Active D-Lighting - On or Off?

I have the D3000 and so far have not been turning on the active d-lighting because it seems to slow things down a bit but I've started thinking that it's not all THAT slow and maybe it's time I start using it. I understand it helps with shadows and highlights and am wondering if it's better to turn it on when I go to photograph my friend's two dogs - one is all black (already a challenge) and one is all white. Active D ON in this situation? Also, is it even possible to get a good exposure with BOTH dogs in the same photo and how do I expose for that? Help! I want to do a good job for her as one of her dogs is getting up there in years and I want her to have a nice memento. I am really hoping to get a nice portrait of her with both dogs. Extra challenge - the only time we are able to do this is in the early to mid-afternoon (fill flash outdoors?) Sorry for such a long post. If anyone can answer even one of the questions I'd be most appreciative. Thanks!

By the book active D- lighting is used for: "Active D-Lighting preserves details in highlights and shadows, creating photographs with natural contrast. Use for high contrast scenes, for example when photographing brightly lit outdoor scenery through a door or window or taking pictures of shaded subjects on a sunny day." Shooting early to mid-afternoon means the hot (photo hot) part of the day, lots of contrast. D-lighting may be of help. Use fill flash? Yes. Turn the flash power down so that the flash is not in competition with the natural day light. "Practice" shooting with D-Lighting turned both off and on. Look for the differences and decide which you like better. You take the photo not the camera.

I’m no pro but I have used the D-lighting on the first three settings (L), (N), & (H) just messing with it and really didn’t see that much of a difference. I found I had better performance from fill flash. I have the D-lighting off on my D5000. I don’t know if he has one for the D3000 but there is a book called from snap shots to great shots for the D5000 D90 and D7000. ( at least that is what is in our local book store) I have one and it gives you more information on the D lighting than the Nikon manual.
From snap shots to great shots D5000
“The camera evaluates the tones in your image and then underexposes for the highlight areas while lighting any areas that it believes are too dark or lacking in contrast." D-lighting is automatically applied to images that are shot in any of the auto scene modes except for high key, low key, and silhouette scene modes.

You can choose form six levels off, low, bormal, high, extra high and auto. You will need to evaluate the strength of the effect on you images and change it accordingly. The paragraph then states that he leaves it on normal so that he has a brighter more detailed shadow area in the photograph while still maintaining good exposure in the skies. You should know that Active D lighting may only be adjusted while using the professional modes. Also you want to turn it off when you are using the flash exposure compensation since it will try to work against you when you alter the flash strength.”

Hope any of this helps and good luck, hope to see the turn out.

Thank you Joseph and Adam. I will try all the suggestions and do some off and some on and just take a LOT of photos and hope to get a good result.

Darlene, please share with us the results, that might be very interesting.
TIA

I've never liked the results with active D on, tends to make shots look washed out (in my opinion). As Zoharbl mentioned, let us know how you make out!

I just took about 300 pictures on a vacation in Florida and I was going to post a question about why they all seem to be over-exposed and washed out. PP fixed the problem, but after seeing this post I went and looked and Active-D lighting was turned on the whole time. I think I read something before I left that said it was good to leave it on, but I have now turned it off and probably won't use it again.

The default setting is on (at least with D3100 and D5100). From what I've read, about half the people that think something is wrong with their camera , have Active D on.

cnyram said:

I've never liked the results with active D on, tends to make shots look washed out (in my opinion).

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I feel the same way about it. There's sometimes a use for it if you shoot jpegs in high contrast scenes, but otherwise it contributes to washed out pics. Turn it off and shoot RAW (if you already don't). Then you can add it later and play with the exposure in Capture NX2 or your editor of choice.

How do I turn off d-lighting on a D5100? For the life of me I can't get it off!!!

Shooting menu __Active D-Lighting Then you choose what ever setting you want. Or read page 74 in Reference Manual

push the info button on right side of the viewfinder then go to ADL, there you can turn it on and off.

It's something I haven't ever really bothered about on any of my Nikons; I didn't think that it made much difference when I tried it off/on a few years back with my D40. Having read this post and had some time to find my way around my cameras and photography interest curiosity has the better of me and I'm going to test it out for myself. Funny how you can read or hear about something and dismiss it and then ages later, something reminds you and you get the urge to go back and check if a bit of experience and time under the belt may have changed your perspective (and your mind) ..... I guess that's where I'm at right now so thank you for this thread!

I just photographed a brown dog in bright sun, for some of the pictures i measured the light on the grass next to the dog and hold the bottom in (so it keeps that light measure) and then I took the picture.

I have used ADL, but I do so with caution. Used correctly it can definitely help but... It's also your classic "double-edged sword" due to the high degree of noise it can introduce into a shot, even at low ISO. I find it also messes with Matrix metering a good amount. A "Normal" amount of ADL appears to decrease EV by 1/3 of a stop and "High" ADL decreases the EV by 2/3 of a stop as it is attempts to preserve highlights by underexposing -- and thusly increasing -- shadows.

Arrh. I tried out the D-lighting but when I look at the exif data on my computer, I dont really see where it says if its on or of? And I deleted the pictures from the camera, darn it. Do you know if I should see it in exif, if it was on?

Must be, I think. Cause I didn't use flash:

I think it is like many other options in all out cameras. ADL works great if used properly. I a situation where you have high contrast and need to level it out a little bit. Of course if you use RAW it won't matter at all.

One thing to note, if you shoot raw it makes no difference. If you use lightroom it's just like using the shadow and highlight sliders, but this way you're in control and its non destructive.

Ah, it can matter. When I shot the brown dog, some of the pictures I measured the light on her and forgot to step the shutter down and background (sky or trees) were totally blown out, almost no details in somewhat big areas.

...oh. Or are you meaning ADL? Cause then I agree

wud said:

Ah, it can matter. When I shot the brown dog, some of the pictures I measured the light on her and forgot to step the shutter down and background (sky or trees) were totally blown out, almost no details in somewhat big areas.

...oh. Or are you meaning ADL? Cause then I agree

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I mean adl doesn't affect raw.