Exposure Bracketing

WhatWhat is Bracketing and What is Exposure Bracketing?

Bracketing is the technique of shooting more than one frame of the same subject scene with varying camera settings. In the old days or if you have other brands of cameras, you can do this manually. Click, change the setting a notch, click, change the setting. It helps of course if the camera is stationary.

Even on earlier cameras, Olympus added features that covered a whole heap of bracketing options. You can bracket White Balance, Exposure, Art Filters, Focus and so on. Exposure Bracketing is one of the options. Olympus calls this AE Bracketing - the increments (darker and lighter) are in the order of 0.3 or 0.7

Around the time of the E-M5, High Dynamic Range (HDR) became a popular trend and Olympus decided to offer this feature as well. HDR practitioners are not as interested in small increments, they want increments of 1.0 or 2.0

For some design and policy reason, Olympus did not combine these features so these features, AE Bracketing and HDR Bracketing are in two menu locations.

AE Bracketing - Formal Menu

Setting Up

Menu > Camera 2 > Bracketing > On but don't press OK press right arrow pad > AE BKT > Right arrow pad > choose from 5 choices by pressing OK.

Toggling On/Off

Menu > Camera 2 > Bracketing > On or Off

AE Bracketing - Assigned to an Fn button

1. You can assign an Fn button to toggle on or off. In the assignment menu, choose BKT as the name of the feature

2. Tap the Fn button to toggle On/Off

To make changes, Press and hold the button for 1 sec to display the detailed menu. The top bar of the menu allows you to navigate between AE Bracketing, WB Bracketing etc...

The bottom bar of the menu will be the details. To navigate the bottom bar, use the Back Dial or the Arrow Pad.

HDR Bracketing - The Formal Menu

1. Ensure that the 2x2 lever is in the top position

2. Look for the Half Moon button on the Top Left of the camera. Tap it

3. The HDR menu appears. The top bar offers you HDR increment options. Use the front dial for this.

The bottom bar offers you the burst speed options. By default high speed burst is selected. Use the back dial or the Arrrow pads to navigate.

HDR Bracketing - Assigned to an Fn button

1. Assign an Fn button to toggle on or off. In the assignment menu, choose HDR as the name of the feature

2. Tap the Fn button to toggle On/Off

To change the setting increments and number of frames, press and hold the Fn button for a second. The HDR menu will appear.