Bracketing for the Optimal Photograph

Ever experience a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity but found the proper exposure hard to determine? Maybe there's a bright and a dark area in the photograph. Maybe the lighting is playing havoc with your on-camera metering system. Should you depend on your metering system or shoot manual? This is a good time to use bracketing.

Bracketing, the technique of shooting a number of photographs of the same subject but using different exposures, gives a greater chance of achieving proper exposure.

To bracket a photograph, shoot a series of photographs of the subject but change the exposure for each photograph. First, take the initial photograph using the camera's metering or an external meter to determine the assumed correct exposure. This is your "middle" photograph.

Exposure Time: 1/200 F-stop: 4.0

The next photographs will be bracketing around this exposure. To bracket, set your camera to manual if not already in manual mode. Next, change the exposure by changing either the f-stop or shutter speed. In my example, I changed the f-stop from 4.0 to 3.2 and kept the exposure time at 1/200.

Exposure Time: 1/200 F-stop: 3.2

For the next exposure I changed the f-stop in the other direction to 5.0, keeping the exposure time at 1/200.

Exposure Time: 1/200 F-stop:

To bracket, you must change only one thing at a time. Do not change the f-stop and the shutter speed at the same time. How much should it be changed? Most photographers will change the f-stop one half or one third. The less certain you are about the proper exposure, the more you will want to change it. How many photographs should you take on each side of the assumed correct exposure? Again, it depends on how sure you are of the proper exposure. You can take one or go out further on each side and take an additional exposure away from the middle.

Each photograph taken as a bracket of the assumed correct exposure will be either overexposed or underexposed. In some situations these over- or underexposed photographs may be preferable to achieve the best quality.

Some 35mm cameras have an automatic bracketing feature. When used it will automatically select a series of exposures from the metered exposure when the shutter is released. Check your camera's manual for instructions on using this feature.

Here are some guidelines for when to bracket a photograph:

• When you are new to photography and are unsure of the proper exposures
• When you are not sure of the best exposure due to lighting or other unusual factors
• When viewing the exposure through the LCD of a digital camera and it doesn't look quite right
• When you do not have time to review your digital photographs to make sure your exposure is correct
• When you want a back-up photograph
• When you are taking a special or unrepeatable photograph

Bracketing increases your chances of getting a great photograph of your subject.

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