Cam and Cheese

Bracketing is a feature in cameras that allows you to take multiple pictures of the same scene, adjusting the exposure after each picture. It's a useful feature that will save you some time during post processing. And also gives you a better chance of getting the proper exposure that you want for a specific picture.

In my example, I will show you how to turn on bracketing on my Nikon D80. Now it may be a bit different on different cameras. But first, I will go over the basics that you need to know about bracketing before using it.

Depending on your camera and your settings, bracketing takes 2 or 3 separate physical pictures of your scene. Now if something happens to change in your scene during the gap between pictures, theres nothing you can do about it. There are physically 2 or 3 openings and 2 or 3 closings of the shutter. It does not take one picture and automatically adjust the picture's exposure and save it as 2 or 3 different files.

Why would you want to use bracketing on your shots? Well if you exposure is wrong the first time, hopefully one of the other shots will have the proper exposure. You won't have to take the picture, stop, look at your picture, then adjust your aperture and shutter speed, then shoot again. It will adjust it all for you as it takes the other pictures continuously. But since it actually has to take separate pictures continuously your pictures may turn out differently due to varying factors in your scene. It's best to use this feature on static subjects or scenery.

Bracketing is actually fairly customizable. On my Nikon D80 I have the following options:

1. No bracketing (0F) 
2. Two shots - one normal, one brighter (++ 2F)
3. Two shots - one normal, one darker (-- 2F)
4. Three shots - one normal, one brighter, one darker (3F)

Then after choosing how many shots you want to take, you can select how many stops you want each image to be. These can be 0.3 stops, 0.7, 1.0, 1.3, 1.7, 2.0.

So for example, say I choose three shots - one brighter, and one darker - denoted by 3F, and I want the exposure to change by 1.

On my Nikon D80, press and hold the BKT button on the left side of the front of the body, right below the pop-up flash button. 

Next use the shutter speed scroll wheel (the one on the back of the camera) to select how many pictures you want to take. Rotate the wheel one click counter clockwise and you shoudl see 3F on your top LCD. Then use the aperture scroll wheel (the one on the front of the camera) to adjust the amount of stops you want each exposure to change. Rotate the wheel 2 clicks clockwise until you see 1.0. 

Finally press the continuous shutter button once, to change your mode from single shot to continuous shooting.

Now go take your pictures.

To turn off Bracketing, just adjust the number of pictures to 0F, and keep pressing the continuous shooting button until you see a square with an S on it.

Note, when shooting in RAW, or in Nikon's NEF, you can open up the file in Photoshop or Capture NX and other programs, and change a vast number of settings of your image before saving it as a JPEG. You can even change the exposure yourself by up to 4 stops in either direction.

But also note, bracketing of scenery for (high dynamic range) HDR images reduces the amount of post-work you will have to do, since you already have your pictures and different exposures.