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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

40D Highlight Tone Priority (1 Viewer)

Roy C

Roy C

Occasional bird snapper
I was under the impression that this only worked with jpegs but after a few tests of my own I have found that it does work when shooting in RAW.

Does anyone see any advantage to using HTP for bird photography?.

From what I have read HTP increases shadow noise slightly which I guess would be a disadvantage for shooting birds.
 
Very useful in the right circumstances, Roy. I only use it (on 40D or 1D III) maybe 10% of the time, but it makes quite a difference to things like egrets or white cockatoos which have most of their plumage detail right up at the bright white end of the scale.

Typically, under these circumstances, shadow noise is not an issue. Even if it is, getting the feather detail is more important. The HTP system reduces the number of frames you can shoot in a burst (for reasons I can't remember now) but this probably won't bother you.
 
nsclayton said:
Wouldn't underexposing slightly have the same affect as using highlight tone priority? and this wouldn't reduce the number of frames you could shoot in a burst.

http://www.pbase.com/nickclayton
Click to expand...
Not sure exactly how it works but I think it must underexpose, and then push the non highlight areas back up to the correct exposure (which would explain the increase in shadow noise). I guess you could do a similar thing by underexposing and then bringing the shadow areas back up in post processing.
 
Thanks for this info Mac, it appears that HTP increases highlight range without affecting the shadows as would be the case with underexposure, HTP apparently gives nearly a whole stop more highlight range.

I have checked out some other sites regarding HTP and a couple even suggests leaving it switched on all the time as it will apparently have no affect unless there are bright highlights.

One site with some comparisons with and without HTP switched on is http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/2007/10/highlight-tone-priority-image-salvation.html these are wedding photos where HTP will really benefit.

This has been a real eye opener for me and I will certainly be using it regularly in the future.

http://www.pbase.com/nickclayton
 
Last edited:
Roy C said:
I was under the impression that this only worked with jpegs but after a few tests of my own I have found that it does work when shooting in RAW.

Does anyone see any advantage to using HTP for bird photography?.

From what I have read HTP increases shadow noise slightly which I guess would be a disadvantage for shooting birds.
Click to expand...

i think it's just enbeded in the raw file so does not have to be aplied but in the jpeg it's fixed so to speak.
Rob.
 
I took a couple of shots right after each other yesterday, one with HTP on and then with HTP off. Shot in RAW and opened in DPP. With HTP on I had to adjust exposure to +2/3 to blow the sky whereas with HTP off the sky was blown at -1/3. Tried this test several time with similar results - just about 1 stop difference each time and this was before it was converted. I am pretty sure that it only works if you use Canon's DPP for RAW conversions (which I do these days).
 
This mode are very good to keeping detail on light area surrounding the subject. This is a shot taking in very bright afternoon day. Shooting in regular mode with no EV correction mean the subject to be too much dark. with an +2/3EV compensation+ spot metering, the white snow became blast. So for this one I use the spot metering, +eV compensation in highlite priority mode.
 

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avan said:
This mode are very good to keeping detail on light area surrounding the subject. This is a shot taking in very bright afternoon day. Shooting in regular mode with no EV correction mean the subject to be too much dark. with an +2/3EV compensation+ spot metering, the white snow became blast. So for this one I use the spot metering, +eV compensation in highlite priority mode.
Click to expand...
It is sure effective in this image. The subject is perfectly exposed but the snow has been tone back so as not to distract. Lovely image by the way.
 
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