Bracketing Those Shots

Round Bales in the Field

Lately, I have changed my photography process. It started when I discovered that Magic Lantern was available for my Canon 60D. For those wondering what that is, think of a firmware add-on which extends the capabilities of your camera. Near and dear to my heart, it is open source software that the camera reads from the memory card as it starts up, so no concerns about "bricking" my camera ! More importantly, it has added a host of options that I am really starting to enjoy using.

The default Canon firmware has a setting called "Auto Bracket", which allows the photographer to set up a three-shot bracket around the optimal exposure, and the photographer then sets the number of EV (in 1/3 stop increments) between captures. With Magic Lantern, the photographer has a lot more control - either choosing how many shots in the bracket manually, or letting the software determine what it needs in-camera.

On the back end, Lightroom CC has the ability to take the bracketed shots and merge them into one, creating an HDR-style photograph without all of the weird side-effects. There is also a nifty function called "anti-ghosting" which will attempt to eliminate any elements that occur in one of the frames but not all of them - like a truck or bird passing through the frame !

So all the way through, my choices have encouraged me to create bracketed photos, which bring out an added feeling of depth and warmth. These various functions, when properly mixed, have made complex techniques very straight-forward, allowing me to concentrate on the composition more. And that I where I know I need to focus more of my attention !

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