In the past I had my own rule when it comes to the bracketing settings on the camera:
Normal Daylight situation: -2, 0, +2
Directly into the Sun: -3, 0, +3
Night Photography: -1, 0, +1
I still stick with this rule in general but started to change the settings slightly. Rules are meant to be broken.
Let me first explain why I used (and still using) the settings I just wrote down. The reason for me shooting in -1, 0, +1 at night is very simple – just take a look at the overexposed photograph when taking the shots in -2, 0, +2; the +2 is sometimes too bright and of none use for the final HDR photograph.
Why did I do this? I have started to change the settings on my camera so I get a higher range of the bracketing. The settings are -3, -1, +1. How can I set that up? There is a wheel on the A7R and a setting on the Nikon D750 where I can reset the “anchor” point for my bracketing settings. I think it is called exposure compensation and by default this value is set to 0.
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I simply change this parameter to -1. This is where I reset my anchor point and the if I now set up the bracketing to 3 photos and the exposure value difference of 2, I will get -3, -1, 1.
The result is a more decent HDR photo if the other “normal” settings do not work. The camera takes 3 photos and has 2 exposure values within between. The over exposed photo is not too bright and I can follow my regular workflow with Photomatix Pro now.
