippings they will show. Mine shows red for highlughts & blue for shadows.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Look at the histogram to see if they are blown. Also , do you have any presets turned on for your imports.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

At $20 it may be the biggest bargain you can find until something free comes along. The current version is 1.4.2. I don't use the FastRawViewer that I bought along with it.

It's actually an invaluable research tool that will help you understand the limitations of your camera. You won't need to refer to it routinely once you absorb what it can teach you about the highlight warnings.

Zebra warnings are almost the same thing except that it is possible to modify the threshold for Zebra warnings.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

Here I used the Zebra warnings at the base of the fountain to determine the exposure (it's still a tiny bit over).

Taken about 30 minutes after sunset.

JPEG SOOC was set to B&W

(Download)

Developed in Capture One

(Download)

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

👍👍 Good advice.