Exposure Bracketing Guide: How to Use Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) for HDR Photography

Understanding Exposure Bracketing in Photography

Exposure bracketing has become an essential technique for photographers seeking to capture the perfect image in challenging lighting conditions. This powerful photography method involves taking multiple shots of the same scene at different exposure levels, ensuring that at least one image will have the ideal exposure. Whether you are dealing with high-contrast landscapes, backlit subjects, or complex interior scenes, mastering exposure bracketing can dramatically improve your photographic results.

In the digital photography era, cameras continue to struggle with capturing the full range of tones that the human eye can perceive. While modern sensors have improved significantly, they still cannot match the approximately 20 stops of dynamic range that our eyes naturally see. Professional photographers have long relied on bracketing techniques to overcome these limitations and create stunning images that truly reflect the scenes they witness.

What is Exposure Bracketing and How Does It Work

Exposure bracketing is a photographic technique where a photographer captures multiple images of the identical scene using different exposure settings. The process typically involves taking three or more photographs: one at what the camera meter determines as the correct exposure, one or more that are deliberately underexposed to capture highlight detail, and one or more that are overexposed to reveal shadow information.

The fundamental principle behind this technique addresses a critical limitation in camera technology. Every digital camera sensor has a fixed dynamic range, which represents the span between the darkest shadows it can record with detail and the brightest highlights it can capture without blowing them out to pure white. When a scene contains a range of brightness that exceeds this capability, photographers must choose which tones to prioritize in a single exposure, often sacrificing detail in either the highlights or shadows.

Bracketing solves this problem by spreading the exposure across multiple images. The darker exposures preserve detail in bright areas like skies or light sources, while the brighter exposures capture information in shadowy regions that would otherwise be lost to noise or complete darkness. When these images are combined during post-processing, photographers can create a final image that contains properly exposed detail throughout the entire tonal range.

The Science Behind Dynamic Range

Dynamic range in photography refers to the ratio between the brightest and darkest tones that can be captured in a single image. Measured in stops, each stop represents a doubling or halving of light. The human eye can perceive approximately 20 stops of dynamic range in ideal conditions, allowing us to see detail in both deep shadows and bright highlights simultaneously. However, even the most advanced digital cameras typically capture only 12 to 14 stops, creating a significant gap between what we see and what our cameras can record.

This limitation becomes immediately apparent in high-contrast situations. Imagine photographing a landscape at sunset where the sky is brilliantly illuminated while the foreground remains in shadow. If you expose for the sky, the foreground becomes an impenetrable black mass. Expose for the foreground, and the sky transforms into a featureless white expanse. Neither single exposure accurately represents the scene as you witnessed it.

Exposure bracketing provides the solution by capturing the scene at multiple exposure levels. These separate exposures can then be merged using specialized software to create a single image with an expanded dynamic range that more closely matches what your eyes perceived. This process, known as High Dynamic Range imaging, has revolutionized how photographers approach challenging lighting scenarios.

Types of Bracketing Techniques in Modern Photography

While exposure bracketing remains the most common form, several specialized bracketing techniques serve different photographic purposes. Understanding these variations helps photographers select the appropriate method for their specific needs and creative goals.

Standard Exposure Bracketing

Standard exposure bracketing typically involves altering the shutter speed while keeping aperture and ISO constant. This approach maintains consistent depth of field across all bracketed images, which is crucial for successful image merging later. The photographer or camera’s auto exposure bracketing function captures three to nine images, with each successive shot either one stop brighter or darker than the last. This method works excellently for landscape photography, architectural images, and real estate photography where maintaining sharpness throughout the frame is essential.

The specific bracketing sequence usually follows a pattern of normal exposure first, followed by underexposed and overexposed versions. For example, in a three-shot bracket with one-stop increments, the camera might capture images at 0 EV, -1 EV, and +1 EV. More extreme lighting conditions may require five or seven shots with two-stop increments, such as -4 EV, -2 EV, 0 EV, +2 EV, and +4 EV, to capture the full range of tones present in the scene.

ISO Bracketing

ISO bracketing represents a specialized form where the shutter speed and aperture remain constant while the camera varies the sensor’s light sensitivity. This technique is less common but useful in specific situations where maintaining both depth of field and motion characteristics is critical. However, ISO bracketing has a significant drawback: higher ISO values introduce more digital noise into the image, which can degrade image quality when merged.

Photographers rarely use ISO bracketing for traditional HDR work because changing ISO doesn’t truly expand dynamic range in the same way that varying exposure time does. Instead, it simply amplifies the signal from the sensor, similar to turning up the volume on a recording. This amplification brings both the desired image information and unwanted noise, making it a less ideal solution for most bracketing applications.

Aperture Bracketing

Aperture bracketing involves changing the lens aperture between shots while maintaining consistent shutter speed. While less common for standard exposure bracketing, this technique can create variations in depth of field across the bracketed sequence. Some photographers employ this method when they want to experiment with different creative depth-of-field effects in a single shooting session.

The primary disadvantage of aperture bracketing for HDR purposes is that different apertures produce different depths of field, which can create alignment issues during the merging process. Objects at varying distances from the camera will have different levels of sharpness across the bracketed images, potentially causing artifacts in the final merged result.

Manual vs Auto Exposure Bracketing

Photographers can accomplish exposure bracketing through either manual adjustment or by utilizing their camera’s built-in Auto Exposure Bracketing function. Each approach offers distinct advantages and suits different shooting scenarios.

Manual Bracketing Process

Manual bracketing gives photographers complete control over each exposure in the sequence. This method requires the photographer to take an initial meter reading, capture that exposure, then manually adjust the shutter speed for subsequent shots while keeping aperture and ISO constant. For instance, if the base exposure is captured at one-250th of a second at f8 and ISO 100, the photographer might take additional shots at one-125th and one-500th of a second for a one-stop bracket.

Manual bracketing excels when you need precise control over each exposure or when shooting scenes with unusual dynamic range requirements. It also allows for flexibility in the number of brackets and the spacing between them. You can easily capture five, seven, or even nine bracketed images with custom spacing between exposures based on the specific demands of the scene.

The main disadvantage of manual bracketing is speed and the risk of camera movement between shots. Each time you adjust settings and press the shutter, you introduce potential for slight shifts in composition. For handheld shooting or scenes with any movement, manual bracketing becomes increasingly challenging and may produce images that are difficult to align during post-processing.

Auto Exposure Bracketing Features

Auto Exposure Bracketing has become a standard feature on virtually all modern DSLR and mirrorless cameras. When activated, AEB automatically captures a predetermined sequence of exposures with a single press of the shutter button, or by holding the shutter button down in continuous shooting mode. This automation dramatically speeds up the bracketing process and ensures minimal camera movement between frames.

Most cameras allow photographers to customize several AEB parameters. You can typically select the number of bracketed shots, ranging from three to nine depending on the camera model. You can also adjust the exposure increment between shots, usually in third-stop, half-stop, or full-stop intervals. Common settings include three shots at plus or minus one stop, five shots at plus or minus two stops, or seven shots at plus or minus three stops.

Camera manufacturers implement AEB differently across their product lines. Canon cameras typically access AEB through the menu system, where photographers set the desired bracketing range. Nikon cameras often feature a dedicated BKT button that, when pressed in combination with a command dial, allows quick adjustment of bracketing parameters. Sony cameras usually place bracketing options within the drive mode settings, accessible through the camera’s control wheel or menu system.

Selecting the Right Bracketing Mode

The choice between manual and automatic bracketing depends primarily on your shooting situation and subject matter. For static subjects like landscapes, architecture, and real estate photography, AEB provides the fastest and most reliable method. The automation ensures consistent results and minimizes the time between exposures, reducing the risk of changing light conditions affecting your bracket sequence.

Manual bracketing becomes preferable when working with extremely high-contrast scenes that require more brackets than your camera’s AEB function provides, or when you need non-standard spacing between exposures. Some photographers also prefer manual control when they want to make subtle adjustments to individual exposures based on their experience and artistic vision for the final image.

Camera Settings and Equipment for Successful Bracketing

Achieving professional results with exposure bracketing requires proper camera configuration and, in many cases, specific equipment to ensure stability and consistency across your bracketed sequence.

Essential Camera Configuration

Begin by setting your camera to shoot in RAW format rather than JPEG. RAW files contain significantly more image data than JPEGs, providing greater flexibility during post-processing and better results when merging bracketed exposures. The additional tonal information in RAW files allows for more aggressive adjustments without introducing artifacts or excessive noise.

Select Aperture Priority mode or Manual mode for your bracketing work. Aperture Priority allows you to set your desired depth of field while letting the camera adjust shutter speed for each bracket. This ensures consistent sharpness throughout your bracketed sequence. Manual mode provides complete control over all exposure parameters, which is essential when you need precise exposure relationships between your bracketed images.

Disable any automatic optimization features your camera offers, such as Canon’s Auto Lighting Optimizer or Nikon’s Active D-Lighting. These features attempt to automatically adjust exposure and contrast, which can interfere with your intentional bracketing sequence and create inconsistent results during merging. Your goal is to capture a predictable range of exposures, not to have the camera second-guess your creative decisions.

Tripod and Stability Requirements

A sturdy tripod forms the foundation of successful exposure bracketing. Even slight camera movement between bracketed exposures can create alignment problems during post-processing, leading to ghosting, blurred details, or visible seams in the final merged image. Choose a tripod that provides solid support for your camera and lens combination, particularly when working with telephoto lenses or in windy conditions.

When mounting your camera on a tripod, use a remote shutter release or your camera’s self-timer function to avoid introducing vibration when triggering the shutter. Even the act of pressing the shutter button can cause enough camera shake to compromise image sharpness, especially at longer focal lengths or slower shutter speeds. A two-second self-timer provides sufficient time for any vibrations from touching the camera to dissipate before the exposure begins.

For maximum stability, enable mirror lock-up on DSLR cameras if your bracketing sequence includes slower shutter speeds. The mirror’s movement can create vibrations that reduce sharpness, particularly in the critical one-30th to one-4th of a second range. Mirrorless cameras eliminate this concern entirely as they lack a moving mirror mechanism.

Lens and Filter Considerations

While any lens can be used for exposure bracketing, certain characteristics prove more beneficial than others. Wide-angle lenses are particularly popular for bracketed photography, especially in landscape and architectural work, as they capture expansive scenes with dramatic dynamic range. A lens with a focal length of 16-35mm on full-frame cameras provides excellent coverage for most bracketing applications.

Some photographers question whether graduated neutral density filters remain necessary in the age of exposure bracketing and HDR. While bracketing can indeed handle many situations that traditionally required GND filters, these physical filters still offer advantages. Filters work in a single exposure without the risk of movement between shots, making them preferable for scenes with motion like flowing water or moving clouds. Additionally, filters don’t require post-processing time and can produce more natural-looking results in certain situations.

Optimal Shooting Techniques for Exposure Bracketing

Mastering the technical aspects of exposure bracketing requires understanding not just how to activate the feature, but how to apply it effectively in real-world shooting scenarios.

Determining Bracketing Range and Increment

The appropriate bracketing range and increment spacing depends entirely on the dynamic range of your scene. For moderately high-contrast situations, such as a landscape with a reasonably bright sky, three bracketed exposures at one-stop intervals may suffice. This standard three-shot bracket captures adequate detail in highlights, midtones, and shadows for most post-processing needs.

Extremely high-contrast scenes, such as interior shots with bright windows or sunrise landscapes with very dark foregrounds, may require five or even seven bracketed exposures at two-stop intervals. This extended range ensures you capture usable detail in the absolute darkest and brightest areas of the scene. Some photographers prefer to err on the side of caution, taking more brackets than necessary, as you can always discard unused exposures but cannot recapture a scene if your bracket range proved insufficient.

A useful rule of thumb: if your camera’s histogram shows either shadows being clipped to pure black or highlights being blown to pure white in a standard exposure, you need to bracket. The extent of that clipping indicates how many stops of bracketing you require. Severe clipping in both highlights and shadows suggests a five or seven-shot bracket, while moderate clipping in one direction might need only three shots.

Composition and Framing Strategies

Compose your shot completely before activating exposure bracketing. Once you have your desired framing, lock down your tripod and avoid any adjustments that might shift the camera position. Even minor composition changes between bracketed exposures create alignment challenges that advanced software cannot always resolve perfectly.

Pay special attention to the horizon line and any prominent vertical or horizontal elements in your frame. These features serve as reference points during the merging process, and any misalignment becomes immediately obvious in the final image. When photographing architecture, ensure building edges align with your frame edges or follow clear angular relationships that will remain consistent across all bracketed exposures.

Consider elements within your scene that might move between exposures. Foliage swaying in the wind, water flowing in streams or oceans, and clouds moving across the sky can all create ghosting artifacts in merged images. While post-processing software includes deghosting algorithms, they work best with minimal movement. In windy conditions, you might need to take multiple bracket sequences and select the one with the least movement between frames.

Timing and Light Considerations

Timing your bracketed sequence properly can mean the difference between success and frustration. Work quickly when taking your bracketed exposures to minimize changes in ambient light. This is particularly important during sunrise and sunset when light quality changes rapidly, or when photographing scenes with intermittent lighting such as passing clouds or vehicle headlights.

Most modern cameras with continuous shooting mode can fire through a three-shot bracket in less than a second, which is fast enough to freeze most lighting changes. However, longer bracket sequences of five to nine exposures take proportionally more time and become increasingly susceptible to lighting changes. In rapidly changing conditions, you may need to increase your bracketing increment to two or three stops and reduce the number of shots to complete your sequence before the light shifts significantly.

Be mindful of artificial lighting sources that cycle, such as fluorescent or LED lights. These light sources actually flicker at specific frequencies, and different shutter speeds can capture different phases of the cycle, leading to color casts or exposure variations across your bracketed sequence. When shooting under artificial lighting, try to use shutter speeds that are multiples of the cycling frequency to ensure consistent results.

Post-Processing Bracketed Exposures

The true power of exposure bracketing reveals itself during post-processing, where multiple exposures are combined to create a single image with extended dynamic range and optimal detail throughout the tonal spectrum.

Software Options for HDR Merging

Several professional software applications excel at merging bracketed exposures into HDR images. Adobe Lightroom Classic includes a Photo Merge HDR feature that provides natural-looking results with minimal effort. The process is straightforward: select your bracketed RAW files, choose Photo Merge from the menu, and Lightroom automatically aligns and blends the exposures while creating a new DNG file that retains full RAW editing capability.

Adobe Photoshop offers more advanced HDR Pro functionality with extensive control over tone mapping and the final appearance of merged images. Photoshop’s HDR capabilities suit photographers who desire maximum creative control and don’t mind a steeper learning curve. The software provides numerous presets as starting points, which you can then customize to achieve your desired aesthetic.

Specialized HDR software like Photomatix Pro and Aurora HDR provide powerful tools designed specifically for merging bracketed exposures. These dedicated applications often produce superior results compared to general-purpose photo editors, particularly when dealing with extremely high-contrast scenes or when you want specific HDR looks. They include advanced deghosting algorithms, extensive tone mapping controls, and preset collections that streamline the HDR workflow.

The Merging Process Step by Step

Begin the merging process by importing your bracketed RAW files into your chosen software. Most applications will automatically detect bracketed sequences based on identical timestamps and sequential file numbers. Select all images in your bracket sequence and initiate the HDR merge function.

The software first aligns the images to compensate for any minor camera movement between shots. Even when using a tripod, slight vibrations or thermal expansion can cause minuscule shifts between frames. Advanced alignment algorithms analyze the images and make micro-adjustments to ensure perfect registration of all details.

Next, the software applies deghosting to handle any moving elements in your scene. Deghosting algorithms identify areas where content has shifted between bracketed exposures and intelligently choose which exposure to use for those regions. Most applications offer different deghosting strengths, from subtle to aggressive, allowing you to balance between removing motion artifacts and maintaining natural appearance.

After alignment and deghosting, the software combines the properly exposed portions of each bracketed image into a single merged file. This merged image contains significantly more tonal information than any individual exposure, with well-defined detail in both deep shadows and bright highlights. The result is typically a 32-bit or 16-bit file with an extended dynamic range that must be tone-mapped to display properly on standard monitors and in prints.

Tone Mapping for Natural Results

Tone mapping represents the most crucial step in HDR processing, determining whether your final image looks natural and believable or artificial and over-processed. This process compresses the extended dynamic range of your merged file into the limited range that displays and prints can reproduce, while maintaining the appearance of detail throughout the tonal spectrum.

Modern HDR software has evolved significantly from early versions that produced the characteristic over-saturated, heavily processed look that gave HDR photography a negative reputation. Current applications default to natural-looking tone mapping that subtly expands visible dynamic range without obvious artifacts. Start with these default settings and make gentle adjustments rather than immediately pushing sliders to their extremes.

Focus your tone mapping adjustments on three main areas: highlight recovery, shadow lifting, and local contrast enhancement. Highlight recovery brings detail back into bright areas that would be pure white in a standard exposure. Shadow lifting reveals information in dark regions without introducing excessive noise. Local contrast enhancement adds definition and detail to midtones, preventing the flat appearance that can result from aggressive dynamic range compression.

Avoid over-adjusting the strength and saturation sliders, as these typically create the unnatural look associated with poor HDR processing. If your image develops halos around high-contrast edges, excessive saturation, or an obviously artificial appearance, reduce your adjustments until the image looks believable. Remember that successful HDR should look like an exceptionally well-exposed photograph, not like an obvious digital manipulation.

Common Scenarios for Exposure Bracketing

Understanding when to employ exposure bracketing helps photographers make quick decisions in the field and maximize their success rate with this technique.

Landscape Photography Applications

Landscape photography represents perhaps the most common application for exposure bracketing. Classic landscape scenarios frequently involve bright skies transitioning to darker foregrounds, creating dynamic range challenges that exceed even professional camera sensors. Sunrise and sunset shots particularly benefit from bracketing, as the brilliant sky contrasts sharply with landscape features that remain in shadow.

Coastal scenes with reflective water surfaces present another ideal bracketing opportunity. The sun reflecting off water creates extremely bright highlights while rocks, cliffs, and vegetation remain in relative darkness. A properly executed bracketed sequence captures the sparkling water highlights without blowing them out while simultaneously revealing rich texture and color in shadowed areas.

Mountain landscapes at midday often suffer from harsh overhead lighting that creates deep shadows in valleys and excessively bright highlights on snow-covered peaks. Bracketing allows you to preserve detail in both the brilliant whites of snow and the dark shadows of forested valleys, creating a final image that better represents the grandeur of the scene as you experienced it.

Architectural and Real Estate Photography

Interior architectural photography poses severe dynamic range challenges as photographers attempt to capture room details while including views through bright windows. A single exposure either renders the interior properly exposed with completely blown-out windows, or captures pleasant window views while leaving the interior as a dark, featureless space. Bracketing solves this problem by capturing detail in both the interior and exterior visible through windows.

Professional real estate photographers routinely employ bracketing for every interior shot. This approach ensures that potential buyers can see both the details of the room and the views available from the windows, providing a more complete and appealing representation of the property. The technique has become so standard in real estate photography that properly executed HDR images no longer look unusual but rather represent viewer expectations for professional property listings.

Exterior architectural photography benefits from bracketing when buildings include both deeply shadowed areas under overhangs or in alcoves and brightly lit surfaces facing the sun. Gothic cathedrals, modern glass towers, and historic monuments all present lighting challenges that bracketing helps overcome, ensuring that architectural details remain visible throughout the structure regardless of their orientation to the light source.

Event and Commercial Photography

While exposure bracketing is less common in fast-paced event photography, certain commercial and editorial applications benefit significantly from the technique. Product photography for catalogs and advertisements often requires perfect exposure throughout the image, with no areas too bright or too dark. Bracketing provides insurance that critical product details will be properly exposed even when dealing with reflective or textured surfaces.

Stage and theater photography presents extreme lighting challenges with spotlit performers against dark backgrounds. While the fast-moving action often precludes traditional bracketing, some photographers employ bracketing during dress rehearsals to create reference images showing how the full scene appears to audience members, capturing detail in both the illuminated performers and the surrounding stage elements.

Pro Tips for Advanced Bracketing Techniques

Mastering exposure bracketing extends beyond understanding the basic technique to developing advanced skills that consistently produce superior results.

Bracketing for Focus Stacking

Combining exposure bracketing with focus stacking creates images with both extended dynamic range and front-to-back sharpness. This advanced technique involves taking multiple bracketed exposures at each focus distance throughout your scene. While time-consuming, the results prove worthwhile for macro photography, landscape photography with close foreground elements, and product photography requiring complete sharpness throughout the frame.

Execute this technique by first determining your focus positions using your lens’s depth of field preview and distance markings. Take a complete bracketed exposure sequence at your nearest focus point, then adjust focus to the next position and repeat the bracketing. Continue until you have covered the entire focus range of your scene. During post-processing, you will first merge the bracketed exposures at each focus position to create HDR images, then focus stack these HDR files together to produce the final result.

Handheld Bracketing Strategies

While tripods provide the most reliable platform for bracketing, situations exist where tripod use is impossible or impractical. Modern image alignment algorithms can successfully merge handheld bracketed sequences if you follow specific techniques to minimize movement between shots.

Enable your camera’s high-speed continuous shooting mode and fire your bracketed sequence as quickly as possible. Hold your breath and brace your body against a stable surface like a wall, tree, or vehicle to minimize movement. Use a wide-angle lens when possible, as wider focal lengths are more forgiving of slight alignment issues. Increase your ISO setting enough to allow reasonably fast shutter speeds that minimize both camera shake and subject movement during your sequence.

Extreme Dynamic Range Situations

Occasionally you will encounter scenes with such extreme dynamic range that even seven bracketed shots at three-stop intervals cannot capture the full tonal spectrum. These situations require creative problem-solving and advanced techniques.

Consider using multiple bracket sequences with different base exposures. Take one sequence optimized for highlights with a relatively dark base exposure, and another sequence optimized for shadows with a brighter base exposure. You can then manually blend these two HDR-processed images in Photoshop, using masks to combine the best-exposed regions from each.

Another approach involves supplementing exposure bracketing with physical light control. Use reflectors to bounce light into deep shadows, reducing the overall dynamic range of the scene to more manageable levels. This hybrid approach of controlling light at capture and using bracketing for remaining dynamic range challenges often produces the most natural-looking results.

Seasonal and Weather Considerations

Different seasons and weather conditions affect how you approach exposure bracketing. Winter landscapes with snow create extreme dynamic range challenges as the brilliant white snow contrasts with dark evergreen trees and shadowed areas. Increase your bracketing range and number of shots to ensure you capture detail in both the brightest snow highlights and the darkest shadows.

Overcast conditions actually simplify bracketing requirements as the diffused light reduces scene contrast. You may find that three shots at one-stop intervals suffice for scenes that would require five or seven shots in direct sunlight. Take advantage of cloudy weather to practice your bracketing technique without fighting extreme contrast.

Stormy weather provides dramatic photographic opportunities but requires quick bracketing execution as light conditions change rapidly with passing clouds and rain. Set your camera to its fastest burst mode and be prepared to take multiple bracket sequences as lighting changes, selecting the best one during post-processing.

Frequently Asked Questions About Exposure Bracketing

Do I need to bracket every landscape photo I take?

Not every landscape requires exposure bracketing. Many scenes fall within your camera’s dynamic range capability and can be captured perfectly in a single well-exposed shot. Use bracketing when your histogram shows clipping in either highlights or shadows, when you encounter high-contrast lighting conditions, or when you want maximum flexibility during post-processing. As you gain experience, you will develop an instinct for which scenes genuinely benefit from bracketing versus those that can be captured adequately in a single exposure.

How do I prevent ghosting in scenes with movement?

Ghosting occurs when elements in your scene move between bracketed exposures, creating semi-transparent duplicates or blurred areas in the merged image. Modern HDR software includes deghosting algorithms that detect and remove these artifacts by choosing which exposure to use for moving areas. To minimize ghosting, work quickly when capturing your bracketed sequence, increase your bracketing increment to reduce the number of shots needed, and select the appropriate deghosting strength in your software. Some movement, like rapidly flowing water or wind-blown foliage, may be impossible to completely eliminate and requires either accepting some ghosting or choosing not to bracket.

Can I use exposure bracketing with a moving subject?

Exposure bracketing works best with completely static subjects. Moving subjects, whether people, animals, or vehicles, will appear in different positions across your bracketed exposures, making successful merging nearly impossible. The exception involves subjects with predictable, repetitive motion where you might capture similar positions across multiple shots. For general photography of moving subjects, rely on your camera’s ability to capture the scene in a single exposure, use fill flash to balance lighting, or employ other lighting control techniques rather than bracketing.

Should I bracket in RAW or JPEG format?

Always shoot RAW when planning to merge bracketed exposures. RAW files contain significantly more tonal information than JPEGs, particularly in highlights and shadows, providing better results during the merging process. The extended bit depth of RAW files also prevents banding and posterization that can occur when aggressively processing JPEG files. While you can merge JPEG brackets in a pinch, the quality difference compared to RAW-based HDR is substantial enough that RAW shooting should be considered mandatory for serious bracketing work.

How many bracketed shots do I really need?

The required number of bracketed exposures depends entirely on your scene’s dynamic range. Three shots at one-stop intervals handle most moderately high-contrast situations. Five shots at two-stop intervals work for very high-contrast scenes like interiors with bright windows. Seven or nine shots become necessary only in extreme cases with both very dark shadows and extremely bright highlights. Starting with three-shot brackets allows you to assess whether you need more coverage, and you can always take additional brackets if your initial sequence proves insufficient.

Does exposure bracketing work on smartphones?

Many modern smartphones include HDR modes that automatically capture and merge multiple exposures. While convenient, these automated systems provide less control than dedicated camera bracketing and typically produce more obviously processed results. Some advanced camera apps for smartphones allow manual control of exposure bracketing, giving you more flexibility. However, smartphone sensors have smaller dynamic range than dedicated cameras, and their small size makes physical stability more challenging, potentially affecting merge quality. Despite these limitations, smartphone HDR can produce acceptable results for casual use and social media sharing.

Conclusion

Exposure bracketing represents one of the most powerful techniques available to modern photographers, allowing capture of scenes that would be impossible to record properly in a single exposure. By understanding the fundamental principles of dynamic range, mastering both manual and automatic bracketing methods, and developing proficiency with HDR merging software, photographers can consistently produce images that accurately represent the full tonal spectrum of challenging scenes.

Success with exposure bracketing requires more than technical knowledge. It demands thoughtful assessment of each scene to determine when bracketing is necessary, careful attention to camera stability and settings, and restraint during post-processing to maintain natural-looking results. The technique works best when treated as a tool to overcome technical limitations rather than as an end in itself, supporting your creative vision rather than dictating it.

As camera sensor technology continues advancing, the dynamic range gap between what we see and what cameras capture continues narrowing. However, extreme lighting conditions will always exceed the capabilities of single exposures, ensuring that exposure bracketing remains relevant. By incorporating this technique into your photographic toolkit and practicing it regularly, you gain the confidence to approach any lighting scenario knowing you have the skills to capture it successfully.