[sergysergy]

I have a question. I barely use exposure bracketing but it is very likely I will need to use it to create HDRs in an upcoming trip.
How can the depth of field be affected? Or in other words, can the final HDR image show areas that are out of focus because one of the images was taken at a large aperture?
Thanks in advance!

[ismaelg]

Hello,

I bracket in Aperture priority (Av) and the camera basically selects different shutter speeds.

Thanks,

[BruceBanner]

I have a question. I barely use exposure bracketing but it is very likely I will need to use it to create HDRs in an upcoming trip.
How can the depth of field be affected? Or in other words, can the final HDR image show areas that are out of focus because one of the images was taken at a large aperture?
Thanks in advance!

There are different ways to make a HDR, and changing aperture is actually one of them, in fact I was quite shocked to discover my camera doing it one time when I never meant for it. Typically however you want the aperture to stay the same and only the shutter speed to change.

If I recall correctly the aperture changing during the bracketing exposure was occurring in Manual mode and I think I perhaps 'Green Buttoned' before taking the shot (or something), Av mode is possibly more advisable.

Never underestimate the dynamic range of Pentax though, I've taken a well balanced single shot (almost getting red blinkies for clipped highlights etc). During the post processing I sometime duplicate the file (Create Virtual Copy in Lightroom/Duplicate Layer in PS) and steer each image/layer in the direction I need (one for highlights, one for shadows), a bit more work perhaps and some brush work required but the end result can be pretty good, example;



Single file duplicated twice, with one image I steered the sky and clouds to how I wanted (the original file had the sky showing no texture, just white/grey washed out and dull), and then the other file recovered the subject for exposure and shadows, then put the two together.

So... you can kinda get 'HDR' from even one file sometimes, so bare that in mind, if you forget to HDR a shot not all is lost etc

[jspi]

Depending on your camera...

Mine (k3 ii) has a bracketing setting. You choose 3 or 5 shots. Set the exposure brackets (ex. -2, -1, 0, +1, +2) and the camera does the rest. This only adjusts the shutter speed.

If you don't have the option in camera, one stop adjustment is doubling or having the shutter speed. So....

-2 = 1/800
-1 = 1/400
0 = 1/200
+1 = 1/100
+2 = 1/50

While the camera (and Photoshop) will align the photos for you, it's best with a tripod. Depending on your subject, a tripod may be required.

[sergysergy]

Thanks for the quick replies. I was talking particularly about apertures because I do not think I will be able to get usable shots at speeds lower than 1/10 (being lucky since I cannot use a tripod or similar)

[K1N8]

What camera? The K-1 has a HDR mode that takes 3 bracket exposures and combines them in camera. With shake reduction it even works handheld. HDR Auto works just fine in most cases. I often use it in high contrast situations.

[stevebrot]

If I recall correctly the aperture changing during the bracketing exposure was occurring in Manual mode and I think I perhaps 'Green Buttoned' before taking the shot (or something)

The trick is to set the green button action in M mode to Tv-shift. Then the bracket will be done with shutter only and not the program line.


Steve

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Last edited by stevebrot; 09-20-2019 at 04:52 PM.

[biz-engineer]

Thanks for the quick replies. I was talking particularly about apertures because I do not think I will be able to get usable shots at speeds lower than 1/10 (being lucky since I cannot use a tripod or similar)

With the k1, you can decide what is bracketed, e.g aperture, shutter speed or iso. Iso bracketing for hdr isn't of any benefit since you could create 3 files from a single exposure as per iso invariance of the sensor. In your case you want to keep shutter speed constant and bracket aperture, you can do so using Tv, TAv or M exposure modes. If you use TAv exposure mode you have to set e-dial program shift for TAv to Av shift. If you use M exposure mode you have to set e-dial program shift for M to Av shift. When you will stack exposures from different apertures the depth of field of the final image will depend on the hdr method used.

[stevebrot]

Thanks for the quick replies. I was talking particularly about apertures because I do not think I will be able to get usable shots at speeds lower than 1/10 (being lucky since I cannot use a tripod or similar)

If you use a mode that brackets exposure by aperture*, you can expect DOF to vary between shots. Be aware too that adding auto ISO to the bracket puzzle complicates things.


Steve

* Tv, P (Tv-shifted), M (green button Av-shift)

[BruceBanner]

The trick is to set the green button action in M mode to Tv-shift. Then the bracket will be done with shutter only and not to program line.


Steve

Ah yes, I think that was it. If you have the Program Line for green button in Manual mode then the bracketing will change aperture on a certain Program Line I think? Whereas if you bind the green button to Tv Shift then it will keep aperture fixed and mess with the shutter speed only?

Thanks for the quick replies. I was talking particularly about apertures because I do not think I will be able to get usable shots at speeds lower than 1/10 (being lucky since I cannot use a tripod or similar)

Interesting that you think you will be bracketing and getting shutters as low as 1/10, curious and nosey now as to what you might be shooting

What camera? The K-1 has a HDR mode that takes 3 bracket exposures and combines them in camera. With shake reduction it even works handheld. HDR Auto works just fine in most cases. I often use it in high contrast situations.

K-1 can do 5 bracket exposures too. Please note that the HDR Auto feature only applies to Jpgs and not RAW files. For RAW shooters the HDR mode is pretty redundant.

With the k1, you can decide what is bracketed, e.g aperture, shutter speed or iso. Iso bracketing for hdr isn't of any benefit since you could create 3 files from a single exposure as per iso invariance of the sensor. In your case you want to keep shutter speed constant and bracket aperture, you can do so using Tv, TAv or M exposure modes. If you use TAv exposure mode you have to set e-dial program shift for TAv to Av shift. If you use M exposure mode you have to set e-dial program shift for M to Av shift. When you will stack exposures from different apertures the depth of field of the final image will depend on the hdr method used.

I was going to ask this, if there was any merit to ISO shifts (perhaps along with shutter shifts that make it less 'dramatic' shifts in shutter speeds (dropping down too low etc, bumps up ISO to help/compensate). I was also going to ask how the aperture shifted bracketed shot actually turns out. Surely it must be a mix, does it not look weird or does it actually blend the apertures quite well and create something interesting that works? I kinda want to see aperture shifted bracketed/hdr shots now

If you use a mode that brackets exposure by aperture*, you can expect DOF to vary between shots. Be aware too that adding auto ISO to the bracket puzzle complicates things.


Steve

* Tv, P (Tv-shifted), M (green button Av-shift)

Hehe, this could get messy, I wanna see dramatic aperture and ISO changing bracketed hdr shots now

[stevebrot]

Two more things:

1) Use the default bracket order unless you have compelling reason to set it otherwise. Strange things happen when the order changes (rat hole topic...just take it at face value).

2) Be aware that the unexpected may happen if the bracket might result in settings beyond the available range for camera or lens.


Steve

[stevebrot]

Whereas if you bind the green button to Tv Shift then it will keep aperture fixed and mess with the shutter speed only?

Yes


Steve

[K1N8]

K-1 can do 5 bracket exposures too. Please note that the HDR Auto feature only applies to Jpgs and not RAW files. For RAW shooters the HDR mode is pretty redundant.

In manual bracketing 5 are possible, but not in HDR Mode, unless i overlooked a setting. Only the +/- range can be adjusted by pressing OK on the HDR tile.


The 3 exposures are saved in a single RAW DNG file, and can be separated again with DCU5 or dcraw. Aurora HDR also supports opening the combined DNG directly.

I find the in-camera HDR quite useful, as i often don't want to fiddle around with any extra software and the JPEG results just work SooC.

[sergysergy]

Ah yes, I think that was it. If you have the Program Line for green button in Manual mode then the bracketing will change aperture on a certain Program Line I think? Whereas if you bind the green button to Tv Shift then it will keep aperture fixed and mess with the shutter speed only?

Interesting that you think you will be bracketing and getting shutters as low as 1/10, curious and nosey now as to what you might be shooting

Nothing that exotic of that hasn't been done 1000 time before . It is Antelope Canyon. I have been reading about the conditions there and that is what I would expect. I don't have the time nor the patience to do a photography tour so hand-held pictures it is.
Using a K-1

[BruceBanner]

In manual bracketing 5 are possible, but not in HDR Mode, unless i overlooked a setting. Only the +/- range can be adjusted by pressing OK on the HDR tile.


The 3 exposures are saved in a single RAW DNG file, and can be separated again with DCU5 or dcraw. Aurora HDR also supports opening the combined DNG directly.

I find the in-camera HDR quite useful, as i often don't want to fiddle around with any extra software and the JPEG results just work SooC.

Ah yes, that's right. Earlier this year I investigated this mode further, I was hopeful that the RAW DNG had the hdr 'baked in', but alas it did not (at least not in LR or RawTherapee). I was further hopeful that in RawTherapee we could apply some 'motion correction' like we could with pixelshift files, that might be a really neat and welcome option for hdr users. But again this didn't work. I don't even think RawTherapee could separate the three RAW files, or perhaps they all had the same exposure etc...? Can't recall.

I came to the conclusion it really is useful only for the Jpg SOOC types (which is perfectly fine and reasonable), i just had hoped perhaps that somehow the 3 RAW files at different exposures were merged into one RAW file that has those 'blends baked in' and thus we could get a singular RAW file that had the hdr applied from which we could work from (more maneurvability than the Jpg, such as better dynamic range and WB to work with etc). I think what I wanted was probably an oxymoron and flies in the face of the point of RAW hehe.

I favoured HDR 1, Auto felt too random and the other two too extreme in effect.

Two more things:

1) Use the default bracket order unless you have compelling reason to set it otherwise. Strange things happen when the order changes (rat hole topic...just take it at face value).

2) Be aware that the unexpected may happen if the bracket might result in settings beyond the available range for camera or lens.


Steve

My bracketing order does go -2 -1 0 +1 +2, I find that the easiest way when dealing with the files which one is '0', it's the middle one

Nothing that exotic of that hasn't been done 1000 time before . It is Antelope Canyon. I have been reading about the conditions there and that is what I would expect. I don't have the time nor the patience to do a photography tour so hand-held pictures it is.
Using a K-1

Sounds great. Maybe even a monopod might help for stability. I have not seen any results from aperture bracketing hdr images so I cannot say as to whether this works well or not. I recall the very first time it happened that it was an odd occurrence, I thought it would be a mess to try and get a shot out of 5 images using different apertures, but maybe it works!

Depending on the lens used, and if you can have some kind of stability/bracing going on, you might find 1/10 fine to work with. Software does an amazing job these days of aligning images, tripods help but you don't need them for bracketing always.These shots were all done handheld, 5 bracketing (shutter speed changing) and processed in PS;

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Of course I had more light available than you.. Good luck!