i.Dynamic menu in Lumix cameras

If you’ve got a Lumix camera you’ve probably noticed a setting in the menus called i.Dynamic.

• i.Dynamic is best for outdoor photography, when your tonal range exceeds that which the camera can capture.
• When you use i.Dynamic, contrast and exposure will be adjusted automatically.
• It works for videos and jpgs and in all shooting modes, except iA.

“i” means “intelligent”

This means there is some internal camera processing going on. You have to shoot jpgs to take advantage of this “in-camera” processing. If you shoot raw files, you have to do all of these adjustments manually in your RAW image editing software, such as LR or PS.

Here are sample photos using the range of the i.Dynamic settings.

The photos below are shown in this order:

• Off
• Low
• Medium
• High

It’s easy to see the difference that i.Dynamic makes in these photos.

When to use Lumix i.Dynamic

• When you have a huge tonal range from darks to brights, and you need to fit all that exposure into a jpg file
• You may need to look at your histogram to determine your tonal range as you can’t always tell from the back of the camera, especially if it’s really bright outside
• When you want to open up the detail in deep shadows
• Works for photos and videos

Caution

• If you have i.Dynamic set to High and you have deep shadows, you may see some cool colours in those shadows

As always, you need to test out these settings on your own Lumix camera(s) to see which works for you.

And remember i.Dynamic only works for jpgs!

If you shoot raw files you’ll have to change your tonal range when you edit your raw file.