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| Locomotive Engine 7 Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, Montana |
Exposure affects the brightness of your pictures to reveal or hide details in the highlights and shadows. When you are faced with tricky lighting conditions where the brights and darks are very different, you can ensure you get a proper exposure by using Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) on your DSLR or mirrorless camera.
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| 3-Exposure Bracket, 1 stop apart 1/60, 1/125, 1/250 second F/11, ISO 200 |
You can shoot a series of frames for exposure insurance or to combine exposures using HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing in software or even in some cameras.
Setting up Auto Exposure Bracketing
- Find a stationary subject and set the camera on a tripod so the composition doesn't change between shots.
- Turn on the timer (2 seconds is okay) so the camera will fire all the pictures in rapid succession without your having to press the shutter button for each image. Using the timer also prevents camera movement.
- Select Aperture Priority (A or Av) exposure mode and choose your f-stop and ISO settings. Program or Manual mode can also work.
- Find the AEB or BKT (BracKeT) control on your camera. This may be a menu choice or a combination of buttons on the outside of the camera. Check your manual for your camera's controls.
- Decide how many frames and how different the exposures should be from each other.
- If you just want to be sure to have an appropriate exposure, use a 1-stop difference for 3 shots.
- If you are shooting for an HDR photo, use a 2-stop difference for 3 frames.
- Press the shutter button once and the camera will take all the pictures in the series.
- Check the histogram for each frame to be sure one exposure does not have clipped highlights and another exposure does not have clipped shadows.
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| 3-Exposure Bracket, 2 stops apart for HDR 1/500, 1/125, 1/60 second F/11, ISO 1600 |
Customizing the Bracketing
On most cameras, the default order of exposures starts with the metered or average exposure, followed by the darker then lighter exposures. If this is confusing, you can change the order of frames to go from darkest to lightest or lightest to darkest.
In addition, the bracketing settings may be cancelled when you turn off the camera or turn on the flash. If you want to bracket only a single series of exposures, you can manually turn off automatic bracketing.
For both the bracket order and the cancel behavior, check your camera manual.
Learn more camera controls in my upcoming class Taking the Next Step with Your Digital Camera on March 28, 2026, at the Lifelong Learning Center in Missoula, Montana. Click here for details.