Active D-Lighting For the D5100

Here is a test I shot to show what the Active D-lighting setting does to a scene. Start with it off and go up from there
off.jpg
low.jpg


normal.jpg
high.jpg


very high.jpg


There was no other post processing done to the shots
 

wud

Senior Member
Nice and clear :) Thank you for that post.

Does anyone use this D-Lighting for specifik situations?
 
Nice and clear :) Thank you for that post.

Does anyone use this D-Lighting for specific situations?

What is is used for is to help with high contrast scenes. In the above pictures I have bright sky, bright sunlit water and a dark brick building that is in the shade. Look at the brick as the sequence goes from Off to Very High. The brick shows more detail. This is only good if you are just shooting in JPEG. There is also a Auto setting in the Active D-Lighting that will determine what amount of D-Lighting it needs.
 

wud

Senior Member
What is is used for is to help with high contrast scenes. In the above pictures I have bright sky, bright sunlit water and a dark brick building that is in the shade. Look at the brick as the sequence goes from Off to Very High. The brick shows more detail. This is only good if you are just shooting in JPEG. There is also a Auto setting in the Active D-Lighting that will determine what amount of D-Lighting it needs.

Didnt make myself clear - would you use D-Lighting for this image normally, or would you adjust your shutter/iso/so on settings?

What happens in raw?
 

Eye-level

Banned
I ended my little experiment with ADL..one thing I noticed from it was how it darkened the sky similar to what a CP would do.

​I may continue using it all the time I don't know though...I'm sort of on the fence.
 
I ended my little experiment with ADL..one thing I noticed from it was how it darkened the sky similar to what a CP would do.

​I may continue using it all the time I don't know though...I'm sort of on the fence.

that is why I did this. I had no idea what the difference in each of the levels did. I sort of like it for the JPEG shots. But I think I will probably leave it on normal unless I am in an area that is full of mixed light. Lots of sun and dark shadows then may go up to High.

I am just doing my own tests on the different functions of my camera. It makes it stick better in my head.
 

Cowboybillybob1

Senior Member
ADL lightens the shadows and darkens the white. This is cool if you are viewing in NX2 but most other post production software like Lightroom does not recognize it so you have to jump through hoops to make it look good. Best thing to do is just turn it off and you can adjust the exposure in Lightroom or Photoshop or most other software.
 
ADL lightens the shadows and darkens the white. This is cool if you are viewing in NX2 but most other post production software like Lightroom does not recognize it so you have to jump through hoops to make it look good. Best thing to do is just turn it off and you can adjust the exposure in Lightroom or Photoshop or most other software.

All of these were processed with PhotoShop to add the text and to resize.
 
Didnt make myself clear - would you use D-Lighting for this image normally, or would you adjust your shutter/iso/so on settings?

Active D-Lighting changes the contrast ratio so just adjusting ISO / Shutter Speed / Aperture would not have the same effect.

Again, This is just to show what that setting does. RAW is just as the camera sees it and Active D-Lighting would have no effect on it. This is mainly for people who shot just in JPEG and don't want to do a lot of Post Processing. This would give you a better shot in those high contrast areas.
 

Happypuppy

Senior Member
Thank you. I think I will set it to normal for my JPEGs. I like to email them to friends and family and do the RAW later. I was unclear what D lighting did , I thought perhaps it changes contrast.
 

emerald

New member
Interesting post Don.
As a noob to Nikon I found this helpful - so many options - so little time :topsy_turvy:

I think I will leave ADL off for now, after viewing your test shots.
​One less thing to worry about
 
Interesting post Don.
As a noob to Nikon I found this helpful - so many options - so little time :topsy_turvy:

I think I will leave ADL off for now, after viewing your test shots.
​One less thing to worry about

I will probably leave mine off most of the time but there are times when I might want it on. At least now I will know when to have it one. There is an Auto feature in the ADL that I might try to see how it does. I shoot RAW on all important shots so I always have that as a backup.
 

wud

Senior Member
Active D-Lighting changes the contrast ratio so just adjusting ISO / Shutter Speed / Aperture would not have the same effect.

Again, This is just to show what that setting does. RAW is just as the camera sees it and Active D-Lighting would have no effect on it. This is mainly for people who shot just in JPEG and don't want to do a lot of Post Processing. This would give you a better shot in those high contrast areas.

I get it now :) Thanks. Mine is off and stays off, it seems to me more or less the same effect as shadows in PS, and to much of that effect, can make a picture look pretty weird. But good to know and to see your pictures, maybe it could help some day.
 

aroy

Senior Member
As I shoot RAW I use this feature in Capture NX-D beta. In camera processing is required if you shoot jpeg.

What I understand of active d-lighting is that it takes the 14 bit image, and then fits it in the 8 bits. Depending on aggressiveness (or levels) you can recover from 1EV to 6EV of shadows. On my D3300, I have recovered 1EV overexposure and upto 5EV of shadows using active d-lighting. The same effect can be achieved by playing with the response curves, but this feature makes it extremely simple - just choose a preset level and the shadows lighten up.
 
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