[RyanEustace]

Hi all

In the past I used to work in manual religiously, until the moment I gave AV a go and now use that 95% of the time.

I have come to grips with using exposure compensation, and how to get desired shutter speeds and what not..., but I was wondering if you deem it necessaries to use bracketing?

I mean I can see how it could be useful on an all white subject for instance, not knowing how much to underexpose by..

But what about on an a brown bird for instance, do you bother?, or just roughly guess how much you should alter the EC and check the histogram to make more changes if needed

Any views on this would be greatly received

Ryan

[Roy C]

I have flirted with bracketing a long time ago Ryan, but for me I guess the Ev comp needed (if any). If you use the same exposure mode for the majority of your shots and get in the habit of glancing at the histogram then you get use knowing what comp is needed for any given circumstance. If you keep switching metering modes it can be a lot more difficult to guess the comp needed in my experience.
Also I always shoot in high burst mode and with bracketing you only get a 3 shot burst (out of which only one is going to be right).

[RyanEustace]

Yeah i see your point, I only use evaluative metering and then guess the the EC needed, as oppose to using spot metering on the part you want correctly exposing.

I shall not be using bracketing, as you say it drops you fps down to 3 in effect.

Ryan

[mike from ebbw]

When I used to use AV my camera metering was always set at Centre Weighted which gives you a correct exposure for the most important part of the pic.Bracketing never crossed my mind to be honest as I was getting the results with the method I was using.I only shoot in manual now though.

[Tord]

Hi,

I usually set exposure to Centre Weighted. I also quite often overexpose on purpose since background is usually lighter than bird (extreme: perched birds in less favorable light conditions, or birds in flight against bright sky)

Another reason I believe that overexpose may be a good idea is that pictures taken at high ISO tend to show noise manifested as bright speckles against dark background (e.g. brown feathering), this phenomenon is accentued when toning the picture. I have a feeling that overexposure mitigates this.


/Tord

[nsclayton]

I think bracketing was something used more regularly in the days of film. Digital gave us tools such as histograms and overexposed areas blinking on screen, also particularly if shooting RAW digital has more latitude.

[Roy C]

Originally Posted by nsclayton

I think bracketing was something used more regularly in the days of film. Digital gave us tools such as histograms and overexposed areas blinking on screen, also particularly if shooting RAW digital has more latitude.

Still useful for HDR stuff though Nick.