Exposure bracketing means that you take two more pictures: one slightly underexposed (usually by dialing in a negative exposure compensation, say -1/3EV), and the second one slightly overexposed (usually by dialing in a positive exposure compensation, say +1/3EV), again according to your camera’s light meter.

The basics:

Getting exposure right can be a complex subject. There are lots of things you have to balance: how your camera is metering the scene, your camera’s dynamic range, and of course, what settings you’re using. By also taking one photo that is a stop or two underexposed and another that is a stop or two overexposed, even if you misjudge your exposure, you still have the bracketed shots. Landscape photographers sometimes refer to bracketed shots as “safety shots” for this reason.If you shoot bracketed shots, there are also a few more advantages: you can always create an HDR image, you can blend different parts of the image yourself if you need to, and, if something is moving through the scene, you can replace it with original image data instead of relying on Photoshop’s tools.

How to take bracketed photos:

To manually take bracketed exposures, set up your camera for a shot as normal. You can create the best photos by using a tripod as you know excatly where you have taken the photo and can therefore change the exposure without moving your cameras positioning around too much. As soon as you take your first shot, adjust the exposure compensation, shutter speed or ISO by around one stop and take a second shot. Adjust the shutter speed or ISO two stops in the other direction and take a third. Now you should have three identical photos that are one stop underexposed, correctly exposed, and one stop overexposed. To automatically take bracketed exposures, you’ll need to dive into your camera’s settings. The procedure is a bit different for every camera so check the manual for the specific steps. Once you have exposure bracketing set up like this when you hold your finger on the shutter button your camera will take a burst of photos varying the shutter speed each time.