Why bracket photos

But, while those shots are one right after another, the slight delay may not be for every shooting scenario. When detail is paramount and the exposure is tricky, AEB helps ensure you leave the shoot with the shots you need.

Shooting three images instead of one also opens up more possibilities in post processing: simply choosing the best of the three, dodging and burning the AEB layers or the popular high dynamic range or HDR technique. Often, the best shot out of the three can be chosen with a quick glance — but not always. But what if you like the shadows in one shot, but perhaps the sky in another? Using Photoshop or another image editor, you can layer all three bracketed exposures into a single file, with the best exposure on the top.

Using the eraser with different brush sizes or selection tools, you can brush away select areas to reveal the photos underneath. This is similar to using the dodging and burning tools, only you have more data to work with because of those multiple exposures. HDR is similar to that layered dodge and burn, only all of the images are typically merged together instead of selecting which part of which shot you would like to show.

HDR is a post processing technique, while bracketing is the shooting technique that makes it possible. You can read more about how to process a set of bracketed exposures for HDR here. With AEB, however, you have the data to choose whether dodging and burning or a full HDR merge will get you closest to the look you are going for.

Actually, no. Why would you do this? The grass would require one setting to be properly exposed, the mountains would require another and the sky yet another. But you can only choose one setting for one photo. Now what? Try bracketing! One is to change the aperture, another is the shutter speed and the third is ISO.

You have only one set of settings to capture it. The exposure bracketing technique is a way to overcome this limitation. It allows you to capture the same scene multiple times with different settings to blend later. An HDR photo done right looks natural and pleasing to the eye. First things first — an essential tool for any type of bracketing is a tripod. The general plan is to:. Then set the camera to series mode rather than delayed shooting mode.

You can then do the series by pressing the button for a longer time. The big questions here are — how many brackets and how big is the distance between them when it comes to EV?

EV value determines an exposure compensation and is a term used for bracketing. So, EV0 is the exposure your camera would pick automatically. One stop equals the double or half amount of light the camera receives. So, EV-1 halves the amount of light.

Modern cameras are advanced with high dynamic range. Because of this, I see no need to create brackets with just one stop between them. There are three types of bracketing settings that I use:. You can have three stops between the brackets, but it makes it harder to blend. If you feel the need to have three stops, it may be a better choice to do three brackets instead.

There are many applications that allow us to merge bracketed images into a single HDR. They all have their pros and cons. It boils down to some personal preference and what works well for your existing workflow. The most common tools photographers use for editing are Lightroom and Photoshop. Both software can merge frames into a single picture. There are a few important things to know. Your photos may have moving objects, like trees or waves , making it harder to merge.

In this case, try a de-ghosting option these tools provide. It will think a bit more and try to get rid of all object movements. Set the amount of de-ghosting depending on the scene. Typically, low or medium work well enough.

To check, zoom in to the part with the moving objects and see if it has any artifacts. More often than not, it does a satisfactory job both merging and de-ghosting. There are three simple steps:.