PHOTOGRAPHY EXPOSED

by John Peters A.R.P.S.



  

BRACKETING

What Is Bracketing?

Bracketing is a technique where you take several (usually 3) shots of the same image using different camera settings. This gives you several photographs of the same image to choose from or combine in HDR to ensure you arrive at what you regard as the ideal exposure.

THE LAW OF AVERAGES

The chances are your an 'average' photographer taking 'average' photographs, shooting on AUTO and JPG. Your camera or phone will produce 'average' photographs. Because your camera or phone cannot (at the time of writing, because I beleive it will happen through AI) take a photograph that matches what the brain/eye combination sees, you end up with the following scenario. Using landscapes as an example, the land ends up slightly over-exposed and the sky area ends up under-exposed. You end up with an 'average' photo. Put it another way, have you ever exposed more for the land to be recorded OK, only to have the sky area bleached out and devoid of detail? In another shot you may have exposed more for the sky, its recorded OK but the land area is under-exposed.

TOP TIP The secret is to take three shots on a tripod not moving the camera and produce a HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR) photograph, or just take two photo's on a tripod as before, one exposed for the land, one exposed for the sky. You can do this on AUTO by pointing the camera first at the land - take a shot, then point the camera at the sky, and take a shot. We now 'blend' the two images to produce a near perfectly exposed image. The blending operation can be handled in FREE software or if you don't want to move away from your existing editing software, use that. Blending is described in detail use PAINT.NET, check under 'P', the FREE software option. Please remember BLENDING is a fairly advanced tecgnique.

As I've said, you bracket usualy for two reasons. You have an HDR (High Dynamic Range) photograph in mind or you are simply covering your odds when it comes to exposure. If for exposure, one stop of difference between shots might be sufficient. With an HDR photo, you are simply trying to produce a photograph with a wide range of tones, good shadow detail, good highlight detail. You can use the dial on your camera if it has one, it cab be used in any MODE and you can dial-in +2, 0, -2 or +1, 1, -1 as required, for bracketing.

Bracketing really is the secret to successful photography. I rely on my eye/brain when viewing an image on the DSLR screen, but for flexibility, I bracket as a matter of course, especially if when using ETOILE, and I think I have a photo with potential. I said 1 stop either side but to be honest, I tend to shoot -2, 0, +2 to be safe. That way I can produce an HDR photo, take an additional exposure for my Extreme Bracketing method, or just be certain that one the photos is decently exposed. Use your loaf when bracketing, for low contrast shots, 1 stop either side of the recommended exposure, might be OK. For high contrast scenes, 2 stops may be better. Bracket, bracket, bracket though. Make it a habit, second nature. Shoot some shots specifically for blending and keep a library of such shots.

TOP TIP When you bracket for exposure, I found that for most scenes, taking a total of three exposures, one 2 or 3 stops under-exposed, one at the camera meters recommended average setting and one at 2 or 3 stops over-exposure was sufficient for capturing a good range of shadow and highlight detail in the finished HDR shot. For some shots, I might use my EXTREME BRACKETING method but only for situations such as shooting into the sun or photographing the moon which is invariably a lot brighter than the sky. Judges tend to pick on shots with blown-out highlights.

TOP TIP I had f16 and a suitable shutterspeed locked in to 'C1' on my camera which was the first of my personalised camera settings. I used this as a starting point, adjusting this if required, then using the exposure compensation dial to take 'bracketed' shots. You could also become more efficient and consider auto-bracketing which some cameras offer. It goes without saying that I always used a tripod and cable release (remote release) to allow me to choose a high aperture number with (usually) a fairly slow shutter speed as I take many landscape shots in fairly low light conditions e.g. sunrise/sunset. I always used mirror lock-up too, after watching a video of the potential for vibration, but this may have been overkill. Using a small exposure also produces the nice starburst effect on the sun, no starburst filter is needed.



Synton Loch Selkirk

One of my favourite photographs in terms of composition. I feel everything came together in this one and I still have a great feeling of calmness and solitude when viewing this image. A small aperture and a long exposure were used, as was a tripod with a cable release. I shot into the sun so my EB (Extreme Exposure) method was also used. Check under 'E' for my Extreme Bracketing method.

Using my Extreme Bracketing (EB) method, I shot directly into a bright sun and retained some detail, difficult to achieve even with the high dynamic range of modern cameras. The 'EB' was blended into the HDR scene as a separate step in Photoshop, but I'd now use AFFINITY or PAINT.NET for a lot less money or for free if PAINT.NET were used. I often shoot into the sun, (never look directly at the sun, especially through a camera), and to avoid loss of detail, I'll use my extreme bracketing method.

BEGINNERS

Beginners please note that this is more of an advanced technique (exposure through HDR, blending and bracketing), something to perhaps work towards in the future? The border is easy to apply and was done with FASTSTONE, free software that I use for most of my editing.