Nikon's Active D-Lighting

[Adrian Wong]

The Nikon D300 has a new feature called Active D-Lighting. Basically a built-in version of Photoshop's Shadow/Highlight feature.

Unfortunately, you cannot just set it as and when you want to use it. If you enable it, it's enabled for all the photos taken (until you turn it off in the menu). So, the question is should we enable it? If so, should we use Low, Normal or High?

This is what DPReview said about the D300's Active D-Lighting feature :

D-Lighting is a shadow & highlight enhancement feature first seen on Nikon's Coolpix range of compact cameras and later on the D200. On previous models it was an after-the-fact filter which you could apply to images in playback mode. With the D300 'Active' D-Lighting is a menu setting which is applied to all images if enabled. There are four levels available; Off, Low, Normal and High. Rather than only adjusting the shape of the tone curve (as most similar systems do) setting higher levels appears to apply a third of a stop negative exposure compensation (typically slightly higher shutter speed). Unlike the Sony DRO system Nikon's works best if you meter for shadows (apply some positive exposure compensation) and allow Active D-Lighting to maintain / recover highlight detail.

To demonstrate the difference Active D-Lighting can make we set up our simple 'shadow scene' and shot it at increasing exposure compensation levels with Active D-Lighting Off and also set to High. As you can see the High setting manages to maintain highlight detail with about +1.0 EV compensation, beyond that while it is better than Off even the High setting can't maintain full highlight detail.

[Falcone]

I used to turn it low by default, as I thought since I shoot RAW I can always turn it off if I need to. Then I find that the result of my shot is not the same as I intended some how, even when I turn it off in CaptureNX later, so nowadays I just turn it on when I need to.

[Chai]

High contrast and low contrast has its use. That's why having better HDR isn't always desired, for me at least. Better HDR can result lower contrast image.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Falcone

I used to turn it low by default, as I thought since I shoot RAW I can always turn it off if I need to. Then I find that the result of my shot is not the same as I intended some how, even when I turn it off in CaptureNX later, so nowadays I just turn it on when I need to.

But you can only toggle it on or off in the menu, right?

Too bad there's no way to do it via a button.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Chai

High contrast and low contrast has its use. That's why having better HDR isn't always desired, for me at least. Better HDR can result lower contrast image.

That's what I was thinking... Would it be better to leave it off and then post-process (using Photoshop's Shadows/Highlight) for photos that require it?

[Adrian Wong]

Okay, I've decided to turn Active D-Lighting OFF. The Nikon D300 has the option to apply it (D-Lighting) as a post-processing effect in the Retouch Menu. There are other options as well, like a Warm Filter, Red Eye Correction and even Image Overlay.

I tried out D-Lighting. It works the same way, giving you the option of how much (Low, Normal, High) you want to apply. Best of all, it automatically creates a new picture and leaves the original alone.

So I think it's better to turn Active D-Lighting off and use the built-in D-Lighting to do it for photos that require it. Otherwise, I think the other photos will appear a little washed out and lack contrast.

[Adrian Wong]

Hmm.. Ken Rockwell recommends turning on Active D-Lighting though...

I call this ADR, for Adaptive Dynamic Range. Nikon calls it "Active D-Lighting," which makes no sense. I'll pass on Nikon's words. When you read "ADR," you'll only find it in your D300 or D3 menu as "Adaptive D-Lighting. You could also call it the cuter "Adaptive Dynamic Range Accommodation" (ADRA), but I won't go there.

ADR visibly improves my biggest complaint against digital cameras. This feature automatically identifies highlight areas that will be lost, and does its best to bring them under control. It works, and it works automatically.

Unlike the impractical Fuji S5, this function just works and doesn't slow anything down.

Nikon calls this "Active D-Lighting" and uses elements of my invention disclosure published back in 2005. I was hoping someone would do this in a camera ever since 2002 when I realized how horribly awful my $5,000 D1H was at rendering highlights.

Unlike the awful post-processing gimmick called "D-Lighting," this pre-correcting system works great.

Frame Rates

ADR doesn't slow the shooting rate, as it does in the Fuji cameras. You'll never know it's on, except for the better images and that you can see how it was set when you read the data in playback.

Buffer Depth

Because the D3 and D300 are crunching on so much extra data to encompass a greater potential dynamic range when ADR is ON, the D3 and D300 take longer to clear the buffer for each shot. There is a lot of extra processing going on that we don't see. ADR is using all 16 (linear) bits, even to create 8-bit (log) JPGs.

The buffer is 13 shots with ADR ON in the D3, and 12 shots in the D300. The buffer grows to a crazy number around 40 with ADR off.

The buffer with ADR ON is always 12 or 13. The buffer depth varies with your choice of file types and sizes with ADR off.

The available buffer depth is shown in real time anytime you have the shutter partially pressed.

12-deep is more than I could ever use on a 3FPS camera, which is where my D3 and D300 are usually set. If I'm trying to shoot long sequences at 9FPS, the buffer fills in 1.5 seconds with ADR On.

If you fill the buffer, which simply slows the frame rate, feel free to deactivate ADR for that shoot. I never do.

Maybe I should do a test of Active D-Lighting...

[Chai]

Don't have to read everything he says lol. Unless you shoot in difficult situation like landscape, or wedding shoots, most of the time, Active D-Lighting will reduce contrast. Many people like contrasty pictures.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Chai

Don't have to read everything he says lol. Unless you shoot in difficult situation like landscape, or wedding shoots, most of the time, Active D-Lighting will reduce contrast. Many people like contrasty pictures.

Nah, I'm reading from everywhere. Just quoting what he said because it differs from what we have discussed earlier.

Besides, he was comparing it to the D-Lighting post-processing feature in D200, not the D300. I think I will test this out.

If both Active D-Lighting and D-Lighting works the same, then there's really no need to enable it unless you are a purist who want to ensure absolutely the minimum loss of details. It's just too tedious to turn it on or off. There's no way to map the Fn button to active and deactivate Active D-Lighting either.