Night and Low-light Photography Photo Workshop

a three-image bracket, with each image 1 stop

different. As you can see, the three images are

vastly different in the exposure, from too dark

(Figure 2-13) to too light (Figure 2-15), with

Figure 2-14 being the proper exposure according

to the camera. In my opinion, the sky looks better

in the technically underexposed image and the

boat looks better in the correctly exposed image.

Had I just taken the single frame with the cam-

era’s suggested settings, I would never have seen

how great the underexposed sky looked.

Multiple Exposures

Many times you will want to take more than one
exposure of the scene you are photographing.
This could be because the tonal range of the
scene is more than your camera can handle in
one photograph or because you are having a diffi-
cult time deciding what to expose for. Other
times it is just because there is no way to accu-
rately measure the light in the scene, and expo-
sures are just a best guess. There are some
different ways to easily take multiple images each
with a different exposure. The idea of taking mul-
tiple exposures of the same scene with different
exposures is called exposure bracketing.

Exposure bracketing

When you bracket your exposures, you take a
series of images that have both the properly
exposed shot and at least one underexposed and
one overexposed image. Many cameras can take
this sequence automatically, and you can set the
number of shots in the sequence and the amount
the exposure is different in each shot from the
previous one in the sequence. For example, I can
set my camera to take a series of five shots in the
following sequence:

■   Correct exposure or 0



■   Underexposed by 2 stops or –2



■   Underexposed by 1 stop or –1



■   Overexposed by 1 stop or +1



■   Overexposed by 2 stops or +2

Many times, bracketing your exposures helps you
get the shot, especially in tough exposure situa-
tions, such as the series in Figures 2-13, 2-14, and
2-15. These were taken in Key West, Florida,
around sunset. I wanted to make sure I could
see the details in the boat, so I photographed

ABOUT THIS PHOTO A sunset captured in Key West,

Florida. Taken at 1/50 second, f/5.6, and ISO 200 with –2 exposure

compensation.

2-13