Active D-Lighting Test

Michael J.

Senior Member
The bird was in shadow, the light was very dull. I tested Active D-Lighting normal. Why I test it, cos sometimes I have to shoot JPEG so my wife can get very fast a photo on her phone to post on her social media when we are on vacation.

I shoot RAW an din the field I don't have any devices to pp a photo, that's why JPEG when my wife needs.

The first pic is sooc, just resized

mandar-1.jpg



The second one is RAW and a bit pp

mand-1-2.jpg
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
I used Active-D Lighting back when I shot jpeg and took high school drama photos. It reduces the dynamic range so more details show up in the shadowed areas. It definitely helped in for those images.

When I posted about it, someone commented that it will slightly alter RAW images even though it's only supposed to affect jpegs. If I remember correctly, there was a link explaining about its impact on RAW files. So now that I shoot RAW, I turned off Active-D Lighting.
 

Michael J.

Senior Member
I shoot Raw as well, but on vacation my wife needs fast some personal shots, that's why I am looking for the best jpg setting.

I don't shoot raw and jpeg. Only if I need a jpeg I turn it on.

Also my second card is set for overflow.

Again, in the field I don't have a opportunity to pp.



Sent from my vivo v9
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Active D-Lighting is essentially a Contrast modifier best used in higher dynamic-range, lower ISO, situations when shooting .jpg (quite a few caveats, I know!) I find it does a nice job of protecting highlights, generally speaking, but may also increase noise in the shadows somewhat. I've found the Auto setting surprisingly effective at achieving a good balance but I only enable the option for straight .jpg shooting. I kind of think of it as a poor man's fill-flash. Sort of. I find it does not play nicely with high ISO's.

Active D-Lighting doesn't process raw files, per se, but it can (read: will) affect metering, so I definitely disable the option when shooting raw. Third-party processing applications like Lightroom and Photoshop don't recognize the effects of Active D-Lighting and, on a couple occasions, using it has really messed with some of my shots. So again, for straight raw shooting, I have this feature disabled.
 
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