Simulator
AI generated demo imageYour photo stays on your device. This page opens it in your browser and works on it there.
Put the lit side of the sails between 55 and 70 IRE, then click them to check.
Reading exposure like a camera operator
Your eyes adapt and monitors lie, so professionals judge exposure with tools that measure the signal itself. Each one answers a different question: where is everything, where is it clipping, and is the subject at the right level.
IRE
A 0–100 scale for video signal level: 0 is black, 100 is the brightest legal white. In standard video, a mid-grey card sits around 40 IRE and lit skin around 55–70 depending on skin tone.
Waveform
Plots every column of the picture left to right, with brightness up the scale. You see at a glance which parts of the frame are clipping at the top or crushing at the bottom.
Histogram
Counts how many pixels sit at each brightness. Quick for overall exposure, but it doesn't show where in the frame anything is.
False colour
Replaces the picture with colours by level: purple and blue for crushed shadows, green for mid-grey, pink for well-exposed skin, yellow for near clipping and red for clipped. It's the fastest way to place a face.
Zebras
Stripes over everything above a set level. Set at 95–100 they warn of clipping; set around 70 they show when skin hits its target.
Focus peaking
Not an exposure tool, but usually in the same menu: it outlines the sharpest edges in colour so you can see what's in focus on a small screen.