If your photos come out like this or like this then you need exposure bracketing to get all
the detail you'll ever need and even though it might sound complicated it's actually a really
straightforward and easy process once you've done it a few times and you can do it whether you've
got a camera like this or like this bracketing is basically a process where your camera takes
three five seven or maybe nine photographs all with slightly different exposure levels
it's also known as HDR or exposure blending but they all basically mean the same thing the darker
shots will have details in the brightest parts and then the brighter photos will have details in the
shadows then when you are editing most programs can blend them together to give you more detail
and less noise in the shadows and highlights I'll show you how to blend them together a little bit
later on in your computer but first I've got to show you how to take the photographs to
get consistent results it works really well with landscape photography real estate and
Architectural photography basically anywhere where there's not much movement in the frame and you
can keep that camera perfectly still I even shoot them handheld sometimes and you can
too if your hands are steady enough but the best way to get a successful blend is to use a tripod
foreign the great thing with bracketing is that in most cameras nowadays it's built in
as a function you just have to hunt around in those menus a little bit in the Sony camera
all you need to do is go to the drive mode which is left on the d-pad on the back of the camera
and then press down four or five times if you shoot with a Canon camera find exposure comp
stroke aeb in the menus and set the different exposes there in Nikon cameras look for auto
bracketing set and then select AE bracketing in the Fuji cameras it's in the drive setting
again back to the Sony camera all you need to do is look for this function brkc or brks
S is for single shots where you have to press the shut button for each shot in the sequence
and C is for continuous where you can either hold your finger down to rapidly fire through each
one or if you turn on the self timer in bracket settings this will do them all automatically with
one press of that shutter button to find the self timer in the Sony camera all you need to look for
is bracket settings it's different in the old menu but in the new menu you just go to this camera tab
drive mode and bracket settings so I'll set self timer during bracket to two seconds so now when
I bracket my shots I take a shot it sets a two second timer and then takes three shots all in
one hit with that one button press so there's the brightest one the medium one and the darkest one
then I'll change my bracketing order to the darkest the normal and then the brightest this
just means they're easier to spot on the timeline along the bottom of the editing program that
you use in most cameras you can also change how big you want the Gap to be with exposure ranges
between the shots and also how many shots you want in the sequence now in my camera if I go
to that bracketing function the first number is the exposure value difference between each of the
shots and the second number is how many photos are going to be in the sequence with the Sony cameras
you can have up to three stops of a gap between each shot and five frames you can have one stop
gaps with nine frames five frames three frames 0.7 of a stop 0.5 of a stop or 0.3 ever stop I
either shoot with 1.0 EV3 or 1.0 ev5 so three or five shots in the sequence with a One-Stop
exposure difference between each of those shots now there are subtle differences between all of
the different brands I shoot the Sony need but if you shoot with Canon Nikon or Fuji just have
a search online how to do bracketing with your brand and with the model that you shoot with
when you're in aperture priority mode and you turn on bracketing it'll change the shutter speed
so if we look back at those we've got one at 1 100th of a second one at one
two hundredth of a second and one at one four hundredth of a second
when you're in shutter priority it will change the aperture
so if we look at those you can see 1 3 20th of a second F 6.3 F9 and f13
if you're in manual mode with manual ISO it'll change the shutter speed once again
so again if we look back at those I've got 1 160th one three twentieth and 1 6 40th
however if I change my ISO to auto so we've got ISO Auto now when I take the shot
ISO will change ISO 320 ISO 160 ISO 100. I find it best to keep it in manual mode with manual ISO or
aperture priority so the camera is only changing the shutter speed if you're in shutter priority
and the camera changes the aperture through the sequence this will change the depth of field
this is basically how much is in focus from front to back you want this to be consistent from the
first shot to the last shot with auto ISO this just changes the gain of the photo so basically
there'll be no more or less light coming into the camera between shots this will be just like
duplicating the same shot and then changing the exposure slider in Lightroom there's no more or
less light coming into the camera for each of the photographs so if you are new to this just
keep it in aperture priority or manual mode with manual ISO so it changes the shutter speed this
will just keep it simple and you'll avoid any complications when you're trying to blend them
together also whilst I'm talking about settings that might change make sure your white balance is
set to one of the presets this is so it stays the same between each frame I keep it set to daylight
so I know that every single shot in the sequence will have exactly the same white balance level
the next step is to take the photos so get your camera stable on your tripod frame up the shot
focus and then take the bracketed sequence there are also two other ways that you can shoot your
bracketed sequences if you set the camera to aperture priority when you have a good exposure
use the exposure compensation dial and turn it to -1 okay that's on minus one and I'll take a shot
turn it to zero take a shot and then turn it two plus one and take a shot if you want to do five
shots start at -2 then minus one zero plus one and plus two the other way is to put your camera
in manual mode and set it up so your exposure looks good on the back of the camera you might
do this by using the histograms the zebras or the meter on the back of the camera for the example
I'm going to give you I'm just going to use the meter on the back of the camera and set it to
zero so in manual mode what I'll do is change the shutter speed to 1 3 20th and then take a shot
and I'll take it down to 1 1 60th take a shot and then I'll change it again to half of that so 1
80th of a second and then I'll take another shot these three ways will give you exactly the same
results it's just at the bracketing setting is a little bit more automated and you can set it up
so it'll automatically take the shot how you want them now there might be times when you're not sure
how to get a good exposure for the scene in front of you so you might be hiking and look at a scene
that you really like but you're not sure whether to expose for the highlights for the Shadows or
what to expose for if this is the case just turn on bracketing like for instance the scene I've got
in front of me the sky is starting to get really bright but the landscape is still a little bit
dark what I tend to do is put it on a One-Stop difference between shots and then five shots so
I'll go to that now and I'll switch it to five and then I'll take a shot of this scene in front of me
so with that scene in front of me it's taken a shot at 1 100th of a second one two hundredth of
a second one 400th of a second one 800 a second on one 1 600th of a second as well so I've got
five different shots that I can choose from later on when editing this does take up a bit
more space on your hard drive it can make you a lazy photographer but it will open up those
options when you are editing on your computer now if you do this try not to make it too much
of a habit and when you get those photos back on your computer try and see which one gave you the
good exposure or the one that you liked was it underexposed was it the middle exposure or was
it slightly Overexposed whichever one it was remember that and then the next time you're
out in the field taking a similar photograph just try and get it in one shot and this will teach you
so much about you and your photography now the next thing to get your head around is whether
or not the shot needs bracketing in the first place because some do but others really don't
foreign
the way I work is to look at the histogram if it looks like a half pipe where it's touching either
side of the bar graph this is when I will bracket but if it looks like a mountain peak or if it's
contained within that bar graph without touching the sides that's when it's good to get it in one
shot now when I do real estate shoots all I need to do is work out whether there's a window in the
shot or not there's a window in the shot I'll bracket that shot there's not a window in the
shot I won't have to and this basically comes down to the dynamic range of the shot exceeding
the dynamic range of the camera again if you're unsure bracket to be on the safe side it's better
to have too much data and have to delete images rather than not have enough when I'm editing I
use Lightroom if you use a different program you might have to find out how to blend your
bracketed shots or whether the program can do it or not some can and some can't in Lightroom find
the images along the film strip select all of the images in the bracket then right click on them and
then photo merge HD VR in the pop-up box you'll have a few options I'll check Auto align I'll have
Auto settings unchecked and then with the D ghost amount this is all down to personal preference but
this just gets rid of any ghosting you might have when something moves from one photo to the next
in the sequence and by ghosting I mean it looks like those fake ghost photos where a person or
something is see-through because when it's taken the first shot it's in one position then when it
takes the second shot that thing is in another position this is what D ghosting gets rid of if
you do select the ghosting just turn on show D ghost overlay so you can see what it's changing
then click merge again if you do have this ghosting on remember where those ghosting areas
were and just check that in the final image once processed it'll produce a completely new image
and this will have a bigger dynamic range than if you would have just taken the scene in one shot
when you're editing these blending shots it's easy to take it a bit too far and
make it look unnatural so just be careful with those sliders remember subtlety is
the key to editing now you know how to get a good exposure even when those conditions are
harsh but what makes you decide what you put in the photograph and more importantly what
you cut out well this has a little bit to do with knowing where to stand and what focal
length to use now there is a little bit more to it than that and in this video I go over
everything that you need to know to get really compelling photographs I'll see you next time