What is bracketing and when would you use exposure bracketing in a product shoot?

• A. It's taking multiple exposures at different shutter speeds or apertures to extend dynamic range; use for high-contrast or reflective surfaces
• B. It's adjusting white balance exposures only
• C. It's using only one exposure with fixed settings
• D. It's capturing video frames instead of stills

Answer: (A)

Bracketing involves capturing several shots of the same scene at different exposure levels. In product photography, this is used to cover a wider dynamic range, which matters when you’re dealing with bright highlights or reflective surfaces like metal, glass, or glossy packaging. By varying the shutter speed or aperture (or ISO, when appropriate) around the metered exposure, you create a sequence such as underexposed, correctly exposed, and overexposed frames. This gives you options to choose a final image with preserved detail in highlights and shadows, or to merge the series into an HDR image for a balanced result.

This approach is especially valuable on high-contrast setups or with reflective surfaces where a single exposure tends to clip highlights or crush details in shadows. You can also use it alongside flash to balance ambient and strobe light if the scene has varied lighting.

The other options don’t fit because adjusting white balance targets color temperature, not tonal range; using only one exposure provides no additional tonal options; and capturing video frames is about motion, not still photography exposure bracketing.