I always hear chimping is considered faux pas, but i still do it... Not between EVERY shot, but i'll glance at my lcd screen every now and then just to make sure things are looking good... More so when i have time...when things are happening fast i chimp far less..I watch my viewfinder meter (spot meter), shoot raw, and generally rough in my WB..so i can fine tune exposure and WB in post...
I def dont think i could turn my lcd off and shoot an entire wedding...maybe i should try... Obviously not for a paid gig... But how many of you are confident enough to shoot all day and never look at your lcd, but all the while know that you're nailing exposures and getting just the shot you want??
I find somehow it's easier to judge composition on the lcd than the viewfinder because it looks like a picture, a bit like a ground glass on MF and LF cameras so I do check it for this sometimes before shooting something else. I'll also always check it when the lighting has changed.
Chimping can become a compulsion simply from curiosity but I guess its not 'bad' unless doing so means you miss shooting something.
I think 'chimping' refers to the people who look at the LCD after almost every shot and are missing good shots while they're 'chimping'.
With regards to weddings, I typically go into a room and look at the meter, pop off a shot, look, adjust as needed, and don't look at it all that much after that. What I do of course use the screen for is to make sure that I got a good shot (no blinks or weird faces) if I want to make sure I get one shot with a particular composition in a fairly static scene. (i.e. getting ready, people are talking but not moving around super fast).
For more action-oriented shots, it's not worth losing shots to chimp.
For commercial work, I tend to look at the LCD a fair bit as we're usually dealing with a controlled situation and tweaking small things until it's just right.
I don't look nearly as much as I sometimes feel I should. In fact, I only recently turned the auto-review back on for my cameras (used to have it where the screen stayed black). When I do check, I am mainly just looking at the histogram or to check focus on a critical shot
SGallant wrote:
I thought chimping was when you go to your friend while looking at the back of the camera...oo oo look at this shot oo oo.
This is how I understood it, but could be any photographers (started with sports shooters) that oogles at their LCD after almost every image, making monkey like noises
TTLKurtis wrote:
I think 'chimping' refers to the people who look at the LCD after almost every shot and are missing good shots while they're 'chimping'.
With regards to weddings, I typically go into a room and look at the meter, pop off a shot, look, adjust as needed, and don't look at it all that much after that. What I do of course use the screen for is to make sure that I got a good shot (no blinks or weird faces) if I want to make sure I get one shot with a particular composition in a fairly static scene. (i.e. getting ready, people are talking but not moving around super fast).
For more action-oriented shots, it's not worth losing shots to chimp.
For commercial work, I tend to look at the LCD a fair bit as we're usually dealing with a controlled situation and tweaking small things until it's just right....Show more →
I was shooting a fast paced fashion show and saw this guy doing that, no way there was time to look at your screen if you were trying to get all of the models as they continually moved. I remember commenting about that to someone after the event was over about this guy that looked at his screen after each shot, he was the only photographer I saw doing that. I just kept my eye to the camera and kept on going but I was on a mission and there were results expected from me and the other guy probably didn't have anyone expecting shots from him from the show. In the heat of the moment, you keep shooting, when you have time to check things, sure take your time and check as often as you like. I think people who used to shoot film might be less apt to continually look at the screen since way back then we couldn't look at the pic right after shooting it.
I heard that one of the "Top 10 In The World" photogs (don't want to mention the name here) actually tapes off his second's/assistant's LCD screen with electrical tape so that they can't see the screen (so it's not a distraction) and, instead, keep their attention on what's going on around them.
D. Diggler wrote:
I heard that one of the "Top 10 In The World" photogs (don't want to mention the name here) actually tapes off his second's/assistant's LCD screen with electrical tape so that they can't see the screen (so it's not a distraction) and, instead, keep their attention on what's going on around them.
Yeah I heard of a couple of wedding photographers whose work I enjoy do it a couple of time.
D. Diggler wrote:
I heard that one of the "Top 10 In The World" photogs (don't want to mention the name here) actually tapes off his second's/assistant's LCD screen with electrical tape so that they can't see the screen (so it's not a distraction) and, instead, keep their attention on what's going on around them.
Gaffer tape would be a better option. Or turning off auto review. After all this dude's second might need to access a menu for some legitimate reason and the electrical tape isn't going to help there.
