Had to compress this down quite a bit to show, sorry 'bout that.... but no to me the highlights are not blown out, and in relation to the rest of the image they are exactly where they should be..... There's great detail in the shadow areas as well. Using the info palatte in curves.... I selected areas of the image to show you what the actual numbers are..... Lets keep in mind that when talking about color and tonal range 255 is pure white, 0 is pure black. Now while the histogram does show some clipping (sudden sharp rise) in the highlights and in the blacks.... they are not pure white, nor pure black.... Bottom left #1 (the little circle with the #) is 252.... close but not quite. A little further up we have #2.... which reads at 250 getting better.... and #3 you're starting to get your blues mixing in..... #4 got cut off but it was down at the bottom. I tried to pick the darkest area of the image I could find..... weighing in at 7 in tonal value. But what you have to notice too is that your tonal values are fairly evenly distributed across the histogram, which weighs or balances out the sharp increases on either end. Ok it is true that it is better to start with a gradual increase in tones instead of starting out high... but every image is different..... and this is the sky which bright, and a tree which is dark.... you expect to have more of these tones there... Hope at least some of this makes sense.....

I am, therefore I create.......
--- michelleamarante.com