Earlier, in a post about fireworks photography, and also in a post about windows, I mentioned briefly the subject of bracketing. Tracy also wrote a post in her photo glossary series about it. I would like to further expand on the topic, to be sure that my readers understand what we are talking about.
In the old days, before digital and auto everything cameras, you used to have to take pictures on slide film. Then you would send it out in the mail (remember the mail?), to a processing place, and they would send you your slides back. Then you put them in a slide projector, and bored your family with hundreds of pictures of the trip you took to Disneyland, or wherever.
Those days are gone, but the techniques we used to get properly exposed slides are not, and they apply to digital photography just as much as they did to slide or film photography.
Slide film was tough to use, since it didn’t have a whole lot of leeway as far as the range of lighting that it could handle. In other words, you couldn’t get a good slide if you didn’t know exactly how to handle different lighting situations. You could, of course, just as easily get a bad shot if you didn’t know the proper exposure.
To get the perfect shot properly exposed on slide film, one of the techniques that was used is called bracketing. Bracketing is a technique whereby you get two or more (typically three) shots of the same subject, at different shutter speeds and aperture settings.
The first shot is taken at the “proper exposure” (according to the in camera meter, or a separate hand held light meter), and the other two are taken usually one stop under that reading and one stop over that reading. The reason for this was to attempt to get a proper exposure.
The technique is still applicable with digital cameras, since digital also does not have the range that film does. So, using a digital camera is similar to shooting slide film. If your camera has settings that can be adjusted, you can keep the same shutter speed and change the aperture settings (ie: 1/60 at f/8, 1/60 at f/5.6, and 1/60 at f/16), or keep the aperture setting and adjust the shutter speed (ie: f/8 and 1/30, f/8 and 1/60, and f/8 and 1/15).
Or, as some cameras allow, there is a bracketing setting that allows you to do the same thing automatically. Of course, the camera will decide the appropriate settings. Sometimes this works, and sometimes not. But it sure is convenient.
Keep in mind, however, the space requirements of taking three shots of the same subject, and be sure you have extra batteries and enough memory cards before you go out and practice this technique.