AEB, easy as 1-2-3!
Use your automatic bracketing function for fast results
Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) can be activated on your camera’s Quick Control screen or in the main menu. You set it on the same screen as exposure compensation, allowing you to both make the initial exposure brighter or darker than the camera’s metered one, then adjust the strength of the bracketing.
The majority of EOS cameras allow you to take three shots with AEB – a standard, a darker one and a brighter one, both of which can be up to three stops different to the standard exposure. This means if you apply five stops of compensation to the standard exposure and then bracket by the three stops, you can capture a shot that’s up to eight stops brighter or darker than the standard exposure. It’s rare that you’ll need to use such a large amount of compensation, but it can be handy if you want to capture a wide range of exposures to combine into an High Dynamic Range (HDR) image.
Your camera may allow you to customize AEB further, such as changing the number of bracketed shots (up to seven in the 5D Mark IV), the order in which the bracketed shots are recorded, and whether the bracketing function is cancelled or remains active when you turn the camera off.
You can use your camera’s continuous shooting mode to capture the bracketed sequence, but AEB isn’t a great option when you’re taking pictures of rapidly moving subjects. There might only be one frame that records the peak of the action, and this might not correspond with the optimum exposure.