Image parameters (contd.)

Brightness adjustment

The Brightness adjustment (first seen on the D300) makes a subtle brightness adjustment (Gamma adjustment) to the image, essentially shifting the 'mid gray point' slightly from the default, it may have been more useful if it had more latitude of adjustment than just -1 or +1.

  Thumbnail Luminosity histogram
-1
0
+1

Contrast adjustment

Adjusting the tone alters the shape of the 'S curve' used to map the linear image data captured by the sensor into the correct gamma. A lower contrast setting maintains more of the original data's dynamic range but leads to a flatter looking image. A higher contrast setting stretches the grayscale (dark to light) of the image and could lead to clipping of both shadow detail and highlights. The D90 offer a wide range of adjustment, broken down into seven steps, giving a good degree of control.

  Thumbnail Luminosity histogram
-3
0
+3

Saturation adjustment

Saturation adjustment allows you to control the strength of color in the final image. Unlike the D80, the D90 offers 7 steps (-3 to +3) of adjustment that lets you change the output result from super-punchy to muted pastel output. Even with our fairly saturated test subjects, pushing the camera settings up to full didn't result in channel clipping and turning it down wasn't overly washed-out (i.e. it's a very sensible adjustment range).

  Thumbnail 50% crop
-3
0

+3

Color hue adjustment

The hue adjustment setting allows you to make some subtle changes to the hue output of the image, it is useful for compensation of hue shifts caused by certain artificial light, a negative setting makes color appear more blue-ish, a positive setting makes color appear more yellowish. The D90 provides a range of -9° to +9° hue shift.

  Thumbnail 50% crop
-3
0

+3