ddub

The post about bracketing raised a question for me. I am curious how many stops apart do most of you use when bracketing for HDR landscape of sunrises and sunsets. Or just in general how many stops apart do you set up your bracketing?

TheDman Loc: USA

Shoot as many stops over or under to capture the detail you're trying to capture. There's no magic formula.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

I do it manually (with shutter speed) and I'll bracket anywhere from 3 to 10 shots depending on the conditions, but I am usually around 5 shots.

kaerophil Loc: Oxford, CT

I do 2 stops between each of 3 shots, and have had pretty good results. I use Photomatix to process them

Meives Loc: FORT LAUDERDALE

I usually do + and - 2 EV. You could zoom in on the brightest area and take a reading, then check the average brightness. The difference would be my recommendation. Before HDR I had to take a couple of shots at different exposure then make a composite. This works with inside rooms with bright light through the window. David

bull drink water Loc: pontiac mi.

I say first try the in camera hdr , you might be satisified with that. otherwise ust whatever the camera will give you.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

It depends of three factors:
1) The camera: The sensor capability is the first factor. The format it produces is the second factor
2) File format:
- A JPG must use smaller increments due to the format limitation in DR. 1/3 ~ 1/2, auto bracket.
- A raw may not need bracketing at all. The only case when you need to bracket is when the scene DR is superior to the raw DR. A couple of UHH folks have written interesting tutorials and article on this. Manual bracketing is best.
3) The scene itself if you are in an are where you have incredible contrast (white sand, the sea/water/sky/snow) there is no camera I know of capable of dealing with that (and film for that matter) so you need to take a capture for each area. Do not use an 'auto bracket'.

Note that cameras that have a sensor invariant maybe a solution to the large DR offered in some scene. A different ball game here.

Oh, use a tripod!!!

---
Raw exposure articles. There are more from these two on the same subject (raw exposure).
rmalarz: Why is this image green?
Uuglypher: ETTR and EBTR ??? Discussion and examples

kaerophil Loc: Oxford, CT

I forgot to mention that I do hand held for 95% of my shots, and have had great results.

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

Each situation is different with respect to what is important in the shot. As a rule I will make an exposure that protects the highlights. Then I will do the same for the shadows - exposing so that the shadows are captured about one stop below middle gray (using the camera's spotmeter, I will read the darkest area I want detail in, and use the reading, less one stop). Then I take one last exposure, allowing the camera's matrix metering to take it's best guess.

Generally speaking, the high and low exposures are all I really need, and the shadows remain pretty clean. Sometimes the exposure for shadows ends up being the same as for the camera's matrix meter suggestion.

Sometimes I use a tripod. other times I just hold the camera, and frame my image a little wider (assuming I am using a zoom lens). Using a tripod is great, but not always practical. Not having a tripod is not a valid reason to not take an HDR, unless your longest exposure is too slow, then you have no choice but to anchor the camera. If you do hand held, using a 3-5-or 7 shot burst and auto bracketing makes things go easier. You probably won't use all the images you captured.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

I've honestly had better luck with. 3 shot 2 step bracket rather than the 5x my D7100 can do. I set the camera for burst mode and rapidly shoot 3 times. Works pretty well. I usually do 2 bracket series for backup

Wanda Krack Loc: Tennessee, USA

I usually have the bracketing set for 2+ and -2. Depends on the scene, if I still have blow outs from three shots, I bracket to 5 shots, or change some of the other settings, until I get a shot with no blow-outs for the darkest shot.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

It depends on how many bracketed shots I am taking. My camera can do between 3 and 7 or 9 IIRC. If I am doing 3 shots I usually set them 2 EV apart. On my camera the order can be selected as to how they are filed and you can over or underexpose the center or middle shot too. The other shots would then be offset from that center or middle exposure.

Best,
Todd Ferguson
Harrisburg, NC

bcanepa

A very good lesson for me was to check the darkest value and the lightest value of the entire image and count how many stops in between. This will give you an indication of exactly the number of frames you might wish to bracket for your HDR images. Obviously, all lighting is not the same, but you'll still get a better feel for the particular settings for .

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Just for giggles, I did an HDR image some time ago. I took 24 exposures. It was just a boring evening and I decided to play with HDR a bit. I started with f/5.6@5sec. through f/5.6@1/60. http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-353065-1.html
--Bob