"Automatic Dynamic Range Optimization"

<p >Glancing through old documents on my D80 I found a reference in Rockwell's guide to the AUTO setting for tone compensation. He thinks of it as "automatic dynamic range optimization" and touts it highly.</p>

<p >I generally turn off "auto" settings and did when I got my D80 a year and a half ago, but now I'm wondering if this feature might be a hidden gem. Anyone out there leaving the Tone Compensation setting on AUTO or have extensively compared AUTO to other contrast settings for JPEGs? Preliminary tests I've done seem to show subtle but significant improvements in handling the dynamic range of the subject.</p>

<p>The best way to optimize the dynamic range of your camera would be to shoot raw instead of jpg and to optimize your exposure while trying to stay close to the native sensitivity of the sensor. </p>

<p>Best exposure is not too often obtained by using bits and pieces in the camera's computer but by using the little gray cells in the bio-computer. So I personally would spend my time practicing instead of looking for hidden menu items of jpg in camera conversions .-P</p>

<p>In other words your current approach to turn off "auto" settings seems the right track for me.</p>

<p>On the other hand we might have different concepts of what exactly dynamic range is. It seems not well defined on internet fora.</p>

<p>I've been experimenting with that setting. I guess you could call it "auto dynamic range" in the sense of dynamic range as the inverse of contrast. Decent results but not miraclulous.</p>

<p>Walter, of course I'm aware that shooting RAW and doing my own tinkering with exposure and RAW converters will yield the best results. But it seems useful to try to take advantage of the smarts that Nikon engineers attempted to put into the camera. I'll continue to experiment. So far, it seems that AUTO seems to favor slightly higher contrast than I normally prefer, but I haven't got enough experience with it to see if it has any real advantage. Tweaking the tone compensation curve didn't, so far, yield anything very useful, either. What I'm hoping for is a best set of settings for everyday JPEG shooting, hence my revisiting AUTO.</p>

<p>Yes continuing to experiment is always good.</p>

<p>I have seen wonderful results from professional photographers who optimized their jpg shooting. However most of the good stuff was done in artificial light (studio) where control of illumination took care of not to exceed the useful dynamic range of the camera. But if you are close to (or exceed) what your camera can handle you are better of shooting raw and select your own exposure.</p>

<p>Of course if there are other restrictions like restricted time for post processing then this is a different story. Anyway the good thing about digital is that experiments come for free. BTW to shorten your experimental time: Curve adjustments cannot have any effect on dynamic range (unless the endpoints are changed).</p>

 

<p>"He thinks of it as "automatic dynamic range optimization" and touts it highly."</p>

<p>Without looking this term up, it sounds a lot like (Active D-Lighting), which does work BTW.<br>

If this is the case, I would also leave it off unless you fully understand when to employ it and when not to.<br>

I am not an advocate of "auto" anything. LOL</p>

<p>Pete</p>

<p>Auto tone compensation just means that the camera chooses a tone curve which matches the dynamic range of the scene. I.e. high contrast scene => low contrast tone curve. This is not the same as active d-lighting.</p>