RaydancePhoto

Nikon users, does the Nikon DSLR have the equivalent of Picture Style (Canon) and if so what is it called. I am doing a tutorial on how to compensate for severely back lit subjects with DSLR's and my only experience is with canon.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

And Picture Style compensates for backlighting?
Ah, I see. That seems to be like Nikon's Mode Dial - Scene Modes.

RaydancePhoto

Not exactly. In Canon, there are 3 user definable Picture Styles available for me to program what I want for that style. For a severely back-lit object here is basically what can be done to compensate to a great degree. On one of your user definable settings, set the Contrast to a very low setting, even 1, set the Saturation to a higher setting, on my cameras I use 2 notches, sometimes 3, for Saturation.

This will help in may situations where you can not use a fill flash. Of course, a fill flash would always be better if it can be used. And, there may be those times when a flash is too harsh.

If you have blown out areas in a pic, the above settings can help but not completely correct too much light reaching the sensor.

2 examples below, both pics use the same SS and Aperture. 1st pic is set on Picture Style "Standard" 2nd pic is on User Setting with contrast set all the way to left (less contrast) and Saturation set to up 3 notches.

There are blown out areas in both pics, but the 2nd one is much less and more detail in the foreground.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I guess we'll have to wait for a Nikon expert to tell us.

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

Nice effect, as shown with your second photo. I have a Nikon D5000, and the equivalent appears to be Picture Controls. You can modify and save existing controls, and share them via computer software or memory card, if I'm reading the manual correctly.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

P.S. I am NOT a Nikon expert!

RaydancePhoto

I am not an expert either, learning all I can do with digital is a long process, that I think will never end. I am retired basically, so I study daily and have learned much from this forum, thanks everyone.

JoeB Loc: Mohawk Valley, NY

I am not sure if this is what you are looking for, this is for a Nikon D300S.

Margo Loc: Clearwater Florida

Interesting -- as a newbie to all this -- I always wondered why someone would use those. This has me thinking ..... feel free to share more ideas! I learn something every time I click on this site! Thanks!!

donnz Loc: Auckland, New Zealand

on my d7000 i can set up 2 configurable banks save as u1 or u2 and recall them at any time

cecilia delacroix Loc: near Seattle

On my Canon, I set one of the three custom settings for slightly less saturation (-1 notch from standard), which is useful for when I'm shooting a subject with lots of red (eg, tulip fields in the spring) which otherwise often tend to appear waayy oversaturated. That's one potential use for this feature.

shutterbug sue Loc: Lee's Summit, MO

It sounds like you may be referring to "Set Picture Control" on the Nikon Shooting Menu. On my D300 I have Standard, Neutral, Vivid, and Monochrome. My friend with the D7000 has those four plus Portrait & Landscape. Under each setting I can adjust Sharpening, Contrast, Brightness, Hue, and Saturation. When I have Active D Lighting on I am unable to control the Contrast & Brightness. I also have a Manage Picture Control menu that allows me to make changes to any of the 4 picture controls then save & rename them as a new picture control.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I believe you have hit the nail on the head. Maybe not all Nikon bodies have these settings or Jerry should/would know about them. I knew about these settings in my Canon 7D and just a couple of days ago was talking to a friend and asked him if his D300's had something similar. I showed him and he said the same thing as shutterbug sue. But these are useless if you're shooting in raw. They will affect your camera's LCD and jpg images and possibly how your histogram on the LCD behaves, but has no effect on raw images.

I must say that I did not know that the custom picture styles on the Canon could be used for such effects as the OP displayed. Thank you for the demonstration.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

It's called the, Active D-Lighting setting on Nikons or at least with the D7000. It has so many variables according to your other settings that I just don't use it. I leave it on Auto Active D-Lighting. As with any camera with back lite objects you tend to get a silhouette. I use single focus point,spot metering and the the exposure compensation to adjust. Worse case I have a few shadows that I can bring up with post processing. I'll take a few shoots tomorrow and show you the results with the different active d-lighting settings.

radraves Loc: Hudson River Valley

I'm no expert to be sure, but when I read 'Canon Picture Style' I was thinking of the software 'Picture Style Editor' that came with my Canon. I've not used it, so do not know what it does, but it's there on my desktop. Hope this doesn't confuse the issue.