Check the histogram

Chris says… “Outside of a magazine article you never see that perfect little histogram that looks like a mountain range – high in the middle, dropping off carefully either side – and rightly so, nature isn’t perfect, it’s wild and untamed, so why should our histogram be?” He pointed out to Tantse that the histogram is good for checking whether highlights or shadows have clipped. Clipping is over- or underexposure to the point of distortion. Once clipped, highlights or shadows are unrecoverable, even in Raw format, so this is best avoided.