Should i use active d lighting

Active D-Lighting comes in several different strengths. Use extra high for a very high contrast scene. Use low for a scene with minimal contrast. Normal or high settings are good for images with moderate contrast. With this setting, the camera chooses what strength of D-Lighting to apply.

Then, proceed to take photos as you would normally. Bracketin g allows you to save one photo with and one photo without the setting. However, you will end up with twice as many files, which of course means eating up memory card space twice as fast.

Access the options from the quick menu some cameras only allow you to turn the feature on and off, not choose which level of Active D-Lighting to use. Use the control dials to flip through the different options. Active D-Lighting works better than D-Lighting, which is applied after the image is taken. However, D-Lighting can still be helpful. Choose D-Lighting. On the screen, you can now choose the level of D-Lighting to apply, from high to low, using the arrow keys.

Most cameras will show a before and after comparison on the screen, allowing you to make the best decision for the image. Click okay when you are finished, or the playback button to go back without applying the changes.

However, the effect will be applied on-screen in the JPEGs that the camera displays during playback. Follow the full steps above or consult the user manual for your particular camera model. The one on the right was taken with Active D-Lighting turned on, the one on the left with it turned off.

What Active D-Lighting has done is balance the lighting in the image. Notice in the image on the right that the dark areas have been reduced, while detail has been retained in the bright areas of the image. Active D-Lighting is an in-camera function, meaning its adjustments take place at the moment the photo is taken. It only applies processing to the areas of the image that require it. This enables you to photograph subjects with a wide dynamic range and still produce an image that has a natural-appearing level of contrast.

In low contrast situations, Active D-Lighting uses localised tone control technology to prevent images from looking flat. I should point out that it has never, ever been a problem for me, but every photographer is different. Experiment with it! Above we see an image with detail being lost in the bright sky and shadowy foreground. Active D-Lighting allows us to rescue that detail in both instances. The Active D-Lighting options available to you will depend on which Nikon camera you own.

Some cameras will only let you turn it on or off, while others are more sophisticated. More advanced Nikon cameras offer an Auto setting, as well as different intensities with which Active D-Lighting can be applied, ranging from Low to Extra High.

The exposure changes made by ADL are subtle, unless you have it cranked up to Very High and also the scene contains extreme dark and light elements. Active-D lighting affects images in playback which is effectively a tiny JPG representation of the RAW you see when playing back your shots. The photo preview will be slightly lighter, have very subtle recovery in the shadows.

So, in effect Active-D Lighting does two gentle functions:. It does affect the raw file because it works with the cameras metering system and therefore, can affect exposure slightly. Unless you are shooting in fully manual mode.

So the result of using Low, Normal, or High Active-D Lighting will mean you will get different images, different RAW files, even under the same controlled test conditions. I did a test at home, set on a tripod, fixed subject, fixed light source, trying each setting for Active-D Lighting on Aperture priority.