Exposure Bracketing or Multiple Exposure ?

[dimitrz]

Hi all

Need some tips on getting the right exposure while shooting landscape photos ( especially mountainous regions with high altitude lakes and without lakes)


I have done some reading on Multiple exposure however I am not clear about few aspects, rather am bit more confused now.

When it comes to taking Landscape photos

a) What is better ? Going for exposure bracketing or multiple exposures shot

b) I am going to take shots in RAW+Jpeg Fine; apart from this should I also opt for both exposure bracketing and multiple exposure

c) Ideally when it comes to landscape photos is a EV difference of 1 EV good enough or should the shots taken at a difference of 2 EV ?

Thanks

[fletch]

Originally Posted by dimitrz

When it comes to taking Landscape photos

a) What is better ? Going for exposure bracketing or multiple exposures shot

b) I am going to take shots in RAW+Jpeg Fine; apart from this should I also opt for both exposure bracketing and multiple exposure

c) Ideally when it comes to landscape photos is a EV difference of 1 EV good enough or should the shots taken at a difference of 2 EV ?

Thanks

a) They are the same thing.
b) If you shoot RAW+JPEG and bracket your expsoures you will end up with a lot of large files. No harm if you have lots of memory.
c) It depends why you need to bracket. Is it because you want to ensure you get best expsoure in a single shot or so you have multiple files to blend in PP. If it is best single expsoure then even 0.3ev may be OK if you can get a good enough intial reading and just want a bit of margin for error. If it is for exposure blending/HDR then it depends on the light. Shooting into a sunset you may need 2ev or more either side and more that 3 shots.

[dimitrz]

Thanks fletch

Main intention is not too miss out on a shot due to underexposure or over exposure (if you get my take) I may not visit that region again.

Secondly though I don't believe in or have time to spend time on post processing , I would be tempted to recreate / recover a scene in which certain areas were over exposed and using the under exposed version I can blend that to bring out details in both - I guess thats what is called a HDR ?

In my Nikon D80 I have both exposure bracketing and Multiple exposure option - exposure brack gives my 3 frames/shots while multiple exposure gives me just one Shot thats why I have this confusion

[Doug Pardee]

Originally Posted by dimitrz

What is better ? Going for exposure bracketing or multiple exposures shot

Exposure Bracketing.

Multiple Exposure is something very different. It a special effect. Multiple Exposure allows you to open the shutter multiple times on the same image. The effect that you get is the same as if you took two images in Photoshop and overlaid them in "add" mode. It's an artistic tool, and one that requires a considerable amount of experience to use well. Because combining photos in post-processing is a lot easier, only a few digital cameras bother to offer the Multiple Exposure feature.

[fletch]

Ahh, so Multiple Exposure is a Nikon feature built into their cameras. (Multiple Exposure, not multiple exposures!) Seems fairly redundant in the days of photoshop.

You used to be able to expose film exposures more than once in some cameras, for example to include the moon in a shot of a landscape. Now it much easier to use photoshop.

[dimitrz]

Thanks Doug

[AgBeard]

If you are having exposure issues with landscapes - try reducing the dynamic range of the scene by using graduated ND filters to balance the foregound & sky.