Why are blown highlights particularly bad in digital photography?

Question

I've heard that digital sensors are less "forgiving" of blown highlights than film. Why is this?

Can anything be done about it? Is this a significant advantage for film in some situations, or does it just mean that one's shooting style might need to be a little different? (Or, does it even mean that?)

Answer

Digitally blown highlight is worse than film because transition between blown and light areas is quite harsh. You don't actually need high magnification to see the digital blowing promptly plain white, while the film gives more gradual fading of details.

For example, here's wallpaper from my hallway shot with same exposure settings and same lens with digital and negative film. Film is shot at shorter distance to match field of view. Lighting is provided by off-camera flash in manual mode set on a lightstand just off the right side of frame. Lens hood is used to avoid stray light from flash.

Pentax K100d Super, ISO 200, JPEG, Sigma 28mm f/1.8 at f/5.6, 1/125s

Pentax K100d Super, ISO 200, RAW, Sigma 28mm f/1.8 at f/5.6, 1/125s, processed at -1/2 EV

Pentax MZ-6, Fujifilm Superia 200 (negative), Sigma 28mm f/1.8 at f/5.6, 1/125s

_{To be added: Pentax MZ-6, Fujifilm Velvia 100 (slide), Sigma 28mm f/1.8 at f/5.6, 1/125s; I just need to fill another 35 frames...}

The white blotch on digital image catches attention and annoys, while the film image is much more like what could be seen with similar side-lighting. Shooting in RAW can help a little, but the white will still clip quite harshly.

100% crops:

• digital JPEG

• digital RAW

• negative film

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