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Gail's Blog
Highlight Tone Priority
When initially reading about highlight tone priority, it sounded like the best thing since sliced bread. It ain't necessarily so.
Since I take most of my photos in bright, outside light, I enabled HTO as my default. But after using it for several weeks, I disabled it.
Increased noise and HTP
According to Canon, highlight tone priority improves detail in highlight areas. The gradation between grays and highlights become smoother.
Indeed they do, but sometimes at the expense of increased noise in dark areas of a photo. The degree of noise becomes even more apparent when adjusting an image with a tool such as Photoshop's shadow/highlight.
Even the XSi/450D manual warns of increased noise in underexposed areas when HTP is enabled. I just wasn't prepared for how much noise there could be. It is quite strong and undesirable at times.
Increased noise is NOT a reason I bought a DSLR.
Assess the scene before enabling HTP
Before enabling highlight tone priority , I'll examine the scene. If it contains high contrast areas with strong highlights and deep shadow, I'll avoid using HTP.
HTP can be used more successfully when photographing scenes such as water, white clouds and snow. Some wedding photographers use HTP to bring out detail in white gowns and flowers.
For scenes where the the brightness of lighting changes, such as on a sunny day with lots of clouds in the sky, I'll use exposure compensation. EC has a dedicated button on the XSi that is faster to access than the highlight tone priority menu.
