bracketing advice

[bernhund]

We've booked our summer break and will be travelling over a 2 night stop enroute to our final destination..Lake Garda. So basically we're going to be in The Alps and I'd like to get some half decent pics if possible. I'm thinking that early morning or evening light could be gorgeous but will no doubt throw some very contrasty dark shadows in mountainous areas. I assume this is where bracketing will be required, but to be honest, I don't really know anything about it! Could someone explain a step by step process for my D7100? For example, I'm not sure whether multiple exposures are taken with just one press of the shutter button or if I have to take a few one after the other. Am I even correct in thinking this would be a likely place to use bracketing?

[bernhund]

K12beano said:

Sounds likely that bracketing will help.

If you switch to continuous shooting your Nikon should run off the number of shots in the bracketing you have set - however I was reading elsewhere that the buffer isn't great on that model - get out and practice!

Edited by K12beano on Monday 2nd March 20:30

Practice I will! Any thoughts on what increments work best or is it a case of 'get as many as possible'?

[bernhund]

Simpo Two said:

The original idea of exposure bracketing (film days) was to ensure you got one shot that was exposed correctly. That can still be true, but it's also the start of taking multiple exposures so that they can be blended together later - in other words, the best of 2 or three images combined.

If shooting multiple images to combine later then the subject should be stationary, and you'll need a tripod so they line up.

Another option is to shoot RAW (you can still bracket) and beat the crap out of it in processing to recover highlights and shadows. This works well for moving subjects because only one image is used, and you don't need a tripod.

You can set the camera up to autobracket - ie it will take a sequence of different exposures as you choose - but IMHO this is not a great option as you will forget to switch it off and then wonder why your subsequent exposures are all wrong...

Thank you. Would the quality of the end result suffer more if the highlights/shadows are dealt with in PS rather than the bracketing method?

[bernhund]

Simpo Two said:

bernhund said:

Thank you. Would the quality of the end result suffer more if the highlights/shadows are dealt with in PS rather than the bracketing method?

I don't think there's a problem with reducing the brightness of a bright area, but when you lighten dark areas you can introduce noise (speckling). This is worse when working from JPG than RAW. So to get it as right as possible at the time of shooting is the best of all. With a bit of practice you'll soon see just how much you can 'push' shadows before the noise becomes intrusive. In short, if the contrast is not too great you can hammer it out in Photoshop etc from a single image, but beyond a certain point, you need multiple exposures to start from.

If you shoot JPG and want to get the best out of your photos, now is a good time to learn about RAW, because the ability to recover detail from highlights and shadows is much greater. But note that if you overexpose to the point where part of the image is solid white (255:255:255) then you can't recover any detail, only make it grey, so watch for that. The histogram and zebra (flashing highlight warning) are invaluable here.

Bear in mind you're sure to encounter 'specular highlights', eg small glints of sun off a wineglass or lake, which really have to stay white - partly because that's how they look in real life, but also because if you do expose for them, the rest of the image will be almost black!

I do shoot RAW already, then put it through Lightbox; but don't really know what I'm doing with it. I need to get to grips with the histogram business I think, so I actually understand what I'm looking at and for!

[bernhund]

Me again! So, if I were to shoot RAW only, I could still bracket and mix 2 or 3 exposures together to get the best result? I would then have the opportunity to revisit them at a later date to achieve perhaps a different effect from the same image?

[bernhund]

When bracketing, say for 3 exposures, is there a generally agreed on difference in stops either side that works in most situations?

[bernhund]

Sounds as though I might benefit from some PS/Lightroom tuition! Thanks for all your advice.