Question about AEB

[breakdown]

I was out at the beach the other day with my friends just shooting randomly. The sky was really bright and, at first, I kept getting pictures with blown out parts. I turned the camera's AEB on to 2/3 of a stop and then shot in bursts of three. After that, I would just go back over the sets of pictures and, using the histogram, I would delete the ones that were too crowded up against the right (blow outs) or the pictures that were too far to the left. In most cases, I deleted two of the three pictures but, in some cases, I wasn't sure which was going to be the better picture so I kept two of them.

Is this the right way to be using AEB or am I way off?

[Mike R]

You shouldn't delete any of them until you view them on a PC. The camera display is not the best and you may find that you want to combine images ,also the histogram is just a guide (IMO). The type of shots you describe are a good canidate for Graduated Neuteral Density Filters.

[breakdown]

I really only delete the pictures where the histogram indicates clear blown out portions. I would like to keep them all but, as of now, I'm limited by card space. I'll eventually pick up some filters too but not until I get a lens worth putting them on.

[Mike R]

I'm a little short on memory, myself. OH never mind, you're talking about for the camera.
You do have decent lens. The 50mm is great and the kit lens is also pretty good, there are threads here which show what it is capable of. I have some sunset shots in my links that were taken with it. When you get GND filters, go with the rectangle ones that fit in a holder, then all you need is an adapter ring for each size "filter thread" of your lenses.

[gjl711]

One other reason for keeping all three shots, is it allows for lots of possibilities in post processing. If you want to do a HDR image, you have the material, if you want to do some blending or to bring out some detail in the shadows, you can do that as well. Also, just because the sky is blown, the rest of the shot might be perfect. With the three, you can take the best sky and overlay it on top of the best exposed subject.

[In2Photos]

I was out at the beach the other day with my friends just shooting randomly. The sky was really bright and, at first, I kept getting pictures with blown out parts. I turned the camera's AEB on to 2/3 of a stop and then shot in bursts of three. After that, I would just go back over the sets of pictures and, using the histogram, I would delete the ones that were too crowded up against the right (blow outs) or the pictures that were too far to the left. In most cases, I deleted two of the three pictures but, in some cases, I wasn't sure which was going to be the better picture so I kept two of them.

Is this the right way to be using AEB or am I way off?

I would not delete them either. What if you keep the one shot that is exposed correctly but is out of focus? Or perhaps the two that you deleted had your friends with really good expressions on their faces? Memory is cheap, a 2GB card sells for $30!

Also, do you shoot RAW? Have you heard of exposing to the right? Most of the data (somewhere around 2/3 IIRC) is captured in the right hand side of the histogram. Take a look at Fraser's book Real World Camera RAW for more info.

Don't delete them!

[breakdown]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I was reading up on HDR last night and that alone made me want to start keeping my shots and to go buy more memory.

I'm pretty sure that I usually try to shoot to the right. I try to keep the histogram as close to the right as possible without having blow outs (indicated by the huge spike on the very right end side). I think that is how you shoot to the right but I wasn't qutie sure when I was reading the description.