Bracketing is a simple camera technique where a series of photographs are taken of the same scene at a variety of exposures around the metered exposure.

This can be done manually via exposure compensation.

However, most modern DSLRs have an Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) setting, through which the camera will automatically take a series of shots (generally two, three, or five photos) at exposure settings in thirds of a stop.

For example, the camera may automatically advance the exposure from -3EV to +3EV. On most cameras you can chose the order in which shots are taken.

AEB can be very useful if you're not sure how a shot will turn out, particularly if there are tricky lighting conditions. By using bracketing, you will have a better chance of ensuring that one of the exposure settings will yield the exposure you want.

Finally, with digital technology and editing programs, two differently exposed shots can also be combined to create one correctly exposed image.