Tripod
Vacation Photography: A trip to Yellowstone Part 1, Bracketing
10/08/11 09:16
Vacation Photography: A trip to Yellowstone Part 1, Bracketing
Old Faithful , Yellowstone National Park, WY
Nature magazines are full of wonderful photographs of Yellowstone National Park. Did you ever wonder how the photographer was always able to get such great exposure on every shot? They even get great exposure on shots that you know that they could not have planned, spur of the moment shots. Those great shots don’t just happen, the photographer prepares for the shot.
The great photographs start with planning. In some cases this begins weeks or months prior to the shoot or could be as simple as walking around and enjoying the attractions for a while until the time comes to pull out the camera. You want to see what catches your eye, what makes a lasting and a first impression on you and what you would want to share with others via a photograph.
The next step is making decisions about depth of field and shutter speed. You have to make the determination about wether you need a shallow depth of field (e.g. blurring the background) or if you want to let the shutter stay open a bit longer (e.g. motion blur when shooting running water).
You must select the proper ISO or film speed for the subject. Remember that just because it is mid-day you will not always shoot ISO100. If you are trying to take a photograph of a bear cub in a dark tree line you might consider bumping the ISO up to 400 or even 800. Remember it is the subject that you are exposing for, not the amount of light directly around you.
Set your camera to record RAW images or RAW + JPEG images. Capturing Raw is one of the best ways to hedge your bet on exposure. RAW format has a larger dynamic range than it’s little brother JPEG. Larger dynamic range means more leeway with exposure and that means better prints.
So at this point you have done planning, depth of field and shutter speed determinations, ISO selections, and set the camera to RAW. The next step to great photography is just about as old school as SLR photography gets. It is the secret of most of the great magazine photography. It is bracketing your exposures.
What is Bracketing?
There are several types of bracketing but when you hear someone say that they are bracketing exposures 99.99% of the time, they mean they are shooting at least three exposures of the same image and that one exposure will be slightly underexposed, one image will be exposed for the best balance between light and dark, and one image will be slightly over exposed.
Why would I want to do that?
Automatic light meters in modern cameras are very good. However, they are not perfect. Has this happened to you: you allow the camera to determine exposure and then later find that the image was too dark or too light? The problem with automatic exposure is that the camera does not really know the subject of the photograph. Something like a bright sky or a dark patch of trees can throw off the exposure. Even the best professional photographer shooting in full manual will scrub more than a frame now and again because of a miscalculated exposure.
Bracketing and the Modern DSLR
Bracketing can be accomplished either manually or by allowing the camera to do it for you. In many if not most cases it is best to let the camera do its stuff. Check your owners manual for your camera and set your camera to bracketed exposure. Many times the camera will give you a choice of +- .7 EV or +- .3 EV or maybe even +- 1EV. I like the look of the +- .7 EV and it is the most common setting across camera manufacturers so cameras will likely default to that setting on your camera. You will notice, in your owner’s manual, that there is also something called white balance bracketing, I encourage you to read about it and try it out, but for today we will stick with exposure bracketing.
Taking the Photos
Taking bracketed photos is no different than taking a regular single exposure except that when you press the shutter button down you have to keep it down and try not to move until you hear the shutter actuate three times. The camera has done the hard work, it will have takenthree images almost exactly alike except that one image is hypothetically underexposed, one properly exposed and one overexposed. Now all you have to do is load the memory card into your favorite post program, i.e. iPhoto, Photoshop, Aperture, etc. and select the image that seems to be exposed the best. You can do this by reviewing the histogram for each image or by just using your eye to tell you what you like. That is it. That is all there is to bracketing photography. Pick the best exposure and enjoy! The End. Nothing to see here, move along. (Hint: you might want to keep reading.)
Three in camera images of the Grand Prismatic Springs in Yellowstone National Park, WY. The first image is a balanced exposure, the second is slightly under exposed, and the third is slightly over exposed. None of the three represent the actual beauty and grandeur that is present when viewing the springs in person.
WAIT!!!! THERE IS ONE MORE THING!!!
HDR (High Dynamic Range Photography)
If, per chance, you used a nice tripod when you took your bracketed exposures then you are in luck. Using a solid tripod most likely means that your images are all perfectly aligned one with another (a cheap and flimsy box-store-special tripod is not likely to work). If they are perfectly aligned or at least very closely aligned then you can make some real magic happen in post production. You can layer those three exposures, either manually or by using a piece of software like NIK Software’s HDR Efex Pro. This article is not about how to make HDR prints (people have written books on the subject); I just wanted you to know that those extra exposures are extremely useful and that one day you might want to use all three of them to make a hyper- realistic work of art.
This is an HDR composite of the three image found above. This image was combined used HDR Efex Pro. No tonal compression was used on these images. The image was color corrected, and contrast adjusted, however the wide dynamic range robust colors would have been harder to achieve if not impossible to achieve using a single exposure.
This image is for sale at:
http://williamburnettphotography.smugmug.com/buy/17776563_PBwC9c/1424761566_5F9Z4Ws/
-- Enjoy
Old Faithful , Yellowstone National Park, WY
Nature magazines are full of wonderful photographs of Yellowstone National Park. Did you ever wonder how the photographer was always able to get such great exposure on every shot? They even get great exposure on shots that you know that they could not have planned, spur of the moment shots. Those great shots don’t just happen, the photographer prepares for the shot.
The great photographs start with planning. In some cases this begins weeks or months prior to the shoot or could be as simple as walking around and enjoying the attractions for a while until the time comes to pull out the camera. You want to see what catches your eye, what makes a lasting and a first impression on you and what you would want to share with others via a photograph.
The next step is making decisions about depth of field and shutter speed. You have to make the determination about wether you need a shallow depth of field (e.g. blurring the background) or if you want to let the shutter stay open a bit longer (e.g. motion blur when shooting running water).
You must select the proper ISO or film speed for the subject. Remember that just because it is mid-day you will not always shoot ISO100. If you are trying to take a photograph of a bear cub in a dark tree line you might consider bumping the ISO up to 400 or even 800. Remember it is the subject that you are exposing for, not the amount of light directly around you.
Set your camera to record RAW images or RAW + JPEG images. Capturing Raw is one of the best ways to hedge your bet on exposure. RAW format has a larger dynamic range than it’s little brother JPEG. Larger dynamic range means more leeway with exposure and that means better prints.
So at this point you have done planning, depth of field and shutter speed determinations, ISO selections, and set the camera to RAW. The next step to great photography is just about as old school as SLR photography gets. It is the secret of most of the great magazine photography. It is bracketing your exposures.
What is Bracketing?
There are several types of bracketing but when you hear someone say that they are bracketing exposures 99.99% of the time, they mean they are shooting at least three exposures of the same image and that one exposure will be slightly underexposed, one image will be exposed for the best balance between light and dark, and one image will be slightly over exposed.
Why would I want to do that?
Automatic light meters in modern cameras are very good. However, they are not perfect. Has this happened to you: you allow the camera to determine exposure and then later find that the image was too dark or too light? The problem with automatic exposure is that the camera does not really know the subject of the photograph. Something like a bright sky or a dark patch of trees can throw off the exposure. Even the best professional photographer shooting in full manual will scrub more than a frame now and again because of a miscalculated exposure.
Bracketing and the Modern DSLR
Bracketing can be accomplished either manually or by allowing the camera to do it for you. In many if not most cases it is best to let the camera do its stuff. Check your owners manual for your camera and set your camera to bracketed exposure. Many times the camera will give you a choice of +- .7 EV or +- .3 EV or maybe even +- 1EV. I like the look of the +- .7 EV and it is the most common setting across camera manufacturers so cameras will likely default to that setting on your camera. You will notice, in your owner’s manual, that there is also something called white balance bracketing, I encourage you to read about it and try it out, but for today we will stick with exposure bracketing.
Taking the Photos
Taking bracketed photos is no different than taking a regular single exposure except that when you press the shutter button down you have to keep it down and try not to move until you hear the shutter actuate three times. The camera has done the hard work, it will have takenthree images almost exactly alike except that one image is hypothetically underexposed, one properly exposed and one overexposed. Now all you have to do is load the memory card into your favorite post program, i.e. iPhoto, Photoshop, Aperture, etc. and select the image that seems to be exposed the best. You can do this by reviewing the histogram for each image or by just using your eye to tell you what you like. That is it. That is all there is to bracketing photography. Pick the best exposure and enjoy! The End. Nothing to see here, move along. (Hint: you might want to keep reading.)
Three in camera images of the Grand Prismatic Springs in Yellowstone National Park, WY. The first image is a balanced exposure, the second is slightly under exposed, and the third is slightly over exposed. None of the three represent the actual beauty and grandeur that is present when viewing the springs in person.
WAIT!!!! THERE IS ONE MORE THING!!!
HDR (High Dynamic Range Photography)
If, per chance, you used a nice tripod when you took your bracketed exposures then you are in luck. Using a solid tripod most likely means that your images are all perfectly aligned one with another (a cheap and flimsy box-store-special tripod is not likely to work). If they are perfectly aligned or at least very closely aligned then you can make some real magic happen in post production. You can layer those three exposures, either manually or by using a piece of software like NIK Software’s HDR Efex Pro. This article is not about how to make HDR prints (people have written books on the subject); I just wanted you to know that those extra exposures are extremely useful and that one day you might want to use all three of them to make a hyper- realistic work of art.
This is an HDR composite of the three image found above. This image was combined used HDR Efex Pro. No tonal compression was used on these images. The image was color corrected, and contrast adjusted, however the wide dynamic range robust colors would have been harder to achieve if not impossible to achieve using a single exposure.
This image is for sale at:
http://williamburnettphotography.smugmug.com/buy/17776563_PBwC9c/1424761566_5F9Z4Ws/
-- Enjoy