Fix for S5 Pro's Pink Highlights (ACR/LR)

Picked up an S5 Pro earlier this month, and I'm loving it! Well, everything except the clipped highlights I'm seeing in Adobe Camera Raw. Instead of going pure white like normal, they go pink. Amazingly, Adobe STILL hasn't corrected this flaw, despite how old the camera is (S5 Pro has profiles back to ACR 4.1! ). Well, I guess I'll have to fix it for them.

EXIFtool to the rescue, as usual!

Maximum correction (sun, headlights, etc.):
-WhiteLevel=5500 5500

Minimum correction (light through window, artificial lights, etc.):
-WhiteLevel=9000 9000

These correct how ACR and LR see extreme highlights. Instead of excessive green levels that need to be quelled by adding magenta, they will now recognize them as clipped to white:

Before

After

This also has the side effect of repairing random weirdness that the incorrect white level creates, such as the shape of the sun flare in the clouds. I've seen this in other images, too, but just thought it was the result of using a sub-par lens (Nikon 55-200 non-VR).

Now, this isn't without a compromise, but it's a small one. Exposure needs to be offset by -1.25. Increasing the white level pulls the exposure towards being brighter. The true clipping level should actually be 4096 for 12-bit RAWs, but that makes things brighter yet, and clips things too far. I settled on 5500-9000 due to the level of noise in the clipped highlights. With the default white level of 16383(!), the pink highlights have tons of noise in them. I set the limits to a point where the noise nearly disappears, so you get a smooth clipped area without affecting exposure or fine highlight detail excessively.

Of course, this should only be used on images that require it, like the sunrise above. Used on images with less severe clipping (can be safely pushed to white by default), or without any clipping, will result in an underexposed image with potentially unwanted clipping.