Exposure Bracketing is the process of taking multiple pictures in the same scene with different exposure levels, from really low exposure to really high exposure. You then would use those series of photos to blend and mix them together which in return should create a photo with a much higher dynamic range where it will give you all the details you will ever need.

Exposure Bracketing works very well with still images like landscapes which can help create a HDR Photo that will retain all the details in the images. Exposure Bracketing is not really useful in moving images as if you merge them to make a HDR Photo then you might see some weird effects and it wont be as effective.

Exposure Compensation

Exposure Compensation allows you to override the automatic exposure adjustments your camera makes in situation’s where light is either really bright, dark or uneven. It basically allows you to adjust the brightness of your image manually.

HDR

HDR or High Dynamic Range is a way to capture the lightest detail and darkest detail of a photo, you would typically use Exposure Bracketing to gain a series of high and low exposure photos which you could then merge together to make a HDR Photo.

How does HDR work?

It works by grabbing the details captured from the multiple photos taken in different exposures, for example lets say you take a picture that has some intense shadows and the bright blue sky. With a normal automatic exposure the camera would try to capture all the light and shadows but at the price of sacrificing detail and the amount of light in those certain areas. However by using multiple exposures with Exposure Bracketing it allows you to get the best detail of the sky with the low exposure image and the best detail of whatever is around or in the shadows in the high exposure image. You would then merge the low and high exposure photos together in a program (for example Lightroom) which would then take the best details out of the low exposure image and the best details out of the high exposure image and merge them together to make a HDR Photo with all the details and light being shown to its fullest potential.