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Exposure Bracketing


12 years 8 months ago #124823 by Tclean95
I am attempting my first HDR, but I do not know how to do exposure bracketing. Isn't it just three different exposures? How do I do this?
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12 years 8 months ago - 12 years 8 months ago #124825 by MLKstudios
Some cameras do it for you (in a sense). You simply have to set it up that way in your menu. Check your camera's manual.

Otherwise, you only need to add a stop and subtract a stop (for three exposures) using the Manual exposure mode on your camera.

Remember a FULL stop is three clicks of the shutter speed (or aperture). I suggest you change the shutter speed to keep the Depth of Field the same. Start with a stop over (or a stop under) and change three clicks in the same direction for each.

HTH

PS the reason for HDR is to the ability to capture a scene with very high contrast. It doesn't work well with a low contrast scene.
Matthew L Kees
MLK Studios Photography School
www.MLKstudios.com
[email protected]
"Every artist, was once an amateur"
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12 years 8 months ago #124835 by Sha Nea
To bracket for an HDR you want a constant DOF (depth-of-field) so put the camera in Aperture Priority Mode.

Then all you have to do is vary the shutter speed both above and below the proper exposure. You first need to meter the dynamic range of the scene you want to shoot because it may take more than 3 exposures to cover the range.

3 is the minimum to see the HDR effect when the images are merged in image editing software.

There are software products such as Photomatix specifically designed for merging bracketed exposures and either tone mapping the result or using blending.
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12 years 8 months ago #124838 by Tclean95

MLKstudios wrote: Some cameras do it for you (in a sense). You simply have to set it up that way in your menu. Check your camera's manual.

Otherwise, you only need to add a stop and subtract a stop (for three exposures) using the Manual exposure mode on your camera.

Remember a FULL stop is three clicks of the shutter speed (or aperture). I suggest you change the shutter speed to keep the Depth of Field the same. Start with a stop over (or a stop under) and change three clicks in the same direction for each.

HTH

PS the reason for HDR is to the ability to capture a scene with very high contrast. It doesn't work well with a low contrast scene.


I didn't know full stop was 3 clicks. Is it always that way? on any camera and in any point of the exposure?
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12 years 8 months ago - 12 years 8 months ago #124875 by Henry Peach

Tclean95 wrote: I didn't know full stop was 3 clicks. Is it always that way? on any camera and in any point of the exposure?


Most modern cameras adjust in 1/3rd stop increments, so 3 clicks is one stop. Some cameras can be set to 1/2 stop increments in the custom functions. Older film cameras usually adjusted in 1/2 or full stop increments.

To get your 3 exposures for HDR you'd figure out a typical middle exposure. Then take one over exposed, and one under exposed. How much over or under depends on the software you are using, and personal experience. 1.3 to 2 stops variation is common. Some people use more than 3 exposures. For instance a 5 exposure series might go: n-3.3, n-1.6, n, n+1.6, n+3.3. n=normal exposure. The + or - number following is how many stops to adjust.
mattneedham.zenfolio.com
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12 years 8 months ago #124892 by effron
See this..........

www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/high-dynamic-range.htm
Why so serious?
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12 years 8 months ago - 12 years 8 months ago #124896 by MLKstudios
Tclean, as HP said, MOST new cameras have three click "stops" by default. If you have an older film camera, it could be different. I only assumed you have a newer model camera with three clicks per stop. I haven't actually looked at your CV.

What HP posted above was how to deal with extreme contrast situations. Plus or minus 3 full stops (or more) is a whole lot of bandwidth, plus he added two more images to wrangle in post. Shame, shame HP. Tc just now learned what a stop is!

For now just try to make a simple one stop over and one stop under change, take all three images to your HDR app and get one set of three to work. You'll learn by doing. And your knowledge will grow by the experiences gained with every HDR you make.

If you stick with it, it won't be long till you are making intelligent decisions on the total latitude required for each "scene".

Matthew :)
Matthew L Kees
MLK Studios Photography School
www.MLKstudios.com
[email protected]
"Every artist, was once an amateur"
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12 years 8 months ago #124924 by icepics
Henry and Matthew, this helps me understand a little better how HDR could be used. I haven't seen much of it but it often looks overdone or something, like I notice the photoshopping or that a photo is HDR rather than noticing the image. Maybe it's new enough it hadn't been used a lot yet.

Glad Henry you mentioned the difference between older and newer cameras, I was trying to figure out why it would be three clicks... I've done a little bracketing doing B&W if I wanted a particular photo with darker and lighter choices to make prints in the darkroom.

Seems like the digital techniques are often just a different way of doing the same thing, like bracketing to give yourself more than one image to choose from to work with.
Sharon
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12 years 8 months ago - 12 years 8 months ago #124933 by MLKstudios
The film version is Ansel's Zone System. By adding or subtracting from the development time, you can "push" or "pull" the film's latitude. That's also where the N+ (Normal Plus) and N- (Normal Minus) come from.

Film doesn't have the range that digital offers with multiple exposures though. You only get ONE exposure on a film plate (or neg). You can push N+3 and maybe add an additional 3 stops. That's close to a maximum film push. Pulling 2 stops (N-2) is about as far as you'd go with most film. Lower than that and have very little contrast to print with. There's simply not enough time in the "soup".

Ansel gave b&w film ten stops of latitude. In fact, you can get more with the T-Max films. But you are still limited by the paper you printed with.

HDR lets you capture very high contrast scenes (hence High Dynamic Range) and see details in both highlights and shadows that are impossible with film. As HP pointed out, you have more than a six stop exposure range. That's a HE-double hockey stick lot of DR!

When done with extreme contrast scenes, you can get way beyond the HDR "look". As the post from effron pointed to, you jumped into 32 bit land. The number of bits for detail is now astronomical. 2x2x2x2.. 32 times. A really BIG number.

:)
Matthew L Kees
MLK Studios Photography School
www.MLKstudios.com
[email protected]
"Every artist, was once an amateur"
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12 years 8 months ago #124949 by icepics
Interesting. Makes me realize it's been years since I read any of Adams' books and I didn't at the time really understand the zones. Maybe it would make more sense to me now.

I noticed when I started doing B&W darkroom work that I could dodge highlights out of a negative that I couldn't even really see and that wouldn't show up when the lab developed them. But it would depend on the negative.

I didn't realize HDR worked better w/a high contrast scene but that would make sense. I found shooting B&W that I started noticing the contrast in what I was photographing and seemed to get better results if I looked at the scene for light and dark to get more contrast. Maybe what you shoot makes a difference w/HDR too.
Sharon
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The following user(s) said Thank You: MLKstudios
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12 years 8 months ago - 12 years 8 months ago #124951 by MLKstudios
If the scene is less than the Dynamic Range (the DR) of your camera (from 8 to 12 stops, depending), there is no need to use HDR. It works best in very high contrast environments.

Typically the higher end cameras also give you a higher DR. It's one of the reasons to upgrade. With digital the camera includes the film too. A better digital camera body is akin to buying better film. A DSLR has both the sensor (the film) and a processor (the developer) for the image taken.

The Zone System was a methodical (and sometimes laborious) way to control contrast. Nothing else really. It let you squeeze (or expand) high or low contrast scene onto the ten stops (or Zones) that most b&w films had.

HDR allows us to squeeze MANY stops using multiple exposures. Simply because you have more than one image to combine after the pics are taken. You need a static subject AND a tripod though, which wasn't required for Zone work. So, there are N+'s and N-'s to both.

;)
Matthew L Kees
MLK Studios Photography School
www.MLKstudios.com
[email protected]
"Every artist, was once an amateur"
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12 years 8 months ago #124962 by icepics
A static subject and a tripod, that would be a stretch for me. LOL I've never used a tripod and if I set one up would probably just wander off away from it anyway. I'm usually changing my vantage point a lot (or was shooting hockey where things really move!). Depends on your style I guess.

Looking at Effron's link (and no I didn't read all of it) it looks like basically they did the digital color version of what in the darkroom w/B&W would be burning in the corner that's too light. Of course I see it's more in-depth than that, I can see where it brought out detail throughout the image. I can see where it could be useful especially if you have a subject that's half in bright sun and half in shadow or for whatever reason is challenging to get a good exposure.
Sharon
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12 years 8 months ago - 12 years 8 months ago #124968 by MLKstudios
Yep, when the shot is impossible in a single exposure is when HDR really shines.

When shooting RAW, you CAN do some HDR with a single shot (using NO tripod). You simply increase the exposure slider for the over, and decrease it for the under. The idea is to look for the details in shadows for the over exposed one, and look for details in the highlights of the under exposed. You end up with three different images to combine in post (using your HDR tool).

I've used this technique to see the lightbulb in a lamp photo. A single exposure would never do that.
Matthew L Kees
MLK Studios Photography School
www.MLKstudios.com
[email protected]
"Every artist, was once an amateur"
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12 years 8 months ago #124985 by Henry Peach

icepics wrote: I haven't seen much of it but it often looks overdone or something, like I notice the photoshopping or that a photo is HDR rather than noticing the image. Maybe it's new enough it hadn't been used a lot yet.


I think what you are talking about is the extreme local contrast adjustment. Sort of like what you'd see in a painting, and not what we are used to in a photograph. Local contrast adjustment can be used on HDR and normal DR photos. The tonemapping software that came with Photomatix, the first really popular HDR software, gave a really exaggerated local contrast effect. Many folks like it, but HDR photos don't have to go there. They can look quite normal, although someone familiar with the scene lighting and limitations of the gear may realize that it has to be HDR. Some consider them one and the same, but I keep the ideas of HDR and local contrast adjustment separate in my mind as I don't always use them together.
mattneedham.zenfolio.com
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12 years 8 months ago #125115 by icepics
Maybe that's what I've seen that to me just looked overdone; I think you're right the contrast sometimes looked too high. Unless someone was going for more of a special effect.
Sharon
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