Do you use Active D-Lighting? Also questions on RAW

[nemesis256]

First off, Active D-Lighting is only applied to JPEGs right? If not then I have a different problem.

I just came back from a weekend of shooting, JPEG+RAW, and active d-lighting on auto for everything. I'm finding that the JPEG has brighter highlights and darker shadows, making an image not as nice. Although in some cases it seems to be better. Is this Active D-Lighting? Another possible difference is sRGB (JPEGs) vs Adobe RGB (NEF/RAW). I'm trying to understand why there's such a big difference between my JPEG and RAW files, and where the settings come from.

In a way I want to get away from shooting JPEG+RAW and only shoot RAW. I find myself wasting WAY too much time between which image looks better, and making one look like the other (BTW I use iPhoto for adjustments, so I don't do anything too fancy). Is this a bad idea? Would I regret shooting only in RAW?

[OsmosisStudios]

Active D-Lighting should be doing the opposite of what you describe: it's meant to get detail in both the light and dark areas. Maybe the camera didn't see enough of an issue and set it to a LOW setting, but you can manually adjust it. That being said, if you're shooting RAW too, you can essentially fine-tune it to your liking when you process.

The reason there's a difference between the two is simple: a JPG is processed by the camera, a RAW is just data. The RAW file gets none of the processing (saturation boosts, sharpening, white balance, etc) that the JPG gets: the RAW file just gets the basic data from the sensor: you fiddle with the rest.

In most RAW processors you can adjust things like "Recovery" (getting detail in highlights) and "Fill" (getting detail in shadows). So you can just shoot RAW and not worry about D-Lighting.

When it comes to choosing, the trick is to limit your shooting. Just because your memory card holds several hundred files doesn't mean you have to use them all on the same thing. Do it in stages: first eliminate all the real duds, then go with a finer and finer selection process until youre down to your "keepers".

Keep in mind, though, that in certain circumstances you can get two very similar shots look completely different depending on how you edit them.

[nemesis256]

So you mentioned saturation boosts and sharpening. Are you talking about the settings like vivid and landscape? Or does the camera boost saturation in JPEGs every time? One thing I noticed with RAW images is that they're slightly less saturated.

You also mentioned white balance. Are you saying that whether you have WB on auto, a preset, or custom, makes no difference at all with RAW images?

And does Active D-Lighting affect RAW images or not?

Thanks

[radityopradipto]

Originally Posted by nemesis256

So you mentioned saturation boosts and sharpening. Are you talking about the settings like vivid and landscape? Or does the camera boost saturation in JPEGs every time? One thing I noticed with RAW images is that they're slightly less saturated.

You also mentioned white balance. Are you saying that whether you have WB on auto, a preset, or custom, makes no difference at all with RAW images?

And does Active D-Lighting affect RAW images or not?

Thanks

The camera has certain default where you can set the saturation and sharpening of the image. Vivid and landscape are just preset on how the factory set the value of sharpening, saturation, etc. for example, If you set your preset to Vivid, it's gonna boost the saturation a lot.. RAWs are really uncooked image straight from the sensor, that's why it's less saturated.. You can boost it later on according to your preference.

WB setting doesn't make any difference because you can tweak it later on... Don't worry about this one if you're shooting on RAW.

Active D-Lighting as far as I know affect the RAW images... But you can also change your D-Lighting setting later on in the RAW converter

Hope this will help

[Shokinen]

Originally Posted by radityopradipto

But you can also change your D-Lighting setting later on in the RAW converter

I beleive this option is only available is you are using Nikon Capture NX2 software.

I'm not 100% sure. Does anyone know if you can do it in Lightroom ? Never saw that feature.

[radityopradipto]

Originally Posted by Shokinen

I beleive this option is only available is you are using Nikon Capture NX2 software.

I'm not 100% sure. Does anyone know if you can do it in Lightroom ? Never saw that feature.

Oops... forgot to specify that I use both Adobe Photoshop and Capture NX2...
But it's true that Active D-Lighting is only available to be tweaked using Capture NX2
Sorry about that

[kirbinster]

Originally Posted by radityopradipto

Oops... forgot to specify that I use both Adobe Photoshop and Capture NX2...
But it's true that Active D-Lighting is only available to be tweaked using Capture NX2
Sorry about that

Are you certain about that? I thought that "Active" delighting actually impacted the way the sensor captured light and DOES impact RAW as well as jpeg, wherease de-lighting only impacts jpegs.

[nemesis256]

So I just took a bunch of test shots to find out what could be different between my RAW and JPG images. Active D-Lighting definitely affects RAW images. The White Balance setting also affects RAW images. I then tried setting the color profile to Adobe instead of sRGB and I still saw major differences between the RAW and JPG images.

I think I'll just shoot in RAW only from now on. It will save me the time of comparing the two. If anyone thinks this is a bad idea please chime in. Does anyone else shoot in RAW only?

[candleman]

i used it once to see what it does (not ACTIVE D-Light.. just the D-lighting)

never used it again as i always retouch in post and cant be bothered with all the in-camera wasting of time at 2.5"

...each to their own tho'

[vandergus]

Originally Posted by nemesis256

So I just took a bunch of test shots to find out what could be different between my RAW and JPG images. Active D-Lighting definitely affects RAW images. The White Balance setting also affects RAW images. I then tried setting the color profile to Adobe instead of sRGB and I still saw major differences between the RAW and JPG images.

I think I'll just shoot in RAW only from now on. It will save me the time of comparing the two. If anyone thinks this is a bad idea please chime in. Does anyone else shoot in RAW only?

The white balance setting in the camera doesn't actually effect the data in the RAW file. Your RAW converter, however, may see a tag for the white balance setting that was used and set it to that by default in the converter. But you can change the white balance in the RAW converter without any degradation of the image. I'm not sure about Active D-Lighting.

You mentioned earlier that you were using iPhoto. I would not recommend shooting RAW if that is your only editor. I use iPhoto for organization and sending to flickr, things like that. But it's lousy at handling RAW files. Technically, it can do it. It's just lousy. Invest in Photoshop Elements or Capture NX2 if you're going to be shooting RAW extensively.

And just another thought. Don't shoot RAW with the goal of trying to make your RAW files look like SOC jpgs. Shoot jpg if you want that. Shoot RAW so you can make the photos look how you want them to look. Good luck.