SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

What alien planet is that second shot from?

jdubu Loc: San Jose, CA

Shooting bracketed allows you to do either HDR, pick an exposure to PP or layer and mask.

I don't bracket when shooting with a lot of motion. I shoot brackets when it's possible and I may never get back there, (like a vacation) or being paid shooting interiors for designers.

Sometimes I may run a HDR just to see if the results are worth pursuing more. Vacation shots I might pick the best working exposure or utilize layers. I really overshoot paid sessions, because I would rather have too many files than be missing a critical one. The fact that nothing moves and I am on a camera stand makes it easy to do multiple exposures, or reshoot if I do move something. Plus, usually I will shoot with and without additional supplemental lighting to increase my options. I don't do a lot of HDR but use PSCC layers and masks to produce finished files. The largest bracket I set is 9 and usually 5 and never more than 1 stop between exposures. I found that the CamRanger2 helps speed shooting brackets and control on a tablet is seamless.

sb Loc: Florida's East Coast

Bracketing alone may give you options in selecting which photo looks "less bad", but in my opinion, if you have that big of a difference in light in your scene, HDR can be very useful in giving you a better result. Canon in-camera HDR takes three photos in rapid succession and blends them - no tripod is needed. I have my iPhone camera settings on "HDR" - I guess it decides when and how to use HDR - I can't hear multiple exposures being taken. Both of these HDR techniques yield very decent images - never "overblown". If you take bracketed photos with a tripod-mounted camera and then use post-processing software to create an HDR image, you have a lot more control of the output, and this is especially good if you like them slightly overblown. I find the in-camera HDR generally gives very nice results without the final image "looking like an HDR image".

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

HDR, high density range, combines up to 7 images into one chosen by the camera. Bracketing takes a series of seperate photos at different exposure settings that are chosen by the photographer. HDR is best used in high density scenes. Bracketing is used in difficult lighting conditions that allows the photographer to later choose the exposure they like the best. Personally I have NEVER used Bracketing. I use manual exposure, shoot in RAW, and adjust my exposure looking through the lens of my mirrorless camera. In Iceland I shot in manual and raw using my D850 and used the dial inside the viewfinder to adjust my settings, which was usually one stop under exposed.

dsnoke Loc: North Georgia, USA

As I see it, the only difference between bracketing and HDR is in the processing. In both cases, a number of exposures are taken and combined. If you use in-camera HDR, then the camera decides everything (number of exposures and how they are combined.) If you take a number of bracketed exposures, then you can select the one you think best and discard the rest,; or you can use the HDR software in Lightroom or Photomatix or Affinity Photo; or you can manually blend the exposures using the software of your choice.

So the big choices are (1) do you take bracketed exposures and use only one of them or (2) use them all in combination.

jlg1000 Loc: Uruguay / South America

Because of the damned 2nd principle of thermodynamics, you can't go back in time.

Therefore, when I'm at a location and if the subject is static, I always use exposure bracketing. Later on, at the computer I, and looking at the histogram, I decide if to use HDR, or which exposure was best or to cull al shots altogether.

Robertl594 Loc: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Nantucket

My take.
Your sensor has a limited amount of dynamic range, less than our eyes can see. When you have very bright and very dark areas in a scene, your camera cannot expose for both. The work around is to take multiple shots exposing for both of the extremes, then merging them together so you have a combination of properly exposed extremes merged into one with the entire dynamic range.

Bracketing is one way of doing it. Be careful to only adjust your shutter speed and not your f-stop, as your depth of field will change. A tripod is a must.

Hope this is helpful.

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

I might be wrong, but I thought my friend’s Sony took 5 shots in the HDR mode, although a tripod was an absolute necessity. I had doubts when I got my Nikon D5100 and it took only 2 shots while the manual still suggested using a tripod.

My D800 also has in camera HDR although it fires off those two shots more rapidly than does the 5100. I haven’t yet had a chance to compare the two on the same high contrast scene. I yet to use a tripod any time I’ve taken a HDR shot because I never went out intentionally looking for one.

I will say that I no longer have doubts about Nikon’s 2 shot system. If it had a 5 shot deal, I probably never could have used it because as I said, my HDR shots were spontaneous and I didn’t have a tripod. It’s not something I use all the time but is nice for those times on vacation when if you miss the shot, there is no going back.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Shooting HDR is fun, and you can do varying degrees of processing. Very often, the photographer does not choose to make it look natural.

https://digital-photography-school.com/make-natural-looking-hdr-images-with-aurora-hdr-2018/
http://www.lightstalking.com/how-to-do-hdr/
http://captainkimo.com/hdr-software-review-comparison/
http://digital-photography-school.com/step-by-step-how-to-use-hdr-merge-in-lightroom/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmRFpM_j8RY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmL1Ahug_GM

Free -
https://www.easyhdr.com/download/basic/

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Since I shoot JPEG and like keeping things SIMPLE I use Sony's 3 shot in camera HDR mode hand held using 3 stops under and 3 stops over and get what I consider good "normal" looking results......
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efleck Loc: Vancouver, WA State

I use bracketing very often, especially in challenging light situations--shadows and bright light. Just returned from Iceland where one correspondent mentioned the challenging light conditions. So, I took many bracketed shots. Considering the wide open spaces I also too a number of pano shots to eventually merge into a panoramic. I never use the in-camera HDR function in my OM-1 but rather the other option to take brackets set at set exposure stops. The in-camera HDR process is definitely inferior to merging in Aurora. Currently, I use, mostly, 3 shots set at 2 stops each. During post processing this past two weeks I have noticed that if I process my brackets in Aurora I get better images than when I process them in Lightroom Classic. Furthermore, when I do a panoramic shot of 3-5 shots using exposure bracketing for each position, I get far better images first processing in Aurora then merging in Lightroom Classic compared to combining processing the brackets and merging using the HDR Panoramic setting in Lightroom. This is not a minor improvement, but quire dramatic. I have no clue why my processing works better if I use Aurora to do the HDR process followed by pano merging using Lightroom.

User ID

Agree and will only add that in-camera HDR varies greatly from brand to brand and even over time in any one brand.

While the OPs camera apparently offers 2-frame HDR other cameras use several frames. There are acoarst good reasons for either way.

jlg1000 Loc: Uruguay / South America

Right, and because of engineering compromises, the CPU in a camera is much inferior that the one of a PC... so the HDR algorithms in the camera must be very simplified.

I have a powerful Xeon based PC, and CO1 takes about a minute to compile a 9 shot 1EV bracketed photo... the same algorithm would take hours in camera. AND you have always the choice to just pick one of the exposures and precess in post rather than do HDR.

HDR is a destructive process (entropy gets much higher), so if it went bad in camera, it's impossible to fix it later.

My point: you are not going back to take the very same photo never ever... use your opportunity on location to bring as much information as you can. Use bracketing, or multiple drive mode, shoot the same subjects from different angle or location... shoot, shoot, shoot... decide later what to keep or what to do.

Robertl594 Loc: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Nantucket

Your histogram is an indispensable tool in determining you exposure range for your first and last shot. Also, take a picture of your hand (or something that will show you an intensional break) in between sequences so you know where one ends and the next begins. Don’t forget to take one shot metered for the entire frame as maybe it will be ok.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Whattttt?