In
cinematography and
photography, 'pre-flashing' is the exposure of the
film or other photosensor to uniform
light prior to exposing it to the scene to be imaged. This adds a bias to the overall light input recorded by the sensor.
It is sometimes used for artistic effects, as it can be used to add a
colour cast to
shadows without significantly affecting highlights.
It is also used in fields such as
astronomy to bias
CCD image sensors into a linear region, improving their low-light sensitivity.