What are the circumstances when" bracketing" is called for or might be used? Thank you.
If a very big if, you are actually a film-camera buff preferring positive (slide) film. Chances are slim tho'. In digital HDR as mentioned above. My Nikon D3100 doesn't have bracketing.My other cameras do and I've used it before to reduce my PP work to essentially none.
I also sometimes use bracketing when lighting conditions are changing frequently (clouds moving) and I am shooting slow-moving birds like Bald Eagles. As the bird gets closer, the camera meters less off the sky and more off the bird. So, did the camera meter of the white head (or a cloud), +2, the sky +1, or the dark body - 1 or -2.
Even if you absolutely nail an adult Bald Eagle, in certain light you can under-expose the body and over-expose the head. In those cases, you can try using HDR from a single RAW image to try to get it better (especially if the whites aren't totally blown out).
In these types of conditions I generally, do a 3 shot bracket using one of the custom modes and only bracket 1/3 stops, shoot in AV and try to adjust to what I think the exposure should be and ajdust at the bird moves (e.g. from blue sky to clouds)
Generally, most of the time, if not always. If you set up your camera to bracket automatically for every shot, it will be always.
I've studied with the Canadian photographer, Freeman Paterson, who, even at his level, bracketed almost always. That was before digital. Don't know what he would say now.
Suggest: one stop under, one stop over, and what the meter reads.
Play around with those settings and adjust by fractions, if necessary.
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