Skip to main content

Burned out fish

Watch out for very bright fish when using a flash. They can reflect the light and completely burn out in white like here.

Martin Joergensen

Jeff,

Burn-outs are basically overexposed areas in the image, and the simple way to avoid them is to underexpose. I have for many years had my digital cameras permanently set to underexpose 3/4 of an aperture step. Details from the dark areas can often be found in a photo-editing program once you get home, while burnt-out areas are lost forever. They have no detail, but are just white.

You can also try to avoid situations, which lead to burn-out areas like having reflections in the image, sharp light against you, very hard light/shadow combinations etc.

But my prime advice would be to generally underexpose.

Actually I have a whole article on exactly that subject on the bench right now, so if you have a little patience there will be even more details about this very important subject in digital photography.

Martin

Submitted by Jeff Hanna 173… on

Permalink

Hi
I have a question as to how to avoid this "burn out" while taking a picture.
This seems to happen to me quite a bit, especially when I use my flash as suggested in one of your articles. I use a Olympus C5050 which has a number of adjustments when it comes to using the flash.
You can probably tell I am not an expert photographer by asking such a question but still manage to get a few good pics now and then! Some have even made it on your site.
Any information as to how I can avoid this "burn out" would be greatly appreciated. I'm always looking for a way to get a better picture.

This picture appears in

Jeff,

Burn-outs are basically overexposed areas in the image, and the simple way to avoid them is to underexpose. I have for many years had my digital cameras permanently set to underexpose 3/4 of an aperture step. Details from the dark areas can often be found in a photo-editing program once you get home, while burnt-out areas are lost forever. They have no detail, but are just white.

You can also try to avoid situations, which lead to burn-out areas like having reflections in the image, sharp light against you, very hard light/shadow combinations etc.

But my prime advice would be to generally underexpose.

Actually I have a whole article on exactly that subject on the bench right now, so if you have a little patience there will be even more details about this very important subject in digital photography.

Martin

Submitted by Jeff Hanna 173… on

Permalink

Hi
I have a question as to how to avoid this "burn out" while taking a picture.
This seems to happen to me quite a bit, especially when I use my flash as suggested in one of your articles. I use a Olympus C5050 which has a number of adjustments when it comes to using the flash.
You can probably tell I am not an expert photographer by asking such a question but still manage to get a few good pics now and then! Some have even made it on your site.
Any information as to how I can avoid this "burn out" would be greatly appreciated. I'm always looking for a way to get a better picture.

Since you got this far …


The GFF money box

… I have a small favor to ask.

Long story short

Support the Global FlyFisher through several different channels, including PayPal.

Long story longer

The Global FlyFisher has been online since the mid-90's and has been free to access for everybody since day one – and will stay free for as long as I run it.
But that doesn't mean that it's free to run.
It costs money to drive a large site like this.
See more details about what you can do to help in this blog post.

The Global FlyFisher was updated to a new publishing system early March 2025, and there may still be a few glitches while the last bits get fixed. If you meet anything that doesn't work, please let me know.
Martin - martin@globalflyfisher.com