# 3-exposure HDR vs. 9-exposure HDR?



## jdong217

Right now, I just do -2, 0 and +2 always since my camera (D7000) is only capable of doing a burst of 3. Next time though, I was thinking of taking 9 exposures -4 to +4 in groups of 3. Something like:

-exposure compensation: -3, three shots (-4, -3, -2)
-exposure compensation: 0, three shots (-1, 0, +1)
-exposure compensation: +3, three shots (+2, +3, +4)

my question is, does this yield significantly better results? I can't try for a least another month as I currently don't have my camera with me


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## 480sparky

I don't bother with a set number of exposures.  I meter for the highlights, meter for the shadows, and take 1EV frames for those two and everything in between.  I may take 3 shots, I may take 6, I may take 8, I may take 11.  Depends on the dynamic range of the scene.  I posted a video in this thread.



jdong217 said:


> .....? I can't  try for a least another month as I currently don't have my camera with  me



Try messin' around with some of the Shootouts.


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## Rephargotohp

No,  It may even make for a worse exposure depending on the scene because the end exposures will be too far under and over exposed and you will loose detail in your HDR, You only need to expose your brightest and your darkest tone as a midtone. The rest is a waste.

Measure your scene from bright to dark and just go from one end to the other.

For most naturally occurring scenes outdoors that the sun is not in frame 3 exposures is sufficient


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## Bynx

There is no hard and fast rule how many exposures to use. Most use 3 because they read that somewhere. Some use 3 because thats all their camera will allow them in an automatic bracket mode. As sparky said, shoot for the brightest, darkest and fill in the rest from there. Street lamps at night might mean the whole image will be black except for the light bulbs themselves. Another shot for interior lighting in buildings, another for neon signs, another for the evening sky, and another couple general shots to cover the mid tones. And your D7000 is capable of shooting 5, 7 or 9 bracketed shots using your User 1 and User 2 features. Manually is my preferred method, but if there is going to be movement in the scene, particularly cloud movement the auto feature is pretty quick actually. It just takes getting used to when determining what your 0 EV is going to be. I have posted how to set your camera up to shoot 9 shot bracketed images.


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## mistermonday

High contrast scenes can easily cover a 9 ev range. Spot metering, doing the calculations of ev range,and setting up the camera for manual everything, often takes more time and fiddling than just letting autobracket take 9 shots or 3 x 3. If you have large the available space on your camera's memory card, then its a no brainer. The worse that will happen is you may end up with a few extra files to browse. If you end up taking shots which are completely black or white you can exclude them from your HDR s/w, although good HDR s/w will recognize useless data and will exclude it from the merging process.
Regards, Murray


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## vipgraphx

Bynx said:


> There is no hard and fast rule how many exposures to use. Most use 3 because they read that somewhere. Some use 3 because thats all their camera will allow them in an automatic bracket mode. As sparky said, shoot for the brightest, darkest and fill in the rest from there. Street lamps at night might mean the whole image will be black except for the light bulbs themselves. Another shot for interior lighting in buildings, another for neon signs, another for the evening sky, and another couple general shots to cover the mid tones. And your D7000 is capable of shooting 5, 7 or 9 bracketed shots using your User 1 and User 2 features. Manually is my preferred method, but if there is going to be movement in the scene, particularly cloud movement the auto feature is pretty quick actually. It just takes getting used to when determining what your 0 EV is going to be. I have posted how to set your camera up to shoot 9 shot bracketed images.



link please I looked through your started threads and did not see it. 

Thanks


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## Bynx

Here is the link http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...e-auto-exposure-bracketing-3.html#post2341553


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## unpopular

Bynx will prob call me a nasty name for saying it , but just because you're doing HDR does not excuse poor technique. Many photographers will simply choose some arbitrary bracket, usually ±2, and hope that the whole range is there. Often it is not and as a result you're going to have to rely on more noisy information to produce the proper tone map.

It simply makes more sense to meter the highlights and shadows as others here have recommended, that way you know the whole dynamic range is captured. You may not use all these exposures, but at least they are all there for you to use.

Frankly I think this arbitrary bracketing business is just poor craftsmanship, and there is really no need to employ it.


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