Grappling With Auto Exposure Bracketing

I have never, literally, never, taken an intentional photograph using exposure bracketing. I’ve had to play with the feature a bit in some cameras, just so I know where it is and roughly how it works in case any client has an issue or needs help. But really have never used it. Of course the cameras aI use generally are capable of the widest dynamic range of any cameras in the industry, and I often find my results are just fine. But for those really critical situations … I wondered if exposure bracketing was even worth it. 

I always shoot with my exposure set to manual mode. Trust me, it’s not for bragging rights, I’m not sure why, really. I’m stubborn? I am a control freak? I don’t know, but it’s never been a problem for me, so I’ve never changed to any auto processes. I assess the scene visually, take a –  by now – pretty good guess at it, and I’m usually dead on, or pretty close, within a stop or so, and I make an adjustment and then just go. I often don’t even use the in-camera meter. This sounds really bad, doesn’t it? I’m not advocating this for professional or critical work. 

But recently, the subject of exposure bracketing came up, and in this case, it happened to be with the only digital back/technical camera capable of doing so, which is Phase One IQ4/X Shutter system. A client contacted me with a question about it, and I grabbed a kit off the shelf and took a quick look at it, answered the question, all good. But then they said something that threw me – “For when I use Auto HDR Merge in Capture One”. And I went, wha? Since I don’t use exposure bracketing, I hadn’t paid any attention to this feature in Capture One (I can’t tell you when it first appeared).

So I played with it a bit, and came away thinking – Wow, that’s pretty fast and easy. But then this all took me back to – Why am I not using Exposure Bracketing? At least for critical photographs …. I do sometimes attempt to take photographs that are important to me from an artistic sense. Well, there’s no need to use it if I can’t really discern an obvious benefit to me. So I decided to shoot a very quick test of decidedly non-critical subject matter (inside CI HQ). 

I shot a 3 shot capture sequence with a 2 stop value bracket with our IQ4 150 and XT body and a 32mm HR-W Rodenstock Lens in X Shutter. In Capture One, I then selected the 3 files, control clicked on the thumbnail of one of them and selected Merge to HDR (which produces a single .DNG file). I then compared the results with the single shot capture of the scene, and also a Dual Exposure Plus capture. The captures were made to prioritize the highlight data. The shadow data for all 3 files was pushed substantially. Each file had a 100 value Shadow Tool push and between 40-80 value push with the Black Tool. That’s a good 5-7 stop push. The merged HDR from the exposure bracket produced a cleaner file than either of the non bracketed files.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at the standard file results, but the auto bracketed file was even cleaner than the Dual Exposure Plus file. For those of you unfamiliar with Phase One’s Dual Exposure Plus feature (IQ4 only), it creates 2 very fast captures with one shutter press, the files are 3 stops apart and compiled into a single file, which results in 3 extra stops of shadow data. It allows you to very conservatively nail highlight detail and still retain integrity from the extra shadow push. The final file from the auto bracket is comprised of 3 shots with a +2 exposure delta between each shot, and one of those 3 shots will have lifted shadows, one is a middle-ish ground, and one will have pulled down highlights. So the data is there already without Capture One having to push or pull, it can simply intelligently composite.

What does this mean for me? I don’t know, I may consider using auto exposure bracketing in the future. Certainly with a Fuji GFX, as there is no in-camera tool like Dual Exposure Plus. What does this mean for you? If you haven’t used auto exposure bracketing, it could be worth a try. And if you use an X Shutter lens, this is the only tech camera solution that has this capability. And it is about the X Shutter, because this can be accomplished on the Phase One XT Camera of course, but also with any Alpa, Cambo, or Arca Swiss tech camera, as long as there is an IQ4 on the back of it and a lens with an X Shutter on the front.

Summation

In at least some situations it is hard to find a better result in terms of noise than using your camera’s Auto Exposure Bracketing and Merge To HDR in Capture One.

The results for Phase One IQ4 users may be close enough that one could decide to use Dual Exposure Plus rather than Auto Bracketing.

Benefits for Dual Exposure Plus are that it accomplishes the result in 2 captures, while most photographers use 3-5 shots in a bracket. Also, the result is accomplished in-camera, the downloaded result is a single file. While a bracket will be comprised of all the shots downloaded individually and then requiring assembly in Capture One (though the assembly is very fast and easy via the Merge to HDR function).

If you really want to nail your highlights and retain the highest quality in shadow areas that are pushed, an auto exposure bracket may be your best bet, and certainly a superior result compared to a file captured in a standard manner. Obviously, tripod required.

Product Benefits discussed:

For any camera: Capture One Merge to HDR, fast and easy

For any technical shift cameras using a Phase One IQ4 and X Shutter lens: auto exposure bracketing

For IQ4 users: Dual Exposure Plus

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out! Your purchase strengthens our business, and we appreciate it!

steve@captureintegration.com – 404.543.8475

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