HDR Bracketing issue

[mi360_sergej]

Hey!
i have another question about ML HDR-Bracketing.

i shoot 7 brackets in 0 - -- sequence with an interval of 3.
if i set up 0,5sec as the longest exposure value, ML shoots 0,5s, 1/15s, 1/125s, 1/1000s and three times the 1/8000s.

is there a possibility to tell ML to shoot the 1/8000s only once?
i know, when i set up only 5 brackets it does, thogh i need to remote control the camera und at the moment i can't remote control the ML-Settings....

i would appreciate your help!

[a1ex]

And then, other people will start asking why it doesn't take 7 pictures.

Tip: use autodetection for number of frames, it will know when to stop.

[mi360_sergej]

hehe, i can imagine that

thanks for the tip, sounds like a nice idea, but if i use autodetection with the same settings it only shoots 2 brackets (0.5s and 1/15s if using same settings as described above)

[a1ex]

If the 1/15s one is overexposed in RAW, send me a sample. Otherwise, you don't need more.

[mi360_sergej]

no, it is not overexposed. but for a good spherical hdr panorama i need all brackets up to 1/8000s...

so the only possibility is to digg into the source code by myself....

[g3gg0]

no, it is not overexposed. but for a good spherical hdr panorama i need all brackets up to 1/8000s...

maybe you can explain *why* you need all brackets?

my position: you dont need all, because alex' autodetection will pick the settings/brackets so you have no over and underexposure at all.
if you have no over-/underexposure, you can merge all raw together to get the whole dynamic range into one image.

so the question: why do you still need 1/8000s? wont it be totally underexposed and will carry even less information than e.g. the 1/4000s image?
or do you want to have all scene "exposure levels" being in the area with least noise?

[a1ex]

I'm afraid the "problem" is in the workflow.

It's easy to solve - once you have the correct exposures, you can get the darker ones from RAW via exposure compensation (with WAY better quality than underexposing).

[mi360_sergej]

sorry, i should have explained more.
i shoot spherical hdr-panoramas to use them in 3D-Software. Mostly at sunny places, so the sun is always in the picture. if i don't shoot up to 1/8000s there are lights (like sun or other bright lights) which are still clipping. (even with 1/8000s the sun is clipping usually)... for looking at the images it is not a problem, but if you want to use them for lighting some 3d-stuff it is indeed.

so basically ml does completely what i want and it's great
i just wondered if there is maybe a possibility to make it stop shooting when reaching the shortest exposure instead of shooting the same exposure three times.... do you know what i mean? 

[g3gg0]

thanks for explaining.

like alex said:

If the 1/15s one is overexposed in RAW, send me a sample. Otherwise, you don't need more.

ML should produce images that are 0.00% under- and overexposed.
if not, then there is something to look closer at.
maybe its 0.0099% of pixels that are still overexposed and ML is still stopping.
if so, it makes sense to configure a "tolerance" in ML that allows up to an "accurate" setting.

but in theory you should have even the sun-lit areas not overexposed at all or you reached the exposure time limit of 1/8000s.