By Pam Henrichsen
What are blinkies? Blinkies are one more tool in your camera to help with the exposure of your image. They help you establish how far to go in the image brightening direction. Most SLR cameras have a setting called “highlight warning.” It will make any overexposed areas “flash” or “blink” when you preview your images on your camera’s screen. Most photographers affectionately call this flashing the “blinkies.”
Check your camera’s manual if your preview is not currently set for the blinkies. You may need to activate the “highlight warning” in your settings menu first.
Once you have adjusted your settings, if you are a Nikon user, preview an image and press the up or down button (near the Ok button) until you see the highlights flashing or outlined. If you chose this setting, your camera will remember this setting for the next image you preview. Keep in mind you will only see the blinkies if you have overexposed areas in your image.
Canon users can accomplish the same thing by pressing the “display” or “info” button, depending on the model of your camera, until the blinkies show up on your camera screen while previewing images.
By using this tool and other simple tools that your camera provides you, you can easily adjust your exposure and see how to improve the overall quality of your images.
Pam Henrichsen is a trip leader with Arizona Highways PhotScapes.