Photo Tips: Bracketing + Aurora = Amazing Landscape Photography
Don’t be discouraged when your camera does not capture what your eyes see. Even the best cameras are only capable of capturing 8 levels or exposure. So when you have a large range of brights and darks, it is best to “bracket” which means to take three exposures 2 stops apart: bright +2, normal 0, and -2 dark. Then blend them in post to restore what your eyes saw. That way you get greater pixel depth and the proper exposure in all areas of the scene.
I used the three original images below in a program called Aurora to achieve this result. Even though our hot air balloon was moving along, my Sony A7Riii captures bracketed images in rapid succession with an auto-bracketing feature. Then Aurora matched similar features even though the balloon movement put features in slightly different spots in each frame. Aurora is amazing! Most full-frame cameras have an auto-bracketing feature so it only takes one push of the button to get three exposures.
