• HDR mode merges exposures in-camera — It creates a single balanced image instantly, with no post-production required.
• AEB captures multiple exposures for manual editing — You can merge 3 or 5 images later for higher-quality results and more control.
• Use HDR for speed and simplicity — Ideal for quick sharing when you don't want to edit RAW files.
• Use AEB for maximum detail and flexibility — Best for professional-quality results in challenging lighting conditions.
• Watch your file sizes with AEB — Shooting 5 RAW exposures per image can quickly consume storage space.

Capturing stunning aerial photos often means dealing with tricky lighting conditions. Bright skies and dark shadows can leave parts of your image overexposed or underexposed, making it hard to showcase the full dynamic range of a scene. That’s where HDR (High Dynamic Range) and AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing) come in. These settings are available on all drone camera models and let you balance exposure across your shot, bringing out vibrant details in both highlights and shadows.

In this lesson, we’ll explore how HDR and AEB work, when to use each, and how to make the most of them with your drone.

Let’s jump in.

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Mode

Let’s start first with HDR. When you take a photo in HDR mode, your camera automatically takes several versions of the photo across multiple exposures (e.g., underexposed, exposed, overexposed) and combines them all into a single image. 

This happens directly in your camera, making HDR mode a great option for quick turnarounds because there’s no post-production required. Whether you want to share instantly on social media, avoid editing large RAW files, or don’t have advanced tools, HDR mode is a simple, user-friendly choice that delivers ready-to-use images.

Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) Mode

And that brings us to AEB mode, which gives you more flexibility but requires a bit more work. The premise of shooting in AEB mode is the same as HDR, where your camera is capturing multiple images with different exposures. The difference is that, in AEB mode, you choose whether or not you are taking 3 images or 5 images, and then you are merging them manually in editing software like Adobe Lightroom.

What you’re getting with AEB is greater control over the final look. Manual merging of AEB photos often retains more detail and provides better results than in-camera HDR, especially in more dynamic lighting conditions.

And rather than being locked into the camera’s automatic HDR processing, when you shoot in AEB, you can blend the images together, or you can also choose the single best exposure and work with that. So you have a bit more flexibility.

The big consideration with AEB mode is the file size. As an example, on my DJI Mavic 3 Pro, each RAW image that I take ends up being around 30 MB. So if I’m shooting in AEB mode, with one image, I’m really getting 5 images at different exposures, so I’m looking at 30MB x 5, or 150 MB, for each image that I’m taking, and those file sizes can add up if you’re taking dozens and dozens of images, so just something to be mindful of.

In summary, HDR and AEB are both great when you’re trying to showcase the full range of an image, like a landscape. Consider using HDR when you need a quick, balanced image without editing. And you can use AEB when you want superior quality and more creative control.

I hope this lesson was helpful. In our post-production module, we have another lesson about Auto Exposure Bracketing and how to actually go in and manually merge your photos and work with them in an editing software, so keep an eye out for that. 

In the meantime, I’ll see you in the next lesson!