Exposure bracketting in Nikon D60

[raghunath]

Since the Nikon D60 does not have Canon's automatic exposure bracketting capability, what is the best approach for a set of photographs for merging to get High dynamic range?

I understand that one should:

1. Use a tripod
2. Select Shutter Priority to vary only the Shutter speed
3. Lock the mirror
4. Use a remote shutter release if possible

Can one use the exposure compensation to get +/- 2.0 Ev on each side of the normal exposure, keeping all other settings the same?

Will appreciate advice

[The Blue Boy]

Hello again,

I don't know anything about the D60 but I will see a friend 2morrow who has one and will have a good look at the bracketing options, as well as your lens probs, in the meantime I would defer to the tutorials on this site as they answer most technique questions. As to HDR you've answered your own questions (apart from BRKTG) but what sort of images are you trying to take? I ask as you may need to take more into consideration such as metering.

Mark

[raghunath]

Thanks Mark!
I look forward to your inputs. I am currently interested in scenes in high contrast such as sunsets with relatively dark foregrounds against a much brighter sky.
Will Jepg fine be adequate or is it better to shoot in RAW?

Jayant

[Chatanooga]

I have been using a camera without bracketing option for HDR's.

I use a tripod and manually change the shutter speed myself rather than using exposure correction. Just remember if you are in shutter priority mode and manually adjust the shutter speed the camera will adjust the aperture to compensate and try to correctly expose the image. What you want to do is have the aperture fixed and vary the shutter speed to give the over/under exposed images, so I use manual mode for this. (When I started a few weeks ago on HDR's, I wasted a few shots by not realising this)

You may be able to use the exposure correction to get the same results in shutter priority mode, I'm not sure as I didnt try this on my camera.


Hope that helps.

[The Blue Boy]

Hey mate,

Chatanooga's got it covered, but you don't mention the software you're using, as to using RAW I personally would recomend it, but again it depends on the software. I use Capture NX very rarely as it's only plus point (for me anyway) is the control point feature, so I stick to photoshop CS3.

Mark

[rc53]

As with panoramas, use manual settings. Only change the shutter speed, keep ISO and white balance on manual.

[raghunath]

Thank you all for your tips on exposure braketting.
I use Adobe's Camera RAW 4.5 and post process
on Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended for RAW images.
Probably it is best to stick with RAW for HDR shots as well.

Jayant

[Pia Cardeno]

Why do you have to lock the mirror?

[Dave Humphries]

Why do you have to lock the mirror?

To minimise the risk of blurring due to (camera+tripod) vibration caused by mirror going up and down 3 times in quick succession.

It may be an issue on some cameras (if on weak/wobbly tripods), and it can't harm to follow the advice, but I do wonder how real the 'mirror slap' problem is these days.

Cheers,

[Rui Lopes]

I use a D300 with automatic bracketing. My wife shoots with a D40 which doesn´t bracket the same way. However, it is still possible to bracket images. My advice is: Shoot RAW; Disconnect automatic ISO (keep it at 200); get a sturdy tripod and a remote; Shoot in Aperture priority as you´ll want to get the same depth of field in all shots taken (I´d not recommend the Shutter Speed option as it will change the depth of field to match the different speeds); Adjust exposure compensation btw +2EV till -2EV in 5 different steps . Lock the mirror up; merge everything later with Photomatix or another software.
Hope this helps.

[Shadowman]

Shoot the image in RAW and use your HDR software to convert.

Since the Nikon D60 does not have Canon's automatic exposure bracketting capability, what is the best approach for a set of photographs for merging to get High dynamic range?

I understand that one should:

1. Use a tripod
2. Select Shutter Priority to vary only the Shutter speed
3. Lock the mirror
4. Use a remote shutter release if possible

Can one use the exposure compensation to get +/- 2.0 Ev on each side of the normal exposure, keeping all other settings the same?

Will appreciate advice

[Dave Humphries]

Since the Nikon D60 does not have Canon's automatic exposure bracketting capability, what is the best approach for a set of photographs for merging to get High dynamic range?

I understand that one should:

1. Use a tripod
2. Select Shutter Priority to vary only the Shutter speed
3. Lock the mirror
4. Use a remote shutter release if possible

Can one use the exposure compensation to get +/- 2.0 Ev on each side of the normal exposure, keeping all other settings the same?

Will appreciate advice

Hi there,

Welcome to the CiC forums.

I'd just like to clarify why step 2 is definitely not the way to do it, a couple (or 3) others have said 'use manual', but not explained why, which I think would be useful.

If you use Shutter priority, the camera is essentially still on Auto, so when you take the first shot at say; 1/125 (at say f8), when you select 1/250, all that will happen is the camera thinks you still want the same exposure and it will open the aperture to f5.6, then when you take at 1/60, it will close down to f11 - because the camera doesn't know (in Shutter or Aperture priority) that you want to bracket, it only knows to give the right exposure.

I guess in theory you could use EC to give under and over exposed shots (the brackets), but as someone mentioned, this should be done by forcing a fixed Aoerture, hence Aperture priority, this should make the camera vary the shutter speed to achieve the bracketing.

To my mind, manual is more predictable, you set the aperture you want, meter and set a shutter speed, then vary that up and down by say two stops.

Cheers,