Highlight Tone Priority on 40D

[Shasta66]

I did try doing a search first.

Under what conditions would it be worthwhile to enable this feature? Making the gradations from dark to light smoother would be handy but it also says in the manual you might get more noise in the dark areas. Also, I believe it slows down the camera's maximum burst.

Any ideas would be most appreciated. Thank you for your time.

[griptape]

It would be worthwhile when your priority is to save the highlight tones. Such as a subject against a bright sky, where you're willing to sacrifice a little detail in the dark areas to preserve the blue sky as blue instead of white.

[24Peter]

I tested it pretty extensively when I got my 40D. I couldn't notice a difference in my images so I don't use it. It does slow down the burst rate (but so does enabling high ISO noise reduction [which BTW applies NR even at low ISO's thus slowing burst rate even if you're shooting at ISO 100]). HTP also raises the minimum ISO to 200 which won't work for me shooting with strobes.

Some people seem to think it's great. My suggestion is try it and then decide for yourself. My feeling is, if you properly expose your images you'll be OK without it. If you're really worried about blowing highlights, shooting RAW will probably give you as good or better results without introducing noise in the shadows (another side effect of Highlight Tone Priority.)

[Shasta66]

I just read about the ISO 200 limitation after posting my question. Between this & the slower burst rate my inclination is leave it disabled. However, griptape's reply was helpful as I hadn't been able to envision a situation where it would be especially helpful. Of course, testing such things is always a good idea.

Thank you both for your replies. Your kindness is most appreciated.

[cwphoto]

I use it whenever I have a lot of light tones in the image, ie; cricket or weddings. I find it helps retain detail in the whites.

[Alnath]

Here is a good example of it in use. LINK (http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/40d/highlight-rendition.htm)