viscountdriver
Senior Member
I was told by a guy to turn off my Active D Lighting when shooting in Raw. Is this true?
So this seems to confirm that active-d lighting does alter the exposure. From what I understand, Nikon ViewNX2 will show the desired effect of active d-lighting function in your raw file. Lightroom will show the raw file as slightly underexposed (as shot) because it does not apply the changes the camera makes after exposure.
The underexposure from active-d lighting is slight. Maybe a 1/2 stop, maybe no exposure change under some conditions. But I think Lightroom ignores all in camera picture settings. That will cause an even greater disparity between raw files viewed in NX vs viewed in Lightroom. So in View NX, the raw will look just like the jpg if you are shooting raw+jpg. In Lightroom, the raw will most likely not look like the separate jpg depending what in-camera picture controls are applied to the jpg. To add to this confusion, some picture viewers might be showing you the embedded jpg thumnail in the raw file. Lightroom uses the embedded jpg when you first import files and sometimes you can catch the change as it renders the raw file. This made me crazy at first as sometimes I would catch my RAW file darkening up before my eyes. I think this was more noticeable on a large import batch where the computer was slow to catch up. To see this in a dramatic way, shoot some raw+jpg shots with B&W applied in camera. In View NX, both RAW and jpg will be black and white. In Lightroom, the RAW will be color and the jpg as b&w, but you will see the raw as b&w on the import screen and maybe for an instant the first time you view it.A few months back I posted something in regards to this issue in lightroom. I noticed that when I viewed my photos in ViewNX, they would appear as I shot them and as they look on my LCD. On the other hand, in lightroom, they would be underexposed and darker. This still continues to happen with each photo. I normally do have active d lighting on. I am going to try to take a few photos with it off and see if it makes a difference in how they appear in lightroom. I hope this is the problem because it seems like an easy fix. Great and informative post. This is exactly why I love this forum.