Helicon Soft Forum

Would you please explain setting up Exposure Bracketing?
I am not understanding how the process works enough to obtain the desired outcome.

How would I proceed with the following example scenario?
To properly expose the darkest part of an example image I would like to use
ISO 100 - f8 - 5 sec shutter
To properly expose the lightest part of the example image I would like to use
ISO 100 - f8 - 1/20 shutter.

A few questions I have about this example.
(1) Is this a reasonable example?
(2) Is my desire to keep ISO and aperture constant and simply vary the shutter speed a reasonable approach?
(3) How do I ensure I capture enough images to ensure a good final exposure when the images are merged?

Could you please help me to understand how Helicon Remote responds to my inputs.
I am in manual mode with live view on and displaying the current camera view.

When I enter my selections in the Shots, Step and Mode settings in the Exposure Bracketing settings window, does the program base its results on the current live view I have on the screen?

(a) If so then what guidance do you have for deciding on the best settings in the current live view?
Should I aim for the best average exposure in the live view or should I have on screen the live view that properly exposes the darkest part of the image?
Or should I have on the live view screen the view that exposes the lightest part of the image?

(b) if not then please help me to understand this topic.

I can't speak for the photography aspects, such as whether or not this is a reasonable scenario, but I think it makes perfect sense to prefer fixed ISO and aperture, and Helicon Remote has a mode for that among the couple various exposure bracketing modes (called "Time, then ISO").

The way it works is your current settings are used as the middle point. Then the program generates an equal number of steps up and down from that point, according to the specified settings (number of shots, EV step between shots, and the mode). So yes, aim for the approximately average exposure, not the extreme point.

You can inspect the generated exposure steps at any time by pressing the "Manual" button. You can also edit everything using that dialog, if you want to.

I recommend that you give it a try and let me know if you have any questions - I'll be happy to answer.

I now understand the method of operation.
I believe your explanation would be a useful addition to the help file.
I have just now ordered the Lifetime Pro Version – thank you.

I have a suggestion for future version that you might consider.
Using the current settings might be imprecise for some purposes.
Perhaps you could add another method of selecting exposure bracketing that would be congruent with the Focus stacking utility.
I would propose that the user could set the fixed parameters such as “Aperture, Time, ISO, Exposure Shift” and then use a system the same as selecting the A and B point in focus stacking to set the upper and lower shutter speed that would achieve the desired stack of images.
In this way the user would define the upper and lower exposure setting instead of using an arbitrarily assigned mid-point.

In practice, the user would manually change shutter speed in live view to achieve the desired exposure for the dark area of the image and tag that exposure as “A”.
The shutter speed could then be adjusted in live view to achieve the desired exposure for the light area and tag that “B”

This method would involve a little more work by the user who would have to nominate two points instead of just one in the current system, but it would result in a more precisely defined coverage.
The number of shots required would be calculated by the program from the other user defined variables.
(To remove confusion then Instead of “A” and “B” one might use something like “E1” and “E2” as the two exposure points)

To extend this suggestion further, perhaps the results of the Exposure stacking and the Focus Stacking could be combined into a routine that would automatically have the camera take the required images to produce the HDR Exposure stacked image at each focus point and then produce then produce the final HDR focus stacked image.

You can combine HDR stacking and focus stacking just as you describe. Simply set up a focus stack and exposure bracketing; then each step of the focus stack will be HDR-bracketed series instead of a single shot. You can also combine it with time lapse if you want to - all 3 functions interact with each other correctly.

And yes, I think it would make perfect sense to specify the two exposure extremes that you want to cover. I'll add it to the to-do list (but I don't know when we'll be able to work on it, due to an already long backlog).