Active D-Lighting in Portraits

[kdthomas]

I can understand the usefulness of this feature, and I can see maybe using it outdoors.

But should I be using it in the studio? I was playing around last night with the strobes, and I noticed that the images would vary drastically with only a slight movement of the lights. I mean *SLIGHT* changes, like inches. Try to make a subtle difference in the illumination, move the light Juuuust a hair, or make a slight movement of the camera and BANG! ... totally different image.

 

[Braineack]

I have all that nonsense turned off on my camera.

 

[kdthomas]

Understood ... can anyone recommend *which* settings to turn off? I have a D3200 (planning on upgrade to D810), but would really like some guidance on what else to turn off?

 

[Forkie]

I usually have D-Lighting off, picture mode on "Standard" and noise reduction off. All this stuff can be added back in post. Particularly in the studio - you have so much control, it seems a bit overkill to let the camera do any of its own corrections.

 

[tirediron]

I have all of my in-camera settings set to as 'neutral' as possible. Active D Lighting can help a little, out of doors, but you're right for studio work, it's, IMO, pointless.

 

[dannylightning]

I turn off all the noise reduction settings and the d lightning. supposedly you will get a better photo with all that turned off because it writes the noise reduction and d lightning to the photo after the photo is taken or something like that, I cant remember the exact details but it almost sounds like that stuff does more harm than good. not sure how true that is but i have heard some people here saying they turn all of that stuff off too.

you can easily do noise reduction in something like light room but I notice that does take aways from the sharpness of the photo a bit, so i would imaging the built in nose reduction does too., I cant tell one bit of difference in my photos when I have the d lightning turned on or off though. I wold rather add that in post processing if i needed to any ways, that way I can set it where I want it and not let the camera decide how much to use.

so all the noise reduction settings and the d lightning are turned off on my camera.

 

[Derrel]

You do NOT want Active D-Lighting on when trying to do studio lighting! Active D-Lighting messes with the tone curve (the degree of contrast) of the image, and so it's basically trying to "normalize" or "improve upon" the higher lighting ratios you are setting up with the studio lights.

Set the tone curve to Normal/Standard for most lighting set-ups. That is the most-critical camera parameter to keep constant when shooting with flash. You just can NOT allow the tone curve to be "adjusted" from frame to frame to frame.

 

[kdthomas]

Set the tone curve to Normal/Standard for most lighting set-ups. That is the ...

Is the Tone Curve a setting that I should look for in the camera menu? I don't think I've seen that? Sorry for the Newbness

Also: I looked in the manual didn't see Tone Curve.

But I did find Adobe RGB color space. Should I use that? I only ever use the NEF files, discard the JPEGs

 

[Derrel]

In Nikon's Picture Controls system, Neutral or Standard will work, and will give a very standard tone curve, saturation,etc. Adobe RGB is fine.

Picture Controls Step-by-Step from Nikon

There is no need to shoot RAW + JPEG unless you want the JPEG files. You can easily set the camera to shoot straight RAW-only images.

 

[greybeard]

In the studio, you should have complete control of lighting, not the camera.

 

[bribrius]

You do NOT want Active D-Lighting on when trying to do studio lighting! Active D-Lighting messes with the tone curve (the degree of contrast) of the image, and so it's basically trying to "normalize" or "improve upon" the higher lighting ratios you are setting up with the studio lights.

Set the tone curve to Normal/Standard for most lighting set-ups. That is the most-critical camera parameter to keep constant when shooting with flash. You just can NOT allow the tone curve to be "adjusted" from frame to frame to frame.

thanks, not much for studio work but I just learned something.

 

[kdthomas]

Dang it! I pulled off all the settings (I probably needed to do that anyway) ... What was happening is that one side of the face was not lighting properly. Kept going dark or bright from one image to the next ... So I pulled off the NEFs, started looking at them, then noticed that the left side was all the exact same exposure ... went back, put my hand a few inches in front of one strobe ... yep, warmth after firing. On the side that kept going dark ... nothing ... Isolated that light ... bzzzt. Click, click, click.

Never occurred to me that I could have a defective, intermittently firing BULB!!!

At least I learned a few things. the D3200 does support NEF-only. Pulled off the noise reduction and active D-lighting. Set the Picture Control to neutral. Basically trying to stop the camera from d**king with the image

Got two bulbs on order from Adorama.

Speedotron MW3 400w/s Flashtube 852600 B&H Photo Video

Guess this is what learning feels like ...

 

[Derrel]

Those flashtubes last a looooooooooooong time if they never hit the ground. Sounds like overall, a good learning experience with studio flash. The best lessons seem to be the ones that are the most "unusual" it seems.