Reply #10 - January 03, 2009, 03:51:22 PM
Of course you can bracket in manual mode. I'd be surprised if any camera out there won't. Both my D70s and my D80 will, and I'm quite certain the rest of the Nikon lineup will also. Bracketing isn't for automated shooting, it's for either making sure you will have the 'best' possible exposure in a high contrast scene or for use with HDR. I ALWAYS bracketed when I was shooting slides. At least two shots, one for 0EV and one -1EV just to be sure that I had it. Slides did the same as digital and lost highlight detail if you weren't dead on. Bracket when you can, it's well worth it in my opinion, even in manual mode. Say you're shooting a landscape... clouds and bright sky, rocks and water and shadows under the trees. Where do you set your exposure? Balance it .5-1EV below the clouds and [hopefully] 2-2.5EV over the shadows for optimum tonal range (at least with my camera); but shoot at least 1 over and 1 under for a safety net. I manually metered, manually set my initial exposure, turned on my bracketing setting to 0/+1/-1, and pressed the shutter 3 times for three separate exposures. Watch the readings in the viewfinder and watch the numbers change. If you used the in-camera meter, you can see it change as well of course.
I would think that this is exactly what happened Corey, and you should really learn how to use the feature in my opinion, if only so you don't have to completely reset all your settings back to default every time you find yourself in this situation.
Travis
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