Bracketing is the process by which multiple photographs are taken of a particular subject with some of the settings slightly modified, such as shutter speed, f-stop, or aperture. For important photographs, it may be difficult, if not impossible, to correctly guess 100% of the time all of the digital camera settings needed to take the perfect picture in a given lighting situation. You might accidentally over or under-expose a picture, use a shutter speed that is too quick to allow the proper recording of the ambient light, etc. Thus, bracketing your photos takes advantage of an important feature of digital photography - you are not wasting any film!

Check your digital camera's manual to see if it has an automatic bracketing feature. If not, you can simulate this by taking three or more photos of a given subject. Change the shutter speed, perhaps allow more or less light in the picture, or maybe zoom in or out a little for different effects. Remember, you will not take the perfect picture every time, even if you are a professional picture taker, so bracketing just increases your odds of getting a great photo of a particular subject.

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