How to best view test shots on camera LCD in bright, outdoor photo shoot

Question

A couple weeks ago I did a basic outdoor photo shoot for a family. It was mid day, and the sun was out. I took test shots initially and when viewing the shots on my DSLR's LCD screen they appeared to look good.

After getting home and viewing the photos on the computer it was obvious that a lot of the shots were overexposed. This was not immediately obvious outdoors in the bright daylight.

How does one view test shots on your camera's LCD screen in a bright outdoor environment and know that the settings are correct?

Asked by Jakobud

Answer

Don't just look at the photo, but look at the histogram, too! Often when looking at just the photo on an LCD, you can't get a good feel for under- or over-exposure, or even color balance, but if you look at the histogram (especially the RGB histogram if your camera model supports it), it will be immediately obvious if something serious is off.

Answered by Flimzy

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Are there advantages to using a viewfinder for focusing instead of using a camera's rear LCD screen?

Question

Are there any particular advantages to using the viewfinder for focusing instead of the LCD?

Answer

In general there are the following advantages of manual focussing via the optical viewfinder instead of the LCD:

• The viewfinder image is almost certainly sharper than the LCD, when viewing the entire image. This makes it easier to judge when something is in focus for the times when you need to be able to see the whole image at once (e.g. for a scene that may change without warning)

• The viewfinder image updates in realtime whereas the LCD has a small lag due to the need to read and process the sensor image, as well as the finite refresh rate of the LCD screen. This could have affect focusing speed as you can turn the focus ring faster using the viewfinder as you can see the changes in focus more immediately.

• A viewfinder is easier to use in direct sunlight (though you can get a loupe/shades that make LCD viewing easier).

• Viewfinders in SLRs have the option of using a split prism focussing screen which allows easy manual focussing on subjects with sufficient detail.

• DSLRs with live view limit the amount of time you can view the image live on the LCD as it can heat up the sensor. The time is quite long, however for all day shoots in hot conditions sensor overheating may be become a disadvantage of using the LCD screen compared to the viewfinder.

• Similarly the shutter is open the whole time you are using the LCD so if you inadvertently point the camera at the sun (or worse put the camera down pointing at the sun) you can damage the sensor.

There are also many advantages of using the LCD instead of the viewfinder to manually focus:

• The flipside of the last point, if you point the camera at the sun using the LCD you'll only damage the camera, not your eyes!

• If you don't need to monitor the whole image you can zoom the LCD image into the area of interest to see more detail than you can through the viewfinder.

• The LCD image you see is always has the exact DOF you will get in the final image if you focus stopped down. Most laser etched focus screens in SLRs cut of light after about f/2.5 meaning the DOF will appear greater in the viewfinder when using fast lenses wide open.

• For compact cameras with optical viewfinders there is a paralax error meaning you see a slightly different image than you capture. Again DOF may be different. The LCD shows you the correct image.

• Most SLR viewfinders only cover 95% of the image. If for some reason you need to focus on the extreme edges you need to use the LCD screen.

• The LCD screen is more visible in the dark due to the ability to brighten the picture by increasing ISO.

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Are there advantagers to using a viewfinder for focusing instead of using a camera's rear LCD screen?

Question

Are there any particular advantages to using the viewfinder for focussing instead of the LCD?

Answer

In general there are the following advantages of manual focussing via the optical viewfinder instead of the LCD:

• The viewfinder image is almost certainly sharper than the LCD, when viewing the entire image. This makes it easier to judge when something is in focus for the times when you need to be able to see the whole image at once (e.g. for a scene that may change without warning)

• The viewfinder image updates in realtime whereas the LCD has a small lag due to the need to read and process the sensor image, as well as the finite refresh rate of the LCD screen. This could have affect focusing speed as you can turn the focus ring faster using the viewfinder as you can see the changes in focus more immediately.

• A viewfinder is easier to use in direct sunlight (though you can get a loupe/shades that make LCD viewing easier).

• Viewfinders in SLRs have the option of using a split prism focussing screen which allows easy manual focussing on subjects with sufficient detail.

• DSLRs with live view limit the amount of time you can view the image live on the LCD as it can heat up the sensor. The time is quite long, however for all day shoots in hot conditions sensor overheating may be become a disadvantage of using the LCD screen compared to the viewfinder.

• Similarly the shutter is open the whole time you are using the LCD so if you inadvertently point the camera at the sun (or worse put the camera down pointing at the sun) you can damage the sensor.

There are also many advantages of using the LCD instead of the viewfinder to manually focus:

• The flipside of the last point, if you point the camera at the sun using the LCD you'll only damage the camera, not your eyes!

• If you don't need to monitor the whole image you can zoom the LCD image into the area of interest to see more detail than you can through the viewfinder.

• The LCD image you see is always has the exact DOF you will get in the final image if you focus stopped down. Most laser etched focus screens in SLRs cut of light after about f/2.5 meaning the DOF will appear greater in the viewfinder when using fast lenses wide open.

• For compact cameras with optical viewfinders there is a paralax error meaning you see a slightly different image than you capture. Again DOF may be different. The LCD shows you the correct image.

• Most SLR viewfinders only cover 95% of the image. If for some reason you need to focus on the extreme edges you need to use the LCD screen.

• The LCD screen is more visible in the dark due to the ability to brighten the picture by increasing ISO.

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Why does viewfinder spec state 3 times more dots than there are pixels?

Question

My DMC-G2 has a viewfinder spec of 1,440,000 dots, but I read a review that says it is really 480,000 pixels:

The electronic viewfinder has an extremely high resolution of 1,440,000 dots (480,000 pixels), offering a 100% field of view and 1.4x magnification. The Panasonic G2's viewfinder has a generous +/-4.0 diopter adjustment range, and a rather tight 17.5mm eye point.

What gives? How am I supposed to compare with other cameras?

Answer

I'm a bit skeptical about what they are stating. It says that the viewfinder is "1,440,000 dots equiv". The "equiv" term is an annoying marketing term used when trying to be competitive without stating the true nature of something, they are simply stating it is "equivalent to" such a thing. The Electronic Viewfinder is "equivalent" to a "1,440,000 dot" resolution. Whatever that means, who knows, but I doubt its actually truly 1.4 million dots.

EDIT: Based on the linked review, the EV has 480,000 "pixels" comprised of 1,440,000 "dots". This is a wacky marketing way of saying that it has 480,000 dots each of red, green, and blue, the triplets of which make up a resolution of 480,000 total pixels in a 4:3 form factor. This boils down to a EV screen size of around 1470x1100 pixes.

Comparing the viewfinder with other DSLR's. This viewfinder is 100% coverage and 1.4x magnification. The magnification is multiplied by the sensor size, which is 17.3x13.0mm. Thats a viewfinder size of 24.22x18.2mm, which is basically APS-C size. In contrast, a Canon or Nikon APS-C DSLR will usually have 95-97% coverage and anywhere between 0.70x to 1.0x magnification, depending on the model. Most of the entry-level DSLR's are around 0.85-0.95x, while the Canon 7D is a 100% 1.0x APS-C viewfinder. A Canon 5D Mark II is a 98% 0.71x viewfinder, which is again about the size of an APS-C sensor.

The LCD screen on the back has "460K dots" in it, which these days is pretty low. Most of the more recent Canon and Nikon LCD screens have 920k or 1040k dots.

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What to look for on a DSLR's LCD?

Question

I think the main features of a reflex's LCD are:

1. size
2. resolution (pixels/dots)
3. vari-angle or not

So how important is each one of them? Which one is the most important? What number of pixels is considered enough?

My concrete problem is choosing between Nikon D3100's and Nikon D5100's LCD. The first has 230,000 pixels and is fixed and the latter has 921,000 pixels and is vari-angle. It's one of the differences which makes the D5100 around 200€ more expensive. The question is: is it worth it?

Answer

Resolution first, given that size does not vary much lately (2.7-3"). That lets you check sharpness and focus better, particularly if you use Live-View.

Rotating or tilting (vary-angle) can be useful for somethings but is also a liability since it can break. No Pro cameras have such displays because they need to be tough first.

You forgot the viewing angle. If the display is rotating that does not matter so much, but otherwise having a good viewing angle helps with getting odd-angle shots using Live-View.

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How does adjusting the brightness on my LCD screen affect the photo?

Question

On my DSLR, there is a setting to adjust the LCD screen's brightness level. If I were to turn this setting up (make the LCD brighter), does this affect the quality of the picture? I would assume that something looks nice at a "brighter level", is going to look darker than I expected once I transfer it to the computer. Is there an appropriate method to compensate for modifying the LCD brightness? (maybe turn the exposure down a stop?)

Answer

LCD brightness affects your perception of the photo, not the photo.

At worst, a poorly adjusted LCD will cause you to make bad settings decisions. Make your decisions based on data in the histogram to avoid such errors.

The goal when adjusting brightness is that white areas emit as much light as a white object would reflect. This means the LCD should be dimmer in low light, and brighter in bright light.

Proper adjustment is difficult to maintain. It's impossible to perfect without hardware. Just stick to the histogram.

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How to check for sharpness in small LCD screens ?

Question

I have recently bought Macro lens(Tamron 90mm) and been experimenting with it, My camera is Canon EOS 1000D and it has only 2.5" LCD screen.

Immediately after taking the picture, How can one check whether interested area is in sharp focus (especially if you have shallow DOF and photographing bugs eyes, petal edges , pollen etc.?

I have seen people zooming in and check for sharpness, How much zoom-in can approximately tell that particular area is in focus? If we zoom in 100% naturally everything is going to look almost pixellated?

Objective of question is, What usually photographers do to quickly check whether image has come up sharp or not?

Answer

The LCD is great to check for sharpness on-the-field but you need to know your camera's 100% magnification ratio.

When you zoom-in into the LCD view, most cameras display a magnification ratio as X times from the fit-to-fill size of the LCD. So initially, it is one and when you get to say 4X, the image is magnified 4 times in both directions. As you keep increasing magnification, you will reach a point that depends on the sensor AND LCD resolution where the pixels are one-to-one. This ratio is usually between 8X and 11X on a modern DSLR.

If you go beyond that, which you can in models of the last few years (I cannot imagine why someone thought this was a good idea), cameras will interpolate pixels and start blurring the image which works against checking sharpness.

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What would be the best technique to create a 2.39:1 ratio mark on the display of my camera?

Question

I have a Canon 60D camera which display I need to mark a ratio of 2.39:1 on. Basically, I need this to know the safe area of video when recording.

I thought about taping those two lines over on the LCD with a very soft and thin tape, but I hoped someone could get a better idea.

Thanks!

Answer

Draw the desired shape on an adhesive LCD protector and stick that on.

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