100 THE HASSELBLAD MANUAL
histogram looks different. The histogram for a high-key image with few or any dark areas has
curves mainly or completely toward the right, whereas most of the curves for a low-key image
with few or any bright areas are mostly to the left. An image with an average tonal range from
white to black has curves all the way from left to right.
The histogram does not show the exact amount of under or over exposure, but the
results of any corrections made in the aperture or shutter speed setting are clearly shown on
the new Histogram. Overexposure in digital recording must be avoided because details in the
overexposed areas are completely lost. This should be remembered especially by photogra-
phers accustomed to working with negative fi lms and leaning toward overexposure to obtain
suffi cient detail in the shaded areas.
The MarkOverexp. Image Evaluation
While the histogram is a great tool to evaluate exposure and to show when some of your
pixels are overexposed, it does not show you which ones are overexposed. In a shot that has
many bright areas in different parts of the image, some of these areas may be important to the
image while others may not if they are in an unimportant part of the image where they do
not distract. It is therefore helpful to see these areas that are considered overexposed. This is
possible with Hasselblad using the MarkOverexp. option. When activated, the overexposure
control fl ashes the overexposed pixels so you can see precisely which pixels are without any
details. The fl ashing pixels will help you determine whether the bright areas are in a part of
the image where they are distracting, somewhere where they do not distract, or somewhere
where they can easily be darkened in the computer. This signal is even more valuable because
it allows you to eliminate distracting highlights before you take the fi nal picture by changing
the camera position or perhaps using a longer lens to reduce background coverage and elimi-
nate the distracting areas.
The overexposure control is activated with the main menu control, going to Settings,
then to User Interface and MarkOverexp. You also have a shortcut for this option, which is
helpful especially if you want the overexposed pixels to fl ash only on desired images. With
the single image on the screen, simply depress and hold the top of the navigating control and
overexposed pixels, if existing in that particular image, will start to fl ash.
Instant Approval Architecture
The evaluation possibilities previously discussed are good methods for evaluating the
exposure of a digital image. Hasselblad offers a third possibility with the Instant Approval
Architecture option (Figure 5-13). This automatically functions in the H3D cameras. In the
lower right hand of the Preview screen you see three small round signals. After an image is
recorded, one of these signals lights up as green, yellow, or red based on the histogram that
also appears as part of the screen. A green signal with a fi le name A indicates a good expo-
sure, yellow with a fi le name B is an acceptable exposure, and a red one is unsatisfactory. The
images are stored with the colored approval level.
Although these signals come on automatically, you can program the function to operate
in different ways. In the menu screen, scroll down to Storage, press the right side of the navi-
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