In-camera retouching

One additional feature currently unique to the D80 is retouching, this allows you to apply various common image adjustments and filters to images without the need for a computer, clearly with the intention of improving control over images before direct-printing. The only obvious disadvantage is that all of these features have to be carried out on the relatively small (compared to a computer monitor) 2.5" LCD screen. The D80's retouching features are:

• D-Lighting (shadow / highlight enhancement)
  • Moderate
  • Normal
  • Enhanced
• Red-eye reduction
• Trimming
  • Size
  • Position
• Monochrome
  • Black-and-white
  • Sepia
  • Cyanotype
• Filter effects
  • Sky light
  • Warm filter
  • Color balance
• Small picture
  • 640 x 480
  • 320 x 240
  • 160 x 120
• Image overlay (RAW)

While we won't be presenting examples of each of the D80's retouching features we did think D-Lighting was worthy of a quick test.

D-Lighting

D-Lighting is Nikon's implementation of the 'digital dodge and burn' or 'digital fill flash' feature we have seen implemented in other cameras (also called 'shadow/highlight' in Photoshop). This effectively identifies dark areas of the image (shadows) and brightens them while maintaining bright highlights. We ran their D-Lighting system against a few of our own shots, the results of which can be found below.

ISO 100 sample

Original image (4,080 KB)	D-Lighting Moderate (4,520 KB)
D-Lighting Normal (5,021 KB)	D-Lighting Enhanced (5,061 KB)

ISO 640 sample

Original image (3,881 KB)	D-Lighting Moderate (4,379 KB)
D-Lighting Normal (4,587 KB)	D-Lighting Enhanced (4,854 KB)