nauticalmike

This is probably a stupid question, but that's ok because I never claimed to be a very knowledgeable photographer. If I understand correctly bracketing is taking 3 pictures with three different white balance values, one low one mid and one high of the exact same scene. However since the exposure can be adjusted after the fact then if you are shooting in raw then bracketing has no place. Since most of the professional photographers here seem to say they always shot in raw, the bracketing must not be used by professional photographers. Is that an accurate assumption?

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

I am just a hobbyst.
When I bracket (usually for a HDR) it is always the exposure that is adjusted during bracketing, never ever the white balance.
I always shoot raw.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Yes, in a way you're correct, but bracketing covers more than just white balance, and it does not have to be three exposures, it can be as many exposures as you like! Auto bracketing is a lot of times limited to three exposures in some cameras, other cameras can go with a lot more exposures. And you can bracket with about any settings, WB, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focus bracketing, whatever you feel like!

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Bracketing is usually done with three different exposures, not three different white balances. You can adjust white balance with RAW files no matter how far off it is. But exposure with RAW can be far enough off that it is difficult to fix it. So bracketing exposures can have a place even shooting RAW. Also, bracketing exposures is done to create HDR photos.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Keep in mind, most real professionals don't have time to spend all day hanging out on discussion forums; they are busy on shoots, meeting with clients, editing images, etc.
Of course exposure bracketing can be useful when shooting in RAW format. Adjusting for exposure in editing has limitations.

paulrph1 Loc: Washington, Utah

White balance has to do with the color temp of the light. Each source of light has a different color temp. Tungsten, florescent, daylight, shadows all have different color temps. Color bracketing has to do with the amount of light let in through aperture, shutter speed and is right on exposure, if there is such a thing, 1 stop over exposed and say one stop under exposed. But that varies according to the scene.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Bracketing...

You do not use the white balance when you bracket regardless of what you shoot.
You can bracket using three parameters, each presenting their own problems.
Aperture, opening or closing the aperture changes the Depth o Field (DoF). This can create a problem few will notice.
Speed, speed is the least recommended to use ad if you slow down the speed to much you get motion blur that will be hard to deal with.
ISO While before we could use only Aperture or Speed now this is not the case and... It is the best option by far.

If you bracket using ISO you not only do not change the aperture and avoid DoF discrepancies but you also avoid motion blur you also influence the noise, basically killing it when you stack the images.

You assumption that 'pro shooting raw do not bracket' is simply wrong. Why would a professional not use a tool available?

So, How do you bracket with ISO?

Simple:
- Set your camera mode to manual.
- Set the ISO to an acceptable auto range.
- Set the number of shots in your bracketing burst.
- Set the EV difference you need depending on the scene AND the file format you use. Raw has a greater latitude than JPG so the EV setting is important.
- Expose manually Aperture and Speed for the first shot. ISO will adapt. If you want a specific ISO to start with just adjust the setting so that you get it. I would not recommend that at all.
- Focusing should stay the same during the bracketing burst so make sure you are not using focus tracking as if something moves within the frame the camera may lock onto the object in motion.
- The camera will use ISO to bracket since it has no other choice.

While not an obligation, I would urge you to use a tripod, the result will be much better and predictable.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

No. First off, if you are shooting JPEG, don't bother with exposure bracketing. You get ultimate editing flexibility with RAW, which will realize your bracketing results.

As others have said, bracketing is an exposure setting, not WB.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

You can bracket several parameters - exposure, white balance, flash level, and each of the three parameters for exposure so that you can see how varying the shutter speed, for instance, will record moving water, or how varying the aperture will affect the depth of field, etc.

Exposure bracketing as you describe it, is usually a method to extend the dynamic range of the camera, to avoid blowing out highlights and to record more shadow detail.

I don't know about most pros shooting raw. Some are still shooting film

And we will bracket white balance to get a range of choices for white balance, but probably bracket exposure settings for extending dynamic range more. And you don't necessarily need to bracket just 3 exposures, you can do 5 or more, nor do they have to be equally spaced. I've done HDR bracketing with as few as 2 exposures, and as many as 7.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Exposure bracketing shows its main strength when the scene being shot has a demanding dynamic range. When that is the case, exposure bracketing can help to avoid blown highlights and/or over-dark shadows that need lots of brightening (which usually results in noise emerging - even at ISO 100 - and in some cases unwanted colour shifts).

However, even when the scene's dynamic range isn't particularly challenging, files that are produced from a merge of bracketed shots can take much more pushing and pulling in PP than a single exposure can, and that still applies to perfectly exposed single exposure raw files.

WB bracketing shows its strength when the scene being shot has a mixture of tints due to a mixture of lighting (natural, tungsten, fluorescent etc). No single WB adjustment will suit the whole picture, so in PP different areas can be selected from the different exposures using selective transparency/opacity, where each exposure is a different layer. When the different layers are merged, each area will have the optimum WB setting for that area.

Bill_de Loc: US

Exposure bracketing can be very helpful with JPEG. Maybe even more useful than with raw, since you get less processing latitude with JPEG.

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nauticalmike

Thank you all for taking the time and sharing your obviously extensive knowledge with me on this subject. I learned about bracketing from the dummies book for the D3400 and in that book they discussed adjusting the white balance up two steps and down two steps from the original when using bracketing for HDR photographs which was why I thought that it had to do with white balance. Now it makes more sense, although I will need to read the manual for my d5300 a bit more before I will attempt to use it myself. My biggest problem is that I got pretty good at using the functions on my d3400 and them bought my d5300 because it could do some stuff I wanted that the d3400 could not do. Then I gave the d3400 to my daughter. I guess that I really should have read the features more closely on the d3400 before I bought it, because I made the mistake of assuming that being the latest camera that it would do everything that the previous older models would do, but was wrong.

rdubreuil Loc: Dummer, NH USA

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Basic bracketing uses EXPOSURE. Brackets on most camera's can be done with 3,5,7,or 9 exposures. Most bracketing include a few under and a few over exposures. Most use bracketing to obtain one GOOD EXPOSURE. When I am taking an image I use the exposure compensation dial, I take a quick shot and then adjust my exposure with the exposure compensation dial until I get what I feel is correct. If I am shooting in raw I can adjust the white balance in post. Yes, you can also adjust the exposure in post using raw but I like to get as much shadow detail as I can at the time I shoot. I find that you can increase shadow detail in post but I like to get as close to correct at the time I shoot.

rballron Loc: Upstate NY, USA

I have always used exposure bracketing in the past with mixed results. Never thought of ISO bracketing. Great idea.