Samsung NX300: Brackets - AE, WB and P Wizard

Once again, delayed in uploading a post so please accept my apologies.  That's what happens when you go to SA's biggest photo expo, the Photo & Film Expo.  Always enjoy the show and get so wrapped in the events I forget everything else lol.

So, today's post is about Bracketing.  Unlike the HDR option, the bracketing feature doesn't combine the photos for you but instead takes a set of 3 photos based on the settings. It's then your choice to combine if you want using software.

I used a tripod for all the experiments below so that when merging, photos would be properly aligned. I also took these photos in manual mode but the features will also work in P, A and S.

To make this easier on yourself, make certain that you get correct exposure first before taking the photos because the camera will take exposure points based on what exposure you selected.  E.g. if I had my exposure at -1 instead of 0 (correctly exposed), then the exposure settings will start with -1 as the "correctly exposed" photo and place the exposed points from there.

Auto Exposure Bracketing allows for RAW format whereas White Balance Bracketing and Picture Wizard Bracketing doesn't.  As you will need to set AE, WB and PW bracketing using the drive button, you can't use Continuous Drive or the Timer.  The features will each take 3 photos based on your settings.

Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB)

Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) is meant to provide you with 3 different exposures (some more advanced cameras allow more than 3 photos), one underexposed, one correctly exposed and one over exposed. The idea is that you get 3 options to choose from later on if you are not certain what exposure to use in a specific lighting.  You can decide on how many stops e.g. -2, 0, +2. The negative and positive will be the same number.

The AE Bracket feature is favoured for HDR (High Dynamic Range) which records more detail in shadows and highlights when 3 or more different exposure photos are combined.  You do require software for this and while Lightroom 4 is a powerful product you still need photoshop to merge the photos into an HDR image.  There are also other programs for merging, I use Photomatix but Photoshop Elements might be a cheaper option.

I played with Auto Exposure Bracket photos in Photoshop 11 Photomerge-Exposure feature.  The initial result given lost shadow detail, highlights and was oversaturated but under Smart Blending I was able to bring back more detail.

To use the AE Bracketing exposure feature, click on the Drive button (to the left of the middle OK button on the camera body) and scroll to your right and select AE Bracketing.  Once selected you now need to select the exposure points.

Click the Menu button and scroll down and select the User Settings (where the red arrow is pointing).

Now scroll down to Bracket Set and Select AE Bracket set.  A side menu will pop up and give you a selection of exposure points with -/+3 being the highest (+3) and the lowest (-3).  For example, if you select -/+3 the camera will take 3 photos, one underexposed by -3 points, one perfectly exposed by 0.0 and one overexposed by +3 points.

The lower the number selected e.g. -/+0.7EV, the less of a change in exposure (light and dark) you will see.  The higher the number, the bigger the difference. 

You can't use the timer (as it's under the Drive feature and you can't select both Bracketing and Timer) to prevent camera shake when touching the camera (even when using a tripod) so I found that the easiest way was to changing my shooting option to One Touch Shot.

Menu<Camera Settings<Touch AF<One Touch Shot

This way, you touch the screen where you want to place the focus and it will immediately take a shot for you without having to touch any other part of the camera, accidentally causing camera shake.

In the photos below you see the difference in exposure points and a comparison to an un-merged and two merged exposure points. Only the merged have been edited, everything else is Straight out of camera (SOOC).  Notice how the shutter speed changes (why a tripod or stable surface should be used) but the Aperture stays the same in Manual?

In Manual you can change the Shutter Speed and Aperture but as you have to press a button to change the Shutter Speed, the camera keeps the Aperture you selected and changes the Shutter Speed.  You can still change the shutter speed and the exposure points will adjust from there.

Aperture Priority Mode does the same, keeps the Aperture you want and changes the Shutter Speed but you can't adjust the shutter speed individually.

In Shutter Priority, the camera keeps the shutter speed you select and changes the Aperture.

Program Mode seems to favour the Aperture, so this you can set while the mode changes the Shutter Speed.

In Auto, Smart Auto mode and Lens Priority mode Brackets are not available.

Here the exposure points -/+3 selection was used.  Note that the over exposed photo is far more brighter than the +2 below.  The underexposed photo is also darker than the -2 below.  

The -/+2 selection was chosen here.  You could work with the darker -2 exposed photo as it contains more detail than the -3 (which could be more difficult to recover).

The top photo is correct exposure without bracketing using Auto White Balance.  The two photos below show a loss of shadows with the -2 exposure setting losing more than -3. The bracket merges could be tweaked more with better software and produce a fairly nice photo.

AE Bracketing is great for trying different exposures quickly and effortlessly.  If you want to go HDR out of camera then that is an entirely different technique that needs to be done well to look good. But it's achievable based on your skills, the Samsung NX300 will help with the first part.

I will be working a post about the HDR function in camera on the Samsung NX300 after this posting.

White Balance Bracketing (WBB)

White Balance Bracketing follows basically the same idea as AEB in that you use it to quickly get photos with different results.  But in this case, instead of changing the light and dark, you are changing coolness and the warmth of the photo.

RAW is not available here, only JPEG.

What if you took a photo and it came out too cool or too warm?  Instead of fiddling with settings, you change the Bracket settings (see above for changing the settings to AEB) and instead of AE Bracket set select WB Bracket set.

Now similar to AEB in changing the points, here you will change by how many points cooler or warmer the photos.  AB is Amber value (yellow, orange) and MG is Magenta value (red, pinkish).

So if you choose AB -/+2 you will have one photo with Auto White Balance (AWB or the white balance you selected), one photo with a warmer, more yellow/orange cast (colour) and one with less yellow/orange.

If you choose MG-/+2, one photo will be AWB, one with more red/pink and one with less red/pink. Unlike AE Bracketing, in White Balance Bracketing you can only change by increments of 1.

Photos below are SOOC.  Note that with WB Bracketing, Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO don't change at all.  You can use other White Balance options under the Camera Settings<White Balance or by pressing the Fn button and scrolling to White Balance and choosing a setting e.g. Cloudy.

The camera will use that setting as the starting point and base the bracketing on that.

Amber value (AB) -/+3.  More yellow in +3 photo and less yellow in -3 photo.

Magenta value (MG) -/+3.

If you not certain about what white balance to use, first choose the one you think is closest e.g. Cloudy Day or go with Auto and let the camera choose.  If you are more knowledgeable about White Balance you can use a custom white balance (uses a Grey Card to get the correct balance) and bracket from there.

Picture Wizard Bracketing

The Picture Wizard Bracketing feature is more fun orientated and for those who want a photo in different styles e.g. Vivid, Retro etc.  This is a very quick method for trying out those styles but you are limited to 3 at a time from a selection of 9.

RAW is not available, only JPEG.  To select the P Bracket feature, press the Drive button (to the left of the OK button) and scroll until you get to P Bracket and select.  To change the styles, go to Menu<User Settings<Bracket Set<P Wiz Bracket Set and select 3 styles.

Your aperture, shutter speed and ISO don't change, only the styles.  To get an idea of how each of the styles look, go to: Smart Filters and Picture Wizard.

f.4, 1/80, ISO 100.  The settings stayed the same, only the styles changed. 

There isn't much else to add about Picture Wizard Bracketing, it's a very simple and straightforward method and one you will most likely use more than the AE Bracketing and WB Bracketing.

Just for the fun of it I Photomerged with Exposure in PSE 11 (breaking the rules lol).  I merged the Vivid (for the red and yellow colours), Forest (for the intense green) and Retro (for the brown).  This is the result: 

The colour here is far more rich than with a single Auto White Balance photo.  

So you have an idea of what a little bit of imagination can do and help you create a photo with the colour elements you want by using the Picture Wizard Styles.  You are not restricted to 3 styles in Photoshop Elements, so you can take as many selections of 3's as you want, then choose how many, if not all to merge and see what happens.

Next up, and hopefully soon, Dynamic Range using the Smart Range + and HDR.

Samsung NX300 - a few quick things

Program mode is next but I wanted to quickly add in some info on a few other things on the Samsung NX300.

Sensor Cleaning - the Samsung NX300 has a built in dust removal system where the sensor vibrates 60 000 times per second to "shake" off unwanted dust that may collect on the sensor.  You may have to enable this feature depending on the factory settings.  When the camera is switched on or comes out of standby, it sounds like a little printing machine.  You can perform this feature manually as this takes a few seconds and can cause you to miss a shot when you need the camera to be ready immediately.

If you do notice spots or marks on the photos taken, use a Lenspen to clean the lens in attempt to remove any dust or spots.  If this still doesn't work there may be dust on the sensor, those black, smudgy or blurred spots (if the dot is a solid black, white or a colour you may have a dead or stuck pixel, further info here http://photographylife.com/dead-vs-stuck-vs-hot-pixels).

Unless you know what you are doing rather take the camera to an authorised center for cleaning if the spots are big and plenty.  If you have one or two small spots then you can clone it out in Photoshop or Lightroom 4.

For South Africa you can try the Samsung Smart Care Centers.  You can also contact them on tellus@samsung.com or call 0860 726 7864.

It will happen at some point when changing the lens that dust spots will appear.  Avoid changing a lens in windy, dusty areas and don't hold the camera with the sensor facing up when changing or removing lenses.  Hold the camera with the sensor (opening for lens) facing down as this decreases the chances of dust falling onto the sensor while lens changing.

Level Gauge - interesting feature that tells you whether or not your camera is level by turning the gauge green.  Great for landscapes and horizons. You can activate this by pressing DISP three times (if you are starting from the default screen).  Level Gauge doesn't work in Smart Auto Mode or Wi-Fi but does work in the other shooting modes including Smart Mode.

Histogram - shows whether or not your photo is over or underexposed.  It contains a white point (right), black point (left) and a grey point (middle).  If the peak of the graph is more to the right side, then the photo is too bright and you may lose details where some areas will be solid white.  If the peak of the graph is more to the left side, it will be underexposed and details in shadows may be lost.  You are aiming for a peak in the middle to get a good exposure, leading down to the right and the left of the graph.  You can find out further info here: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/read-cameras-histogram-perfectly-balanced-images/.
Activate Histogram by pressing DISP twice.

Help menu - each time you select an option in Menu or Fn, a quick window appears with a short description of what that option does.  The Help Guide Display has two options, both of which can be set to On or Off. Mode Help Guide - Set to display help for the selected mode when changing shooting mode.  Function Help Guide - Set to display help for menu functions.  You won't have to reach for the booklet every time to understand each function you select.

Custom White Balance - on the Samsung NX300, in order to customize the White Balance you would need to select Menu and under the camera icon settings select White Balance.  Here you will find the options for different White Balance settings.  Scroll to the left until you get to the Custom Set, select the setting but don't press Set or touch the setting again (to activate it) as you will need to adjust the White Balance first. Select Adjust (lower right) or press DISP to bring up a grey box in the middle of the screen.
Position your grey card or white paper in front of the NX300, making certain it fills the grey square box in the centre of the screen.  The Samsung NX300 uses Spot Metering to measure the White Balance so you don't have to worry about anything outside the box. You can either select the Measure Option on the lower right (which can be difficult if you are using the camera handheld) or just press the shutter button.
The NX300 will then take a photo and use this as the Custom White Balance until you change it.

Selecting a setting - when you select a setting by using the touch screen only, the first tap on a setting will select it, the second tap will activate it (shown by a blue tick).  If you don't tap the setting a second time the setting will not be selected and you will carry on using the previous setting.  If using the buttons, navigation is via the left and right buttons and activating the setting is done by pressing the set button (OK in the centre of the navigation buttons on the right of the camera).
I will be updating this posting gradually as I go along.

Framing Mode - according to the manual, this is an adjustment that when ON keeps the screen at a constant brightness when adjusting your shutter speed and/or aperture.  As either or both are adjusted the screen will darken or lighten.  I can't seem to find further info on this but I think when this feature is OFF it's the same as Exposure Simulation on my Canon 650D (where the screen will show how the exposure will appear as close as possible).  When ON it acts in a similar way to an EVF.
I'm in two minds about this feature.  It can be misleading if ON as you may forget that the screen is set to a specific brightness and does not reflect the correct exposure. The screen's brightness wasn't the same when moved into different areas of lighting so it's more that the screen adjusts to the lighting to make it easier for you to take a photo, especially in a darkened area.
For example, if you walk into a darkened room and the Framing Mode setting is OFF, your camera will "simulate the exposure" and you will most likely see nothing on the screen depending on your settings and lighting.
If you turn the Framing Mode setting to ON, then the screen will act a bit like an Electronic View Finder and you will be able to see something on the screen depending on the light in the room (but remember you are not seeing the camera's exposure so you can't rely on the screen for exposure settings).  The setting will make everything appear lighter than a traditional EVF on other DSLR's but Framing Mode on the Samsung NX300 kind of compensates for the camera not having an EVF.