Exposure compensation and bracketing

[heybatter]

I'm new to this hobby but already this feature is somewhat of a mystery to me. I understand the basics of the feature but have a few questions that I hope can clear things up a bit for me....thank you.

How often do you use exposure compensation?
Are there specific situations that you tend to use it over others?
How often do you employ bracketing and how many stops do you typically set it up for?

When you do use exposure comp., how do you utilize it? IE, view initial exposure then adjust or some other method?

[Valerius]

Do you shoot film or digital? If you use film is it negative/slide colour film or B&W? How much to bracket depends on the characteristics of what you use. The most sensitive is slide film, where I usually bracket +/- 1/3 step. Colour negative you can bracket 1/2 step while B&W has an even larger exposure tolerance latitude. If you use digital cameras you can easily set up a test to check how much to bracket with the combo you use. Important to remember when bracketing is that you keep a constant aperture and vary the shutter speed, otherwise you'll get different depth of focus, bokeh etc. Do also check rangefinderforum.com, apug.com and other sites for more info regarding this topic. I hope this short answer will help a little.

[heybatter]

I shoot digital with a Canon t3i.

I'll check out those sites you listed. Thanks.

[djh]

I'm sure that you realise, but the meter in your camera is reading light to give you a proper exposure for something which is 18% grey. Which means that if you photograph something black using a normal meter reading your image will appear to be much lighter than the black object and if you photograph something white, the image will look much less bright. Setting a different value for exposure compensation is simply the process of telling your camera to make the photo darker or lighter (+ or - light) in order to give you the exposure you are seeking (which is what we did when shooting cameras with manual controls).

With modern digital cameras, the metering is somewhat more advanced, making things easier and you can learn very quickly by chimping. Take a shot, adjust exposure by a full stop and take another shot- you will soon learn what sort of effect it will have on your images and when you need to apply it.

[Edcculus]

I don't bracket for digital since the LCD on the back gives a decent idea of my exposure. I'm sure there are some specific reasons to use the exposure compensation, but I never do.

Film on the other hand is an entirely different story...

[jazzman]

I never use bracketing with my DSLR. Used to use it with film in difficult lighting situations, but that was expensive. With digital, I've had great luck with post processing of RAW exposures, regardless of the metering I used when shooting. I tend to use Canon's spot metering in backlit situations or other difficult circumstances, and their soft spot, i.e., a larger exposure area, in most situations. I find that the really old-fashioned center-weighted metering works very well for most shots, at leas as well as Canon's evaluative metering, which is supposed to use sophisticated computerized formulae.

[Legion]

Raw has pretty much made bracketing obsolete, I guess.

With neg we used to bracket a stop on either side, with trany a third of a stop, and go two clicks in the direction we thought we should. Personally I just spent a bit more time metering and saved the film, but it depended who was paying.

[edgerunner]

What I know about bracketing with exposure compensation is it's useful in high contrast conditions in the frame - typically bright day with objects in deep shadow, or sun shining though foliage over your main obejcts for example. If you want to capture a higher range of light and detailed objects, use bracketing with + and - exposure, then use software to overlay the taken shots. I've seen brilliant photos taken this way.