Highlights, highlights, highlights

In another thread, a few of us were talking about highlights and just how high we go before we start pulling back. What are everyones ground rules, editing tips and general thoughts?


I tend to be a highlight conserver. Ill generally expose a scene to retain the important highlight and bring the shadows up in post. I shoot portraiture/weddings mostly now so generally, I expose for the brides dress and will use the LR adjustment brush to bring up faces and surroundings as needed.

If I'm shooting with flash, I'll work to preserve highlights. If I'm shooting natural light, I'll expose for faces/subjects and let the highlights fall where they may.

I shoot Theatre mostly, and generally the highlights are the part of the scene I'm most interested in - it's been lit up for a reason - and the pure black background should be pure black so I'm not too worried about it. I'm often exposing at least two stops below the 'normal' metering for the scene and sometimes even that requires some highlight recovery ... I don't generally lose the mids (typically the scenery) into the shadows, sometimes they go a bit, it depends how contrasty the stage lighting is, and if they go, they go, but I'm pretty much always looking to preserve the highlights, come what may, even if I like to show the scene/scenery for context - that too is there for a reason.

chris_holtmeier wrote in post #16590799
If I'm shooting with flash, I'll work to preserve highlights. If I'm shooting natural light, I'll expose for faces/subjects and let the highlights fall where they may.

With your new camera, I call cheating.


What if part of your subject face is blown. Do you expose for that and let the face be in shadow, let the highlight blow out on the side of their face, or try to balance with post/flash?

Like this image. I did a fair bit of exposure boosting on the shadow side of his face and yet, the highlight is still brighter than I nornmally prefer.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …56709879@N07/11​626547526/

JakAHearts wrote in post #16590853
With your new camera, I call cheating.


What if part of your subject face is blown. Do you expose for that and let the face be in shadow, let the highlight blow out on the side of their face, or try to balance with post/flash?

Oh, it's only about 4 more stops of dynamic range

If I'm shooting natural light, I'll re-position the subject and change the composition if at all possible. If I'm shooting flash, I'll lower exposure and increase flash.

I don't really try to recover a lot of highlight in post, especially on skin.

JakAHearts wrote in post #16590857
Like this image. I did a fair bit of exposure boosting on the shadow side of his face and yet, the highlight is still brighter than I nornmally prefer.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …56709879@N07/11​626547526/
Kierstens-8 by shanereighard, on Flickr

I really think there is nothing wrong with this shot. It's documentary style, not an advertisement. You've captured a great moment, don't get hung up on technical details.

If you did want keep the window and side of the face from blowing out, you could bounce a little flash cam right and raise shutter speed. This would alter the look of the photo though.

I like it as is.

For my personal work I have a camera (Leica M Monchrom) that if you blow the highlights there is no pulling them back. Not like Canon.

For my commercial/advertising work it just depends on what's important. If I need to hold highlights I make sure that I do. For environmental or formal portraits it's usually all about the subject. I might let a specular highlight go off the scale but usually I try to hold the detail unless there is a specific reason for it to go off the scale.

chris_holtmeier wrote in post #16591031
I really think there is nothing wrong with this shot. It's documentary style, not an advertisement. You've captured a great moment, don't get hung up on technical details.

If you did want keep the window and side of the face from blowing out, you could bounce a little flash cam right and raise shutter speed. This would alter the look of the photo though.

I like it as is.

A lot of advertising is looking more like this. Almost everything I shoot uses real people in real situations and if I use supplemental lighting it is used to replicate available light. I do a lot of work with available light only and when the situation and light wont give it to me I have to supplement with lights and modifiers but it is always in an effort to replicate available light.

A very simple promo piece but there are examples of both there. These were all used in publications, annual reports, ads and other publications.

chris_holtmeier wrote in post #16591031
I really think there is nothing wrong with this shot. It's documentary style, not an advertisement. You've captured a great moment, don't get hung up on technical details.

If you did want keep the window and side of the face from blowing out, you could bounce a little flash cam right and raise shutter speed. This would alter the look of the photo though.

I like it as is.

I agree but what if it were something like a wedding, a scenario I run into a good bit is lighting like this. Do I worry about it more then?

JakAHearts wrote in post #16591307
I agree but what if it were something like a wedding, a scenario I run into a good bit is lighting like this. Do I worry about it more then?

That's up to you to ultimately decide. It's a trade off between being mobile and catching shots run-and-gun style, and lighting every shot perfectly.

A larger percentage of this frame, for example, is blown out than yours. But I still like it.

chris_holtmeier wrote in post #16591325
That's up to you to ultimately decide. It's a trade off between being mobile and catching shots run-and-gun style, and lighting every shot perfectly.

A larger percentage of this frame, for example, is blown out than yours. But I still like it.

Thats a lovely shot. Though, I think I have more blown skin than that image. I dont worry much about backgrounds blowing out than skin. The back of her arm is a bit hot but their faces are all well and evenly exposed. Plus, you probably had a bit of control in this image, choosing the angle of backlight. Also, you have a lot less contrast from highlight to shadow due to their being some light coming in from behind you.

JakAHearts wrote in post #16590857
Like this image. I did a fair bit of exposure boosting on the shadow side of his face and yet, the highlight is still brighter than I nornmally prefer.

looks good to me, don't worry about getting every pic absolutely perfect

watt100 wrote in post #16592172
looks good to me, don't worry about getting every pic absolutely perfect

This was supposed to be more of a discussion about exposure/highlights etc. not an analysis of my image. You bring up a good point though. Are blown highlights "imperfect"?

I'll expose to the point that whites/higlights (important ones, in the subject) *just* report as clipping in the highlight indicator. Then I can pull those back down in PP if I need to, but with RAW, I find that the 7d anyway, is pretty conservative as to where the preview shows clipping...so, the final image is usually not, actually, clipped.