Bracket

Capture a series while changing one exposure setting

Bracket workflows capture a consecutive series of images from the connected camera body. Each bracket workflow changes one exposure setting between captures, waits for the active capture to finish, and then moves to the next selected value.

Open Bracket from Workflows/Bracket.

Bracket types

  • ISO changes ISO between captures. Use it for noise testing, highlight protection checks, minimum acceptable shutter speed testing, and camera performance comparisons.
  • Aperture changes aperture between captures. Use it for depth-of-field comparisons, lens sharpness checks, and aperture stack planning.
  • Shutter Speed changes shutter speed between captures. Use it for HDR exposure sets, highlight or shadow recovery, motion blur tests, and panning-effect comparisons.

Use Shutter Speed Bracket when you need an HDR exposure set.

Page controls

Each bracket page has the same basic layout.

  • Start begins the bracket run.
  • Cancel requests cancellation of the active bracket run.
  • Available lists the values reported by the connected body.
  • Selected lists the values that will be used for the bracket run.

Move values from Available to Selected before starting. The selected values are saved with the current profile, so each profile can keep its own bracket set.

Before you start

A bracket workflow can start when the camera is connected, the connection is not changing, the body supports capture, the bracketed setting is settable, at least one selected value is available, and no other workflow is running. If the normal Shoot command is not ready, bracket workflows are not ready either.

ISO and Shutter Speed brackets require Manual exposure mode. Aperture bracket can run in Manual or Aperture Priority exposure mode. In Aperture Priority, the body can adjust shutter speed to preserve metered brightness while the workflow changes aperture.

Running a bracket

  1. Connect the camera.
  2. Set the camera exposure mode and destination options.
  3. Open Workflows/Bracket and choose ISO Bracket, Aperture Bracket, or Shutter Speed Bracket.
  4. Move the values you want into Selected.
  5. Select Start.

The app shoot/status area reports the current step. When the final capture has finished and the original setting has been restored when possible, the status changes to Bracket complete.

Cancelling

Select Cancel when you want to stop an active run. Cancellation stops the remaining queued bracket captures. If a capture has already started, the camera may still need to finish the active capture or transfer before the app is ready for the next command.

After cancellation, you can adjust the selected values and start a new bracket run when the camera is ready again.

Saving bracket runs with Path

Bracket workflows work well with Path templates that use the group timestamp token. Use @GRP when all images from one bracket run should land in the same generated folder.

For example:

c:\images\bracket\@GRP\@GCT4

Each bracket run receives a fresh group timestamp when it starts. If you cancel a run and immediately start another, the next run still receives its own group timestamp, so its files do not mix with the previous run.

Use @UGRP instead when the run folder should use Coordinated Universal Time. Open the Path help page for the full token reference and more destination examples.