The digital camera - Blown highlights -canon digital cameras - a view. An article on understanding what Blown highlights are.
The histogram function on digital cameras is a picture lifesaver. Before digital there was no way of seeing blown highlights or dramatically underexposed areas, but today you can quickly assess the image and its histogram and correct the exposure to get it close to perfect.
One of the important uses of the histogram on the camera is ensuring that there are no blown or burned out highlights in pictures.
Loss of details in the highlights is the biggest problem with digital images. In most cases there will be details left to salvage in the dark areas, but once the light areas go pure white (or pure any color - you can also blow one color channel at the time), there is nothing left to save.
Blown-out highlights is the enemy number one of the digital photographer, and they should be avoided using all means. Unless it’s a goal in itself to overexpose, like in high key pictures, you should try your best to avoid loosing details in the light areas of the picture. Details can often be found in the dark areas, but once they are gone in the highlights, that’s it. They’re gone.
This can be avoided by looking at the histograms.
Canon PowerShot A470 - 7.1 MP