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Photography vocabulary · Files & Image Quality

Clipping

Meaning in photography, with examples

/ˈklɪpɪŋ/nounCommon term

In photography, clipping means: The loss of all detail in the brightest or darkest parts of an image, which become pure white or pure black.

In Turkish: kırpılma, patlama, detay kaybı

How it is used

Photographers talk about highlight clipping and shadow clipping, and say the highlights are clipped or blown. Cameras show clipping as blinking areas (blinkies) or zebra stripes, and editing software has a clipping warning. Clipped highlights usually cannot be recovered.

Example sentences

  1. Turn on the highlight clipping warning so you can see when the dress loses detail.

  2. There's some clipping in the sun itself, but that's normal and acceptable.

Common collocations

  • highlight clipping
  • shadow clipping
  • clipping warning
  • avoid clipping
  • histogramA graph that shows how the tones in a photo are spread out, from pure black on the left to pure white on the right.
  • overexposedToo bright because too much light reached the sensor, so light areas lose detail and may turn completely white.
  • dynamic rangeThe range of brightness, from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights, that a camera can record with detail, or that exists in a scene.
  • exposureThe amount of light that reaches the camera's sensor or film when you take a picture; it decides how bright or dark the final image looks.

More terms: Files & Image Quality

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