Does anyone have any recommendations (or thoughts) as to whether Nikon Active D lighting should be left on - (in which case recommendations for settings) i.e. low - medium - high or auto?) Or turned completely off, when shooting portraits in a studio setting?
I use Photoshop for editing and use a Nikon D700.
In advance, many thanks for any assistance.
Best wishes,
Doug Ross
D-Lighting is applied to the Jpeg file as far as I know. If you edit your Raw files then I would say leave the setting turned off so you get a better feel for what your lighting set-up in the studio is actually delivering.
Like Marc said, I would leave it off. I believe one of the ways Active D-lighting works is to lower the exposure by a 1/3 to 1/2 of an f-stop, depending on the level you choose. Thus, the raw file from an image with Active D-lighting turned on will be under-exposed a bit vs a raw file taken with it turned off.
It is really meant for outdoor shooting to protect you from blowing highlights. it does this by underexposing a bit and then bumping up the shadow recovery in the JPG. Assuming you shoot raw, then like I said, the main difference is the underexposure. In a studio, you should be able to check a meter or look at your histogram to make sure you are not blowing highlights.