Exposure Bracketing: how to do it manually and how your AEB can help

If you’re struggling to get well-exposed images in mixed light, try these simple exposure bracketing techniques to help preserve shadow and highlight detail. In this post we show you how to bracket both manually and using your cameras Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) feature.

Exposure bracketing is a term used to describe the technique of taking three or more shots of exactly the same scene using a different exposure setting for each one.

The idea when using the exposure bracketing technique is to make sure you have one shot that is correctly exposed – a fail-safe method, if you like. It was common practice when shooting film, when exposure had to be very precise.

With digital it could be argued it’s less important, as there are ways of rescuing poorly exposed shots. However, it’s far better to produce a correctly exposed image in camera.

Exposure bracketing is especially worthwhile in difficult lighting situations when it’s hard to be sure of the ‘correct’ exposure.

By taking several shots at different settings you can then decide which one works best on later viewing. In extreme lighting situations it can be invaluable if you want to create high dynamic range (HDR) images by taking a series of exposures to record detail in highlights and shadows and then using software to seamlessly combine the images.

The usual method for exposure bracketing is to keep the aperture setting constant (f/16 for landscapes, for example) and then make changes to the shutter speed, which can be done easily in Manual (M) mode.

The difference between exposures can be a full ‘stop’ (1/15, 1/30, 1/60 sec); half stop (1/30, 1/45, 1/60) or even a third stop (1/30, 1/40, 1/50, 1/60) for careful fine-tuning of the exposure.

Read next: Setting manual exposure step by step