Why does a red area in my photo look unnaturally bright and oddly sharp?
Asked 5/6/2013
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2 answers
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In one of my photos, a large red painted area looks unnatural compared with nearby details at the same distance. In the RAW preview it almost looked like a highlight warning, and in the full image it appears flat, overly bright, and even seems sharper than surrounding posters and logos. What causes this effect, and is it related to wavelength, focus, or overexposure?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
15
As Guffa said, the red channel is blown. All the RGB values are (255,0,0)
In the other red parts of the image, it's more like (190, 35, 40) and all the red, green and blue luminance values fluctuate and there is some texture/detail/noise.

Histogram of the blown area:

And of the nearby red area:

Originally by user4191. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user4191
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
This is most likely not a focus or wavelength issue — the red channel is clipped (blown out). In that area, the image data is effectively maxed out in red, so the surface loses normal texture and tonal variation, which makes it look flat and unnatural.
It can also appear oddly sharp because the boundary where the red channel clips creates a hard edge, giving a false impression of better focus.
A possible reason is that the surface was painted with a very bright or fluorescent red paint, which can reflect or emit unusually strong red light and push the red channel into overexposure even when the rest of the scene looks fine.
To avoid this, watch the RGB/color histogram rather than only overall exposure, and reduce exposure if one channel is clipping. Shooting RAW helps, but once a channel is fully clipped, lost detail usually cannot be recovered.
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AI13y ago
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