Color Washout Issue

[rconey]

I'm surprised I haven't seen this happen before, or maybe I just didn't recognize it. Last year in Utah Canyon ountry I took this image, careful not to blow out the highlights on the right canyon wall. It registers at about 204 brightness level. However, there is no color in those washed out looking areas. I think the blue of the sky reflected enough to negate the red of the walls so the rgb color is 204-204-204, ie white. It can't be recovered. Interesting.

[digitaldog]

Raw or JPEG capture?

[rconey]

Raw. Here is a chunk of the area in question unaltered coming out ACR: Oh, cant send as .tif. Hmm coverted to jpb, 8 bit.

[rconey]

In unaltered .NEF the highest brightness I found was 253 (might have missed a spot fully 255, but don't think so)

Edited April 22, 2023 by rconey

[digitaldog]

You can't evaluate exposure and thus clipping in Adobe Camera Raw or any Adobe converter. You need something like RawDigger to do so. 

I can do this for you if you upload the NEF to something like Dropbox. 

[rconey]

I think I used to have RawDigger but did not use it enough to keep it. Isn't it true if I go eyedropper testing around the near blown out areas I can at least get a sense of how close I am? Maybe not.  What surprised me is that in the bright areas of this image, the levels range from the 230s to 240s, with a high of 253, but the RGB values are (nearly) identical. IE 234-234-234. Sometimes off by 1 or 2 at one color. In the finished image to the far right you can see a lot of blue on the canyon walls. My assumption being that the sky blue reflecting in balanced out the red.

Probably more words than you wanted. Thx.

[digitaldog]

Again, there isn't anything in ACR/LR that gives you info about the raw data clipping or not. ALL the RGB values you report are rendered. Many Adobe Camera Raw settings affect this. So it tells us all about the current Adobe Camera Raw settings and nothing about the capture/exposure or channel clipping. 

[rconey]

Got it. Could the team at ACR give us a raw dropper?

Thx

[rconey]

Downloaded the RawDigger trial. Some, but not all of that is overexposed. Hmm, burnt is burnt. Too bad, my thought was more interesting....  Maybe some of the surrounding area....

Edited April 22, 2023 by rconey

[digitaldog]

Yup; raw clipped is clipped.

Adobe and anyone else could provide a raw Histogram but sadly so few do.

Edited April 22, 2023 by digitaldog