Hey everyone,
I think that's the correct term, "light flooding". Here's what I mean: take a photo of some tree branches against a sky, underexpose a little. The branches are dark but retain their outlines. Now take a new shot, but this time, severely overexpose it. Do you get the same tree branches, just with more brightness and as sharp outlines as you did earlier? You don't: the background sky light begins to "flood", and expand over the branch outlines, so you lose some detail in the branches.
Maybe some of this is due to the highlight clipping because of the limited dynamic range, but still, here are some questions. Can this be reduced by adjusting certain settings, other than reducing exposure? More importantly, do any of the special optics in the more expensive L-series lenses reduce this effect at all? I know L-series lenses improve the flare control (probably an entirely different thing), but how about this?

