carney2

I shoot mostly RAW and bounce back and forth between aperture and shutter priority, depending on the subject and circumstances. My question: Which do you prefer, aperture or shutter priority, for bracketing if you are shooting for HDR processing? Aperture, of course, means that your shutter speeds will vary, while shutter means that your aperture will change with each shot. My gut tells me to shoot shutter priority and let the aperture change.

Your opinion?

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

It is going to depend on what you want in focus, how much light you have and if you are hand holding. In some cases, I've had success using automatic bracketing and automatic exposure.

johngault007 Loc: Florida Panhandle

I'm far from an expert and still learning, but I use Manual (M on my Canon) setting when I am bracketing exposures. From what I can gather, the shutter speed on my camera is what gets adjusted from one shot to the other. I would worry about aperture changes if you are taking landscape shots due to slight focusing changes throughout the frame.

I'm sure more experienced folks will be able to provide a more detailed explanation.

jcboy3

Aperture priority. This preserves the DOF of each image; you don't want to blend sharp with fuzzy.

If the shutter speed gets too low, then reduce the aperture for the overall shot or use a tripod.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

EDIT - based on Whuff's comment below, I may have mis-read the OP. If so, ignore all that follows

There is no way to change exposures in aperture or shutter priority mode unless you also employ exposure compensation. As you already noted, if you change shutter speed, the aperture adjusts automatically - and you end up with two or more images with exactly the same exposure. The only change will be depth of field.

You need to be able to control each element. In this case it is likely to be easiest in manual mode, or try the camera's built-in HDR/exposure bracketing function if you have it.

UHH has an HDR section that can help you out:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-107-1.html

.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

I’m not following your statement Linda. I shoot exposure bracketing in aperture priority quite often. The camera simply adjusts the shutter speed to bracket the exposures.

Walt

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

You are selecting the "exposure bracketing" function and setting the exposure values, i.e. 1/3, 1/2 stop or full stop increments? You are not changing aperture, right? Maybe I mis-read the OP; time will tell

R.G. Loc: Scotland

One possible exception to that is if you don't intend to use the brightest exposure/s. If you set the aperture to what you'd want for a single exposure, the dark exposure/s will have a smaller aperture which means the DOF will be wider than for the neutral exposure so they will be at least as sharp where DOF is concerned.

Having said that I've never done it that way. I shoot in manual which, as stated by Johngault, changes shutter speed when doing exposure bracketing. But I do use only the neutral and dark exposures, unless the scene is exceptionally dark and the shadows need all the help they can get. For a normal daylight shot the bright exposures add more softness than the other exposures do, and sometimes the shutter speed is unusably slow, so I see them as taking away more than they add and I exclude them from the merge. That still leaves the dark exposures to protect the highlights (up to a point).

Can we assume that you're talking about exposure bracketing, and can we assume that your camera has a bracketing function? With some cameras they need to be put in continuous shutter release mode if you want the camera to step through the sequence of exposures automatically. In single shutter release mode you have to actuate the shutter for each of the bracketed exposures - the camera will automatically change the exposures for you but it does them one at a time.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

I might have led you astray with a brain blip

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

Right on.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I have two cameras that have auto bracketing. One is a little compact M4/3. If in the settings I pick bracketing, it shoots 5 or 7 exposures. It works in S, A, P and full auto. It does not matter, they will bracket for HDR. Lightroom then figures it out with marvelous technical results. Composition might suck, but that's a different problem.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

Correct. That is my procedure. I’ve never bracketed in manual mode as it would seem clumsy to me to do it that way but if on a tripod, would surely be possible.

Walt

jcboy3

The question was about HDR. Which combines pixel values from multiple images. If you change the aperture, then you are muddying the water, so to speak.