Workaround for highlight blinkies in stills mode

[michaeladawson]

I've done a small bit of testing with your custom picture control and my UniWB configuration.

My limited testing was with a lamp that has a translucent greenish tinted shade. With your custom picture control I found that if I exposed the lamp shade so that I just got rid of the black clipped indicator of your picture control, the green channel was still clipped in ACR.

I think this is because the combined RGB channels were not clipped once they're averaged out, as the R and B channels were under 255. But in fact the green channel was clipped.

I was alerted to this because I was using UniWB and the histogram I had up in the EVF alongside your custom picture control indicated that I was still clipping. Even though there was no black areas on the screen from the picture control.

I like your custom picture control workaround. However, I think it may need some tweaking to leave a little more leeway up at the highlight end. I'll have to think about it. As it stands, I think using UniWB and the histogram is more dependable.

 

[blivermore]

this is awesome, thanks for sharing! I've been trying to come up with a way to avoid blowing highlights in situations where I don't have time to take a photo, look at the 'blinkies', and adjust exposure.

the live view histogram sort of works, but it's small and the right edge is the same color as the white border. I often end up overcompensating and 'underexposing' more than I need to. it's also nice to see what parts are blown at a glance without thinking about it.

 

[PankajDubey]

this is awesome, thanks for sharing! I've been trying to come up with a way to avoid blowing highlights in situations where I don't have time to take a photo, look at the 'blinkies', and adjust exposure.

the live view histogram sort of works, but it's small and the right edge is the same color as the white border. I often end up overcompensating and 'underexposing' more than I need to. it's also nice to see what parts are blown at a glance without thinking about it.

Bookmark the threads you think are good tips and tricks.

I need to keep referring to the ones that I have bookmarked.

 

[Eli319]

Just wanted to say thank you for making this available. It is a game-changer for ETTR without having to take test photos and check the histo or blinkies. Many thanks!!

 

[masplin]

Just got my Z9 and first thing I spotted as an issue was this so brilliant resolved. Thanks

 

[RMcL]

Just another nod to tajohnson for this workaround. I downloaded the original picture control file created by the OP and loaded it into my Z9 and it works like a charm. I made a couple of minor tweaks based on comparing numerous images in FastRawViewer to the OP's custom picture control and it seems to provide a very good indication of actual RAW clipping. This is a very usable workaround avoiding the hassle of following alternative more time consuming procedures for ETTR (e.g., spot metering/bracketing, etc.) for a lot of situations. Not perfect for all situations/lighting I'm sure, but in my book extremely useful!

 

[chambeshi]

Thank you for sharing this: a Brilliant and neat solution.

For some reason I had to import and export your Picture Control file in the Nikon PC Utility in order for the Z9 (FW3.01) to recognize the file on the card.

To see WYSIWYG exposure in the EVF, in Custom Menu set d9 to show Effects of Settings, and d10 must be OFF.

 

[tajohnson]

Glad to help. I've been using my Z7 this way for a year and a half. I'd feel blind without it.

-Todd

 

[RMcL]

Glad to help. I've been using my Z7 this way for a year and a half. I'd feel blind without it.

-Todd

That’s the way I feel now that I’ve used your picture control for a few months, I’d feel blind without it. I have this PC in use on both my Z7 and Z9 all the time now. Nikon should be paying you for this!

 

[pskaytes]

Glad to help. I've been using my Z7 this way for a year and a half. I'd feel blind without it.

-Todd

That’s the way I feel now that I’ve used your picture control for a few months, I’d feel blind without it. I have this PC in use on both my Z7 and Z9 all the time now. Nikon should be paying you for this!

I agree that it's a great program, but I have a few beginners questions.

First, I am using a Z6ii and a Mac. D/L'ed the latest Picture Control and the OP's picture control file. Shoot jpeg (don't need fine adjustments of raw).

A couple of beginners questions:

--When I first installed the file, the camera would automatically reduce the exposure until the black areas are gone. It doesn't do that anymore....how did I get changed, and how do i get it back? In general, I can see how to adjust color, etc., but can't figure out how to change how the Picture Control preferences are changed.

--Suppose I don't want the Picture Control to turn blown out highlights to 0, can I modify the file so that blown out highlights are reduced from >255 to 255 or 245 or something like that so that if I miss something, I don't have black, but have off-white? Again, how do I modify that setting?

Thanks for the help,

Paul

--

 

[Doofer]

Inspired by beatboxa's posts regarding innovative uses of custom picture controls, I have created one that allows me to have a workaround for the missing highlight blinkies in stills mode on the Z cameras.

The picture control is linear from 0 to 254, and at 255, drops back to 0. The result is that when a pixel saturates, it becomes black in the viewfinder. This makes it very easy to not just see that there is highlight clipping going on, but exactly where it is in the image. I couple the use of this picture control with exposure compensation on the lens control ring. With this combination, I can quickly, easily and accurately ETTR.

Here's a JPEG (extracted unprocessed from the NEF via NX Studio), showing what this particular image looked like in the viewfinder as I pressed the shutter button.


The blown hightlights are clearly evident.

As you can see, the blown lightlights are immediately obvious. Being able to see the blown highlights in realtime, and not just a spike at the right edge of the histogram, allows me to quickly adjust the image until the pixels that I want to save are evident. I'm finally confident that I'm exposing properly: not too bright where I'd be losing detail that I want to keep, and not too dark where I'd be unnecessarily sacrificing DR. I can quickly assess the trade-offs between blown hightlights and lost DR in the shadows and set the exposure accordingly.

As I said above, I have assigned EC to the lens control ring. I had tried this before and given up on it because, as with many others on this forum, I found the dial to be too sensitive. Now though, with the immediate contextual feedback, I find that it works very nicely.

You can make the same picture control in the free Nikon Picture Control Utility, or if you want to save some work, here's a link to a folder with mine.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11JDOGdWH8VtN8W466i_knVwh0v9eiWOB?usp=sharing

Oh, and if you're interested, here's the processed version of the same image.



There is a caveat. The blacked-out blown hightlights get recorded that way in the JPEG preview in the NEF and in SOOC JPEGs. If you shoot raw only, this isn't much of an issue because the preview gets discarded when you process the NEF. Clearly, this approach wouldn't work for shooting JPEG or RAW+JPEG.

Todd

But it's not missing? I use it all the time! What am I missing here?

--
Professional photographer since 1903.

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[tajohnson]

Highlight blinkies exist when reviewing a picture that has already been taken, but not when composing/taking a still photo. They do exist when composing or taking video.

-Todd Johnosn

 

[Doofer]

Highlight blinkies exist when reviewing a picture that has already been taken, but not when composing/taking a still photo. They do exist when composing or taking video.

-Todd Johnosn

No they don't, zebras do.

Yes, but from your original post:

"I have created one that allows me to have a workaround for the missing highlight blinkies in stills mode on the Z cameras"

They didn't exist when taking a picture on a DSLR either, did they? So in what way are they missing?

 

[tajohnson]

What's missing is the ability to know where hightlights are blown before pressing the shutter button. My custom picture control is a workaround for that lack. If you read my original post, that should have been clear.

If this isn't useful for you, fine.

-Todd Johnson

 

[Doofer]

What's missing is the ability to know where hightlights are blown before pressing the shutter button. My custom picture control is a workaround for that lack. If you read my original post, that should have been clear.

If this isn't useful for you, fine.

-Todd Johnson

Hmm...

From your OP:

"I have created one that allows me to have a workaround for the missing highlight blinkies in stills mode on the Z cameras."

Seems to suggest it was there before, if it's missing now, no? Please let me know if I've missed the part where that was made clear.

 

[RMcL]

What's missing is the ability to know where hightlights are blown before pressing the shutter button. My custom picture control is a workaround for that lack. If you read my original post, that should have been clear.

If this isn't useful for you, fine.

-Todd Johnson

Hmm...

From your OP:

"I have created one that allows me to have a workaround for the missing highlight blinkies in stills mode on the Z cameras."

Seems to suggest it was there before, if it's missing now, no? Please let me know if I've missed the part where that was made clear.

No, it wasn’t there before and never has been. It is “missing” as tajohnson wrote because it is a feature we miss having that should be there, but isn’t. Tajohnson’s picture control provides a viable workaround for this missing feature. Clear now I hope?

--
Professional photographer since 1903.
https://www.instagram.com/inutopia/

 

[pskaytes]

A sort of naive question....

I'm a jpeg shooter (I know, I know). If I have specular highlights your picture control would correct them, and lower the exposure. This is great for huge areas of overexposure, but may not be important if the highlights are very small, and wouldn't distract, and correcting for them would lower the overall exposure, perhaps to underexposure.

Would this improve the workaround.....set the adjustment to 250 or so instead of 0. The highlights will still be highlights, but there will be some density there that can be used in further adjustment. And there wouldn't be any gray areas on the jpeg.

 

[pskaytes]

A sort of naive question....

I'm a jpeg shooter (I know, I know). If I have specular highlights your picture control would correct them, and lower the exposure. This is great for huge areas of overexposure, but may not be important if the highlights are very small, and wouldn't distract, and correcting for them would lower the overall exposure, perhaps to underexposure.

Would this improve the workaround.....set the adjustment to 250 or so instead of 0. The highlights will still be highlights, but there will be some density there that can be used in further adjustment. And there wouldn't be any gray areas on the jpeg.

Of course I was referring to the highlights that are black in the jpeg, not gray.

 

[Doofer]

Very rude. Perhaps you should go photograph some more birds in your back garden, might calm you down a bit?

 

[EricK214]

Very rude. Perhaps you should go photograph some more birds in your back garden, might calm you down a bit?