Clipping warning is over sensitive (and useless)

[Jarkod]

I've been suspecting for some time that the clipping warning doesn't work quite well in AFS but finally I've found a picture suitable for demonstration. The first screenshot shows the starting point: blacks set to 0 and the magnification of the histogram. It's quite far from the left side.

Starting point

Now I'm starting to move the black point of the picture. I don't have to move the slider very much before the clipping warning tool starts showing first uderexposed places while the histogram is still far from the left side.

clipping starts to appear (the rectangle is a magnification of the places with a clipping warning)

The third picture shows clearly how over sensitive the clipping warning tool is: the histogram barely touches the left side (there still should be no underexposed places), but AFS warns about underexposure.

Clipping warning shows underexposure even though the histogram shows otherwise.

The same happens with overexposure and in such a state this tool is simple useless.

[Gerard2]

its not a bug, it is a setting that you can change yourself. In preferences : display you can set at what level you want to be warned. It is default at 1 and 254 which is just one level from full.

[afx]

The first screenshot shows the starting point: blacks set to 0 and the magnification of the histogram.

Setting the warnings for black to 0 turns them off.

cheers
afx

[Jarkod]

its not a bug, it is a setting that you can change yourself. In preferences : display you can set at what level you want to be warned. It is default at 1 and 254 which is just one level from full.

I know that. And I have it set to 1 and 254. If I set it to 0, no clipping will be shown.

[Jarkod]

The first screenshot shows the starting point: blacks set to 0 and the magnification of the histogram.

Setting the warnings for black to 0 turns them off.

cheers
afx

Yes, I know. It was just to show how far from the left side the histogram is and that the clipping warning starts way too early.

[afx]

It was just to show how far from the left side the histogram is and that the clipping warning starts way too early.

Sorry, I misunderstood then. It sounded to me like you had the shadow warning set to 0....

I must admit I consider the shadow warning completely useless, because either I can see stuff in the shadows or not close to 0 and it really makes no difference if there is something at say RGB (3,3,3,) or it is already (0,0,0).
If I am interested in the shadows I have to check them anyway by pulling them up.

The highlight warning is much more useful to know when I hit the top end of the histogram and should start with recovery or be more careful in my exposure enhancements.

cheers
afx

[Jarkod]

It was just to show how far from the left side the histogram is and that the clipping warning starts way too early.

Sorry, I misunderstood then. It sounded to me like you had the shadow warning set to 0....

I must admit I consider the shadow warning completely useless, because either I can see stuff in the shadows or not close to 0 and it really makes no difference if there is something at say RGB (3,3,3,) or it is already (0,0,0).
If I am interested in the shadows I have to check them anyway by pulling them up.

The highlight warning is much more useful to know when I hit the top end of the histogram and should start with recovery or be more careful in my exposure enhancements.

cheers
afx

Agree. But as I said, it happens for highlights, too. It was a coincidence that when I had a little time to prepare screenshots and to write here, I was post-processing that image and I wanted to darken shadows but not to couse underexposure.

[grubernd]

agreed. the shadow warning kicks in way too early.
i can see even nuances in the shadows when the warning tries to tell me that the whole area would hit the bottom.
another tool that didnt get properly updated to the new pipeline stuff.