
THE EXTREMES 221
9.6
The same scene, only this time greatly overexposed.
9.7
A “correction” of the overexposed photograph offers
little additional distinction between the highlights.
Notice, however, that this terrible picture is not without virtue. Overex-
posure put detail into the deepest shadows that survived, even in the darker
print.
Underexposure
If the image is underexposed, we see similar problems with the shadow
tones. Figure 9.8 (overleaf) is the characteristic curve for an underexposed
picture.
Figure 9.9 is such an image. e highlight steps are better separated. In
other words, each step appears more dierent from the steps ab ...