When shooting especially bright objects or on a very sunny day, one of the things you’ll have to be aware of is overexposing or “blowing out” your image. This occurs when an area is just too bright or contrasty to be recorded in the image and instead you get a blank white space with no image data. Street lights, car reflections, snow, shine on faces are all common areas where overexposure occurs but it can happen anywhere.
You can help avoid this by learning to read your histogram but there’s also another camera feature that is helpful and that’s the Highlight Alert (nearly always referred to by it’s professional term, “blinkies”).
Highlight Alert is viewed in playback mode, after you’ve taken the photo. If you’ve overexposed any areas, those areas will blink. If it’s significant portions of the photo, you’ll probably want to change your settings and reshoot.
Some cameras come with this feature automatically enabled (the Canon Rebel line does) but you may have to turn it on. Check your manual for exact instructions. It’s a helpful, quick and easy way to view problem areas in your photos. But you should still learn how to read your histogram, too!
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