Tips for Reviewing Photos on camera in bright sun?

MichaelHenson

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So, over Independence Day the family and I went to a park and I was snapping photos the whole time. The vast majority turned out but I got pretty frustrated a few times because I could see the LCD very well to make sure everything was looking okay. Anyone have any suggestions for dealing with extremely bright sunlight that makes the LCD difficult to read?

I try to shoot in Manual most of the time because I like the level of control that it gives me but I need to check my settings somewhat frequently to ensure everything is coming out okay...

Thanks!
 
So, over Independence Day the family and I went to a park and I was snapping photos the whole time. The vast majority turned out but I got pretty frustrated a few times because I could see the LCD very well to make sure everything was looking okay. Anyone have any suggestions for dealing with extremely bright sunlight that makes the LCD difficult to read?

I try to shoot in Manual most of the time because I like the level of control that it gives me but I need to check my settings somewhat frequently to ensure everything is coming out okay...

Thanks!

You could hide under a blanket to review the back of the camera or get a hood loop, see here
 
You could hide under a blanket to review the back of the camera or get a hood loop, see here

So, it's not just me then? I didn't know if there was one of those simple "everyone-knows-about-it-but-me-" solutions out there...I guess I'll just keep squinting and doing the "shade/angle hunt dance." Ugh...
 
I usually rotate around to put the camera in my shadow, then check the LCD. It's usually good enough for a quick preview.

but yeah,, bright sun makes it really hard to check the LCD. I'm glad I don't have a camera where that is my viewfinder.
 
I was outside shooting Monday and took a towel with me and put it over my head and the back of the camera and that seemed to help a lot. (It's cheap and easy too.)
 
That's what I tried to do but it was still somewhat difficult...I can't imagine having a camera without a dedicated (correct terminology?) viewfinder. That'd be maddening.
 
I bought one of the Hoodman "chimney loupes" some years back, for my Nikon D1...that camera's LCD screen basically disappeared in outdoor light. Last month I shot at the beach and the sun over very light-colored sand was so intense that I actually ducked under one of my reflector panel's white/black cloths to be able to really evaluate the first part of a session with some semblance of normal coloring on my camera's LCD.
 
Hmmm...my camera's LCD might be part of the problem too then. It's D5200 and it seemed that no matter how I situated myself and the camera the screen was dark. I guess I'm just going to have to keep working with it to try to figure out a decent solution.
 
When shooting outdoors in the sun, I rely a LOT on three things to help mitigate the problem of not being able to see much on the LCD: shooting in raw, histograms, and blinkies.

Shooting in raw, I know I don't need to worry too much about color casts, because I can tweak them later.

The histograms help give me a very good idea of the exposure of the shot, and being that they're just white on black, they're readable in the light.

The blinkies alert me of blown highlights and general overexposure problems I might not have otherwise noticed by glancing at the LCD.

The use of these tools/capabilities, in concert with other fundamental "good practices" (e.g. shutter speeds appropriate for the focal length, apertures appropriate for the subject matter, etc.), pretty much makes the hard-to-read LCD a non-issue. After all, you can still kind of see it.
 
The rear LCD on a digital camera has limited usefulness.

We can check composition, focus, and we can look at a JPEG image histogram to evaluate exposure.
Raw image files and their histogram cannot be shown on the rear LCD, The camera embeds a JPEG Basic thumbnail in the Raw file that is shown on the rear LCD.

Understanding Histograms, Part 1: Tones & Contrast
Understanding Histograms, Part 2: Luminosity & Color

Your D5200's rear LCD has a 921,000-dot Vari-angle display.
It takes 3 dots to make a pixel - 1 green dot, 1 red bot, and 1 blue dot.
So the resolution of your rear LCD is actually 1/3 of 921,000 or the equivalent of 307,000 pixels - which is 0.307 MP.
 
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I have used the histogram on-camera occasionally, but didn't think to take a look when this was an issue. I always shoot RAW so I do have more options during processing. I think the "blinkies" is/are a feature that I will pay more attention to going forward. Thanks!
 
* You could turn you screen brightness up to maximum.

* Learn to rely on the camera meter through the viewfinder instead of the view screen.

* A baseball cap, it protects your head from the sun and can shade the camera whilst you viewing the screen.

* Sunglasses help too.

Also Michael guys are hitting you with words like pixels and histogram. I don't know what level your at but it seems like the camera is new to you, I could be wrong. I have a D5100 so it's probably not much different. Hit the Menu button and scroll down to an image of a spanner that's were you'll find the monitor brightness option.
 
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When shooting outdoors in the sun, I rely a LOT on three things to help mitigate the problem of not being able to see much on the LCD: shooting in raw, histograms, and blinkies.

Shooting in raw, I know I don't need to worry too much about color casts, because I can tweak them later.

The histograms help give me a very good idea of the exposure of the shot, and being that they're just white on black, they're readable in the light.

The blinkies alert me of blown highlights and general overexposure problems I might not have otherwise noticed by glancing at the LCD.

The use of these tools/capabilities, in concert with other fundamental "good practices" (e.g. shutter speeds appropriate for the focal length, apertures appropriate for the subject matter, etc.), pretty much makes the hard-to-read LCD a non-issue. After all, you can still kind of see it.

Yeah...cynicaster pretty much NAILED it all!!! making sure the histo is solid; keeping the shutter speed appropriate to the conditions (wind/boat/out of breath) and subject matter (static,slow-moving,fast-moving), and the concept of looking through the viewfinder and shooting good stuff, not rubbish to be edited later...it's all sort of like a Heaven-sent modern evolution from the film days, where we shot and used the light meter religiously, and then hoped that, 3 to 14 days later, we'd end up with some good 'chromes.
 
I curve my hand into a makeshift sun shield.
 

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