Most of what I do is outdoors/landscape, low light indoors, architectural, evening city-scape shots etc. One of my biggest gripes with the E510 (other than the nasty white balance control, in which Custom WB mode was no better), was it’s noise factor and high light clipping. I have found that my new Canon exceeds the Oly in these areas but high light clipping is still something the photographer battles (even with full frame cameras).

What are some your best methods for controlling high lights if you are an amature with no metering gear ?

I use a Canon EOS 50D, and like the 40D, there is a high light tone priority mode but this reduces my ISO expandability option and I cannot shoot in ISO 100 when using this mode. Most people I have talk to do not use this feature. Is there a more preferable method for reducing high lights? I have found, that under exposing wasn’t always the solution, as I would also end up with too dark a scene/subject while doing this. For example, if I took some shots along the coast on a foggy/cloudy day and light being as poor as it is on those days, underexposing would only resul in too dark a scene, yet grays in the sky become too white, loosing the detail in the clouds. The closest thing I have found was spot metering but this delivers me a mixed bag of results, perhaps because the meter jumps around like crazy and I’m not exactly sure where I should be locking the exposure in on. HDR is great but are there any more “on the fly” solutions? Perhaps tweaking out contrast settings?

Technorati Tags: Controlling, Highlights, photography

Expert: Michael Seto
Contact: www.michaelseto.com
Bio: Michael Seto has been taking pictures for 25 years and works as a freelance photographer in NYC in a number of commercial imagery disciplines.
Filmmaker: Buccola Richard

Duration : 0:1:58

Technorati Tags: camera, equipment, fashion, gear, location, models, nature, on, outdoor, photography, product, shooting, sites, supplies, tools

Expert: Michael Seto
Contact: www.michaelseto.com
Bio: Michael Seto has been taking pictures for 25 years and works as a freelance photographer in NYC in a number of commercial imagery disciplines.
Filmmaker: Buccola Richard

Duration : 0:2:25

Technorati Tags: camera, equipment, fashion, gear, location, models, nature, on, outdoor, photography, product, shooting, sites, supplies, tools

Expert: Michael Seto
Contact: www.michaelseto.com
Bio: Michael Seto has been taking pictures for 25 years and works as a freelance photographer in NYC in a number of commercial imagery disciplines.
Filmmaker: Buccola Richard

Duration : 0:2:25

Technorati Tags: camera, equipment, fashion, gear, location, models, nature, on, outdoor, photography, product, shooting, sites, supplies, tools

Expert: Michael Seto
Contact: www.michaelseto.com
Bio: Michael Seto has been taking pictures for 25 years and works as a freelance photographer in NYC in a number of commercial imagery disciplines.
Filmmaker: Buccola Richard

Duration : 0:1:32

Technorati Tags: camera, equipment, fashion, gear, location, models, nature, on, outdoor, photography, product, shooting, sites, supplies, tools

Expert: Michael Seto
Contact: www.michaelseto.com
Bio: Michael Seto has been taking pictures for 25 years and works as a freelance photographer in NYC in a number of commercial imagery disciplines.
Filmmaker: Buccola Richard

Duration : 0:1:32

Technorati Tags: camera, equipment, fashion, gear, location, models, nature, on, outdoor, photography, product, shooting, sites, supplies, tools

Expert: Michael Seto
Contact: www.michaelseto.com
Bio: Michael Seto has been taking pictures for 25 years and works as a freelance photographer in NYC in a number of commercial imagery disciplines.
Filmmaker: Buccola Richard

Duration : 0:2:9

Technorati Tags: camera, equipment, fashion, gear, location, models, nature, on, outdoor, photography, product, shooting, sites, supplies, tools

Expert: Michael Seto
Contact: www.michaelseto.com
Bio: Michael Seto has been taking pictures for 25 years and works as a freelance photographer in NYC in a number of commercial imagery disciplines.
Filmmaker: Buccola Richard

Duration : 0:2:9

Technorati Tags: camera, equipment, fashion, gear, location, models, nature, on, outdoor, photography, product, shooting, sites, supplies, tools

Expert: Michael Seto
Contact: www.michaelseto.com
Bio: Michael Seto has been taking pictures for 25 years and works as a freelance photographer in NYC in a number of commercial imagery disciplines.
Filmmaker: Buccola Richard

Duration : 0:1:30

Technorati Tags: camera, equipment, fashion, gear, location, models, nature, on, outdoor, photography, product, shooting, sites, supplies, tools

Expert: Michael Seto
Contact: www.michaelseto.com
Bio: Michael Seto has been taking pictures for 25 years and works as a freelance photographer in NYC in a number of commercial imagery disciplines.
Filmmaker: Buccola Richard

Duration : 0:1:48

Technorati Tags: camera, equipment, fashion, gear, location, models, nature, on, outdoor, photography, product, shooting, sites, supplies, tools