Active D-Lighting
(User’s Manual: D300S page 164; D300 page 167)
Active D-Lighting is used to help control contrast in your
images. Often, the range of light around our subject is broader
than our camera’s sensor can capture. Where the D300(S)
might be able to capture 6 or 7 EV steps of light, the
brightness out in the world on a sunny summer day might
equal 12 stops in range. The contrast is too high!
Since the camera often cannot grab the full range of
light—and most people use the histogram to expose for the
highlights (we’ll discuss how in a later chapter)—some of the
image detail will be lost in the shadows. The D300(S) allows
you to “D-Light” the image and bring out additional shadow
detail, or in other words, lower the image contrast. Active
D-Lighting has these settings:
▪ Auto (D300S only)
▪ Extra High (D300S only)
▪ High
▪ Normal
▪ Low
▪ Off (no Active D-Lighting)
Those who are familiar with Nikon Capture NX2 may know
how Active D-Lighting works since you can use it to bring up
lost shadow detail, but at the expense of adding noise in the
darker areas that are recovered. Here are the screens and steps
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