Bracketing

The (automatic exposure) bracketing camera mode lets you capture multiple shots with different exposures at once. On DSLR cameras, this feature is known as BRK or AEB (auto exposure bracketing).

What is this useful for?

With bracketed images you can, for instance:

• Capture a photo with good exposure when you don't know the correct exposure beforehand, or you think that you would need to change the exposure after taking the photo. You get a number of different exposures, and there is a big chance at least one of them is correctly exposed, and later you can delete the rest.
• Capture a broader dynamic range scene: you can either expose for a bright area or a dark area but not both. Later, with the bracketed pictures, you can make a HDR picture on the computer, or using other applications.

Operation

Every time you press the shutter button, multiple photos will be captured automatically, with different exposures. On newer devices, this happens immediately, and usually there is no perceptible delay. On older devices, the different exposures are taken successively with a small pause in-between. If simultaneous capture in DNG format is supported on your device and is enabled, each time you press the shutter button the double amount of images will be captured. On modern devices this is still being done almost immediately, while on older devices will take a longer time to process. In any case, the images will be processed and saved in the background, so you still are able to keep shooting while the potentially large amount of images are being saved.

Configuration

You can see a summary of the number of images that will be taken on the top of the screen, as well as the difference in exposure between captures. When you press on that summary, a dialog will appear on the bottom where you can configure the parameters:

• Number of photos: is the total number of shots to be taken. You can take from 3 up to 9 exposures. You can scroll horizontally to select the amount of exposures to take per capture.
• Stops between photos: is the exposure compensation step between exposures. The smallest step depends on your device, but a typical value is half stop (0.5 EV). However, there are devices with 1/3 EV and 1/6 EV steps too.

To close the configuration, you can either press the back key, or tap outside the dialog.

Bracketing and exposure compensation

Exposure compensation affects the exposure compensation of the central photo, and hence the rest of the bracketed photos. Exposure compensation plus bracketing lets you to take multiple dark or multiple bright pictures. The exposure compensation you have selected before you open the configuration dialog will restrict the number of photos you can take, as well the exposure difference you can apply. Conversely, depending on the amount of photos and the exposure difference you can currently selected, the range for exposure compensation might be reduced as well.