D-Lighting (lightening images in the camera)

[clockdoc]

Hi all,
My Nikon D80 offers a feature that is probably found on other makes that allows one to lighten an image using the camera's software. In the Nikon it is called "D-Lighting." I thought I'd provide some examples of the effect it has. The owner's manual says it "brightens shadows making it ideal for dark or back-lit photographs." There are two options available: Moderate (lightened) and Enhanced (lightened a bit more)
Here is the normal exposure, ISO 1000, 1/50 second, f/5.6


The next is Moderate lightening in camera- EXIF data does not reveal any file changes I can see.


The final one is described as Enhanced


If anyone has a similar feature on their camera, please feel free to post some examples.

[jdepould]

**WARNING: Ken Rockwell ahead**

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d300/dynamic-range.htm

I thought this was pretty informative, my D300 has active D-Lighting, which does it during exposure, as opposed to post. The results are more subtle and less noisy.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of in-camera processing, I'd rather do it on a 17 inch monitor than a 3 inch screen.

[Murtasma]

Me too I would much rather use photoshop to control exsactly what I want but some people aren't fortante enough to have this software or know how to use it so it's always a nice feature to have but, if you know how to do it in an image editing software application I'd say your better off doing that. I notice in the 3rd image it really came close if not over to blowing out a lot of highlights.

[smc1377]

Clockdoc, thanks for that real demonstration. I've always said that if I were to start off fresh, I'd go with Nikon simply because of this D-Lighting feature. Yes, I could do it in photoshop, but sometimes when I'm shooting hundreds of shots in a single shoot, it's not very fun photoshopping them all. Just to have the ability to choose whether or not I want it on is a big plus!

But from the specs I read on the new Canon XSI, looks like they'll have a similar feature.