Camera RAW Clipping Indicators
Apr 14th, 2008 by Leo Geis
Camera RAW 4.4.1 has arrived. We’re shooting 1DsMIII 14 bit files, and I’m starting to feel uncomfortable doing my coarse developing in any other editor.
There should be no argument that as much as is possible, processing should be accomplished contemporarily with demosaicing. This is particularly critical with aerial images which must frequently endure drastic Contrast, color temperature, saturation, and spatial manipulations such as rotation. Subsequent manipulations unavailable in Camera RAW (such as Dodging, Burning, various Transforms, Blending Modes, and any manipulations defined by Layer Masking) are still the domain of PhotoShop.
In speaking with folks about Clipping (one of my hot buttons), it has become apparent that Clipping indicators are quite misunderstood. In particular, Camera RAW Clipping indicators (red for highlights, blue for shadows) are much like “W” in Curves in that they are suffering from insufficient documentation. Just my opinion.
In Camera RAW, blue Clipping indicators (which may be disabled if desired) indicate that all Channels are Clipped at the heel of the Histogram. Red (which may also be disabled) indicates that at least one Channel is Clipping in the Histogram’s shoulder.
It’s wise to monitor the Histogram when making recovery efforts on either margin of the Histogram (consider the Preview checkbox)-both Fill Light and Recovery controls introduce Skewness and Kurtosis into your Histogram and may frustrate, to some extent, your Local Contrast objectives.
Forgive my nagging-please don’t consider Clipping to be a liability by default. Keep in mind that extreme specular highlights do exist in nature, as does black, and it’s not really necessary to remap all tones well back into an 8 or 16 bit output Gamut to do a particular scene justice. Temper that matter with the fact that you’re limited by media White and ink + media Black, not simply the poles of your aRGB (hopefully) working space, and you can relax just a bit.
While we’re in Camera RAW, here’s a good tip: Use Ctl- and Radius, Detail, or Masking in Camera RAW’s sharpening dialogue panel to see what you’re getting into. Affected areas will display White. I haven’t even tried to figure out whether or not Camera RAW will Clip when it sharpens (like PS USM), but I suspect not.
Lewis & Clark Middle School, Boise, Idaho. 4/11/08 at the moment the sun lit the elevations.
The color temperature extremes of shooting at this time of day were addressed in Camera Raw. Note the square asphalt pad in the upper left frame-the shadow divides it cleanly, yet there is no objectionable bias differential between the lit and unlit areas (warm light, cool shadow)! I did (electively) leave a remnant of color temperature in the structural masonry-this was shot for drama and neutralizing it depressed the image’s “personality.”
L