Filming & Production
Zebras
Also called: zebra stripes
Exposure aids you can trust beat squinting at a bright viewfinder. Zebras draw diagonal stripes over pixels above a chosen brightness level, showing you clipping before it is baked into the file. The level is adjustable, and two values get used most: somewhere around 70% to place skin tones correctly on a face, and 95 to 100% to catch highlights about to blow. What each number means varies by camera and picture profile, so it is only useful once you have tested it on your own body. Nothing about zebras reaches the recording. They live on the monitor, so leaving them on costs you nothing.