Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A blurring or spreading of light around bright areas on a photographic image.
  • noun A glow around a bright object on a television screen.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In photography, the effect of excess of light, or of adventitious reflected light, on some part of a negative, as when an interior view includes a window the light-rays from which produce a fog which spreads over the neighboring parts of the picture, or when light is reflected from the back of the plate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Photog.) An appearance as of a halo of light, surrounding the edges of dark objects in a photographic picture.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The action of light surrounding some object as if making a halo.
  • noun The blurring of light around a bright area of a photographic image, or on a television screen.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[hal(o) + –ation.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From halo +‎ -ation.

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Examples

  • "halation" of star photographs can be prevented by pouring over the back of the plate a film of collodion suitably stained.

    On Laboratory Arts Richard Threlfall

  • My favorite is the strokes of halation as the sun peeks over the top.

    Camper william wray 2009

  • Age tends to diminish night vision, especially the ability to distinguish contrast, and older drivers are vulnerable to what engineers call "overglow" or "halation," when letters lighted by headlights blur together.

    January 2005 2005

  • For a moment the entire iron car was outlined in an eerie violet halation as the paint boiled up on the vehicle's surface, and all four tires melted.

    Music to My Sorrow Lackey, Mercedes 2005

  • For a moment the entire iron car was outlined in an eerie violet halation as the paint boiled up on the vehicle's surface, and all four tires melted.

    Music To My Sorrow Lackey, Mercedes 2005

  • The inside of the shade creates an elliptical shape and the strong white area in the top central portion is the light bulb which also gives off a halation creating the ‘bump’ on the top of this reflection.

    Space Ships of the Visitors Kevin Randle 2000

  • The inside of the shade creates an elliptical shape and the strong white area in the top central portion is the light bulb which also gives off a halation creating the ‘bump’ on the top of this reflection.

    Space Ships of the Visitors Kevin Randle 2000

  • The inside of the shade creates an elliptical shape and the strong white area in the top central portion is the light bulb which also gives off a halation creating the ‘bump’ on the top of this reflection.

    Space Ships of the Visitors Kevin Randle 2000

  • The inside of the shade creates an elliptical shape and the strong white area in the top central portion is the light bulb which also gives off a halation creating the ‘bump’ on the top of this reflection.

    Space Ships of the Visitors Kevin Randle 2000

  • The first advantage, which I soon discovered, is their entire freedom from halation.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 623, December 10, 1887 Various

Comments

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  • A spreading of light beyond its proper boundaries.

    May 12, 2008

  • Boundaries according to who? Is there some prescribed darkness zone of which I should be aware?

    May 12, 2008

  • I am a creature of the night.

    May 12, 2008

  • This also applies to type; the term is used to describe the problem with text on highway signs at night being blurred by light striking it. This is why the current, ubiquitous "Highway Gothic" typeface on road signs in the US is being replaced with the more legible and less halation-prone "Clearview."

    July 15, 2008

  • ha·la·tion (h-lshn)

    n.

    1. A blurring or spreading of light around bright areas on a photographic image.

    2. A glow around a bright object on a television screen.

    May 21, 2009

  • We celebrate each year's rotation

    With merriment and strong potation.

    With liquor abetting

    Both hope and forgettting

    The world glows bright in brief halation.

    January 2, 2015