clipping
Loss of detail where tones exceed what the sensor or file can record, leaving pure white or pure black.
Also written
blown highlightsclipped
Clipped highlights are unrecoverable — there is no information under them — which matters constantly in aviation, because a white fuselage in bright sun is the brightest thing in the frame and a bright overcast sky is not far behind. Watching the histogram and exposing slightly under is the standard defence.
Nearby in Photography
- burst mode — Shooting a rapid sequence of frames while the shutter button is held.
- chromatic aberration — Coloured fringing caused by a lens focusing different wavelengths at slightly different points.
- crop factor — The ratio between a sensor's diagonal and that of a 35mm frame, used to compare fields of view across formats.
- crop sensor — A sensor smaller than a 35mm frame, most commonly APS-C at around 24 by 16 millimetres.