Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB)
Have you ever been photographing a subject with tricky lighting or lots of variation between bright and darker areas but were not sure what exposure setting to go with?
One way to work in such situations is to manually play around with your exposure control and take a series of shots - the problem with this is that it takes time and if you are photographing a changing environment (for example a sunset which changes from moment to moment) you can lose ‘the moment’ while you get things right.
Most DSLRs (and some more advanced compact cameras) come with a feature called ‘Automatic Exposure Bracketing‘ (AEB) which can be useful to learn how to use in such situations.
By selecting it you can quickly take three shots (usually three) at different exposures without having to manually change any settings between frames. You can see an example of this below
When you select Automatic Exposure Bracketing the camera will choose one exposure (based upon what its metering thinks is right) and then it will take one other shot on either side of this best guess (one over exposed (as in the left shot above) and one underexposed (as in the right shot above)).
This way you end up with the three images in a series with exactly the same composition but at different exposures for you to select the best of later on.
If you have the camera in burst mode (continuous shooting) the three shots will be taken if you hold down the shutter for a burst of three shots. If you’re in single shot mode the shots will take as you depress the shutter three times.
Each digital camera has a different way of selecting AEB, some like Nikon’s D70 have an accessible button on the back (marked BKT) while others (like Canon) have an AEB setting in their menus.
Check out your manual to see how AEB works on your digital camera. Most will allow you to change the variation between shots by different ’stops’. For example you might want a big variation between your three shots and would select a ‘2 stop’ gap or you might only want a slight variation and choose a ‘half stop’ gap. I generally start with a ‘1 stop’ variation and work from there.
PS: to give you a little more control in Automatic Exposure Bracketing mode you can use it ether in Aperture Priority Mode or Shutter Priority Mode. Using AEB in Aperture Priority mode will all you to choose the aperture you want for the shot and telling the camera to make the variations in shots by varying shutter speed. Alternatively using AEB in shutter priority mode will keep the shutter speed at the speed you select and tell the camera to vary the exposure by changing the aperture in your shots.
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December 19th, 2006 at 4:58 am
hi,
thanks for this tip, I just began experiencing with HDRI and this is a great way to get the necessary shots with one click (well almost !)
thanks,
d.
December 19th, 2006 at 5:38 am
Useful tutorial for those unacquainted with bracketing :-) Only drawback is that it takes multiple pictures, eating up your space… you just need to be a little proactive in cleaning up your memory card after every few shots.
Could we have a follow-up article on HDR?
December 19th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
Just started reading the blog and the forum. So a compliment on all the articles. This one is great too.
Just a little remark for david and orangeacid: if you want to do HDR, you need more then 3 pics to get a good HDR image.
I use about 8 pictures, from very underexposed till very overexposed.
December 20th, 2006 at 12:56 am
Since the days that the world has gone digital AEB is nearly obsolete. In film days, you could not preview your images or see the histograms, which means that you risked loosing an otherwise good image owing to bad exposure. Now, you hardly require that. A better way to do it is to take a shot, preview it, re-expose if you see any problem in the first one.
December 20th, 2006 at 4:41 am
Hmmm… HDR? I’m not familiar with it.
December 20th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Good advise, but very frequently forgotten by many. By the way we seem to hear only about Nikon and Cannon. I am a Pentax user. How would you rate this. Model is istdl.
Thanks,
Kris
December 21st, 2006 at 6:42 am
@Arun
That won’t work for candids, will it now? If you have the luxury of posing every single shot you ever take, I guess you don’t have to worry about AEB. However, even then your camera’s LCD screen won’t give you a good idea of the actual contrast of the picture under all lighting conditions, such as under direct sunlight.
December 21st, 2006 at 11:00 am
Haven’t read your article on AEB yet, but will say it was a way of life during the 60’s and 70’s, don’t want to mention the 50’s and the old Speed Graphic. Oh well back to the article, enjoy them all.
December 24th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
most of the good point-and-shoot cameras have this option too.
January 2nd, 2007 at 3:12 pm
I found blog after I went in the Canon competition. I love canon camera’s and have only been doing photography this last 6 months and I am hooked. I love macro. I have found your blog site to be very easy to understand and most helpful in aspects of photography with the camera that are daunting to read in the manual. Keep it up I love it.
January 3rd, 2007 at 1:49 am
Excellent article on use of AEB. Very clear and concise relative to camera manual. Thanks
January 5th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Hi Michael
I see none of the techno-snobs could be bothered to explain
HDR so I found a very good article on it in Wiki. It looks to
be a very interesting tool and well worth a look up. Try
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging.
BTW LOVE your website - with photos like that you don’t need
post production gimmicks !!!
January 5th, 2007 at 10:13 am
I have been playing with the auto bracket feature on my LUMIX point and shoot and have found it especially helpful when the lighting is variable around my subject, deep shadows/xmas lights, etc. Also very helpful when taking photos in broad daylight and/or indoors with natural lighting. It’s surprising and fun (to me) to see how the mood of the same shot changes at different exposures.A similar feature is the one that lets you downgrade the flash. It has helped me decrease the white-out that often happens when using flash for macro shots.
January 17th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
The thing that bothers me about bracketing is that the images are taken separately and any movement of the subject will result in a different image. (I use a sony f828) Do any cameras offer 3 bracketed shots from one exposure (ie: maybe altering the raw image in camera on the fly as opposed to taking 3 separate images of different exposure) maybe this would not be as “pure” as 3 separate exposures but would avoid losing the composition, especially with fast moving subjects, or for use with HDRI.)
on another note, Maybe one of the camera companies could design a DSLR with a three way mirror (prism/pyrmaid type mirror) allowing for a live preview sensor and twin exposures due to having two sensors, that way if you normally overexpose you could bracket a stop down or vice versa.