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Show Lost Highlights / Shadows |
Misnamed: Under the 'View' Menu, there is a 'Show Lost
Highlights' and 'Show Lost Shadows'. It would be understandable to assume
that at any time, you can click these to see the areas of your photo where
photo information has been lost...
...but you would be wrong. What!?
'Lost' actually means 'Clipped Now':
Unfortunately, 'Show Lost Shadows' means 'show me any color channels
with a value right now of 0' and 'Show Lost Highlights' means 'shows me
any color channels with a value right now of 255'.
So any adjustment
that changes the 0 to something non-zero and that changes 255 to anything not 255
will defeat the 'Show Lost...' feature.
Prove it to yourself: Open a photo in NX with known clipped highlights (the
more severe, the better) and turn on 'View / Show Lost Highlights'. Then, add a
'Light / Contrast' step and set contrast to -5 (reduce contrast a little). You
will notice that all lost highlights and shadows are now gone. There are clearly
still 'lost highlights' in your photo, but NX is no longer showing them to you.
So, what is the feature good for? When you open a NEF for the first
time, you might want to use
exposure compensation
a little. It is nice to see what is being lost, or being recovered. Or, for a
particular step in the Edit List, seeing what color channels are being 'pushed'
too far.
No History: Just remember, there is no 'history' to 'Show Lost Highlights'
and 'Show Lost Shadows'. It is only showing you what is 0 and 255, right now.
Hopefully knowing that will allow you to more effectively use this feature.
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