Should Active D Lighting Be on or off?
High Contrast Scenes Are Difficult to Work With. Thankfully, Nikon's Active D-Lighting Helps Preserve Some of Those Details in the Lightest and Darkest Areas...
High contrast scenes are difficult to work with. Thankfully, Nikon's Active D-Lighting helps preserve some of those details in the lightest and darkest areas of the image. In most cases, Active D-Lighting is helpful, but photographers working with RAW will want to simply leave the setting off.
What does Active D lighting do?
Active D-Lighting is a technology that optimizes high contrast images to restore shadow and highlight details that are often lost when strong lighting increases the contrast between bright and dark areas of the image.
Does Active D lighting affect RAW?
Again, Active D-Lighting does nothing to the RAW data itself. It only affects your camera's meter. However, the effect is so significant that you need to be very careful to avoid ever setting Active D-Lighting if you shoot in RAW.
Maya is a hardware enthusiast who tests and reviews smart home devices, smartphones, wearables, and audio gear. She focuses on practical consumer value and build quality.
