Raquel S. |
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Bracketing. How and When? What's your method?
I understand the concept of bracketing your exposures, but curious to see how others are doing it. What's your method of bracketing? When do you do it? When do you don't? Any helpful tips or advice regarding bracketing would be appreciated. TIA!
May 11, 2006
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Bob Cammarata |
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Bracket all key shots you can't easily shoot over.
I routinely bracket my FOCUS as well as exposure.
After spending time getting to a location and meticulously setting up your camera and tripod for that perfect image, it's wise to take several shots at different exposure settings and critical focus points.
May 11, 2006
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John P. Sandstedt |
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I agree with Bob. One word of caution. Bracketting works best with slide film. Often if you bracket using print film, you're friendly photo-finisher will produce prints that don't reflect the varied exposures. With slide film, you can use as little as half-stop increments. With print film I'd use NO LESS THAN full stop increments, maybe even "stop-and-a-half."
May 12, 2006
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Raquel S. |
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Thanks for the responses. I appreciate them greatly. Bob, you especially gave me an extra thought to consider regarding critical focus points. Thanks.
May 12, 2006
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Bob Cammarata |
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Bracketing critical focus is similar to how accenting a different word in a phrase can change its overall meaning. When shooting within the close-focusing parameters of your lens...and your background is as important as what's in your foreground, even with a small aperture setting your DOF will be somewhat limited. Take one shot making the foreground the point of interest.
Focus on a key element in the foreground you want to accentuate...(like the eyeball of an animal, an individual part of a flower...or whatever you want to catch the viewer's attention.) The next shot should be a hyperfocal setting focused just beyond the closest object.
This will render the entire scene in apparent focus.
This setting is usually best with landscapes, still-lifes or with any photo where the overall scene is appealing and might be of interest. Finally,...one last shot focused on the background will render the foreground elements slightly out of focus for a dreamy effect. ...As to bracketing exposures, I agree with John that this mostly applies to slide film.
Print film has a wider exposure lattitude and is corrected during processing and developing. With a digital camera, you can see the shot you took and re-shoot it if it doesn't look right. Bob
May 12, 2006
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BetterPhoto Member |
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Hi Rachael; I usually only bracket exposure with slide film, and I bracket from two stops under to two stops over. I've got an ajustment on my camera just for this. Have fun and keep shooting,
Mark H.
May 13, 2006
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Bob Cammarata |
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Mark,
"Two stops over and under" with slides?This seems extreme to me. Bob
May 13, 2006
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Andrew Laverghetta |
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With my digital camera especially, when I have a scene with extreme highlights or shadows I'll bracket quite a few shots above and below. It's pretty easy to do with my camera (20D) because I can use the wheel on the back to adjust exposure compensation. This is the way I normally do it now, by adjusting exposure compensation. Of course, sometimes the exposure studders back and forth between two numbers so sometimes I might not always get a full stop over AND under or whatever but it's normally pretty good. If it's an important shot and it studders too much, that's when I'll switch to Manual and just change shutter speed that way to bracket. I usually shoot in AV (aperture priority mode so that's why I have to switch to manual, I feel like it's the same thing anyways if you're using the TTL meter).
May 13, 2006
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BetterPhoto Member |
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I'm an old schooler, Bob. That's the way I learned. I don't know if you were around when the Praktica MTL-3 was, but it had no bells and whistles. It was a bare bones manual with an M42 screw mount for lenses. 2 over to 2 under is what someone told me to do and I stuck with it. It's rare when I miss my shot, but I'll admit that I do waste some film. My X700 has the bracketing control that goes 2 under to 2 over, so I just use it, now.
May 14, 2006
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Bob Cammarata |
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Mark,
I use manual-everything Nikon FM2's and slide film exclusively and if I were to bracket over and under by 2 full stops,...I'd waste a LOT of film.Are you sure you are not referring to 1/2 stop both ways?
May 14, 2006
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BetterPhoto Member |
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Maybe I should try that, huh?
May 14, 2006
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Raquel S. |
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Thanks for all your input!
May 19, 2006
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Pete H |
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Hi Rachael; Lots of good advice above..Let me only add this..when shooting Digital; it is best to err on the side of underexposure..blown hi-lites with digital can not be recovered.
When in doubt, expose for hi-lites. Pete
May 19, 2006
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