Why Do You Tell People Not To "Chimp"?

[Ballistics]

I'm always reading how-to and advice articles regarding some form of photography,
and the majority of the time the article will mention "chimping", regardless of subject matter.

For those of you that don't know, chimping is the process of checking your preview of shots you took either immediately after you
take them, or sometime during the shoot. I hate the term, but it's the most common term to describe this action.

One article I just read, advised to not chimp during an event ever. But to wait until you get home to look to see what you did.

It says:

Either you got the shot or you didn't, and checking won't change that. Wait until you get home. When you spend time with your nose down in the back of your camera, you're wasting your time, missing the show, missing other shots, and standing in front of someone who wishes you would move on already.

In my opinion, it's horrible advice. It's essentially saying, go through an entire shoot hoping for the best, and make no use of the technology that makes your life easier. If you blew the entire shoot, oh well. And doesn't really address all of the many possibilities of being efficient while viewing your LCD screen.
I have automatic preview on, so when I shoot a few I'll pull the camera away from my face, look at the shot to make sure the exposure is good and it's sharp, and continue. That takes maybe 2 seconds.

Let me stop here and present a disclaimer before I continue: If you successfully shoot without ever checking the LCD screen ever,
more power to you. I'm not going to tell you that the way you do things is wrong. It's been working for you this long, no reason to fix
something that isn't broken.

My question is for those who look down upon those people that look at their LCD screen. The technology that allows you to fix a trending
mistake in the middle of a shoot seems to be frowned upon. Why?

 

[JAC526]

I agree with this entirely. Way better to chimp then get home and realize you messed something up and left it that way for the entire event.

 

[texkam]

Hell yeah, I chimp. It's a tool. I use it.

 

[jwbryson1]

Just don't LOOK like your chimping. It's kinda like living in a famous city where the tourists flock. If you want to walk around, fine, but you don't want to LOOk like a tourist...

 

[TATTRAT]

If I wanted to never check to see how things were truly coming along, I would still be shooting film 110% of the time. Isn't "Chimping" synonymous with shooting digital?

 

[runnah]

It's some stupid phrase that "pros" came up with to make them feel better about themselves.

Snob 1: "Oh did you see that Barbara chimps?"

Snob 2: "What a noob, lets go stab her in the neck."

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

It's some stupid phrase that "pros" came up with to make them feel better about themselves.

Snob 1: "Oh did you see that Barbara chimps?"

Snob 2: "What a noob, lets go stab her in the neck."

Someone tell Barbara...

 

[MK3Brent]

Ever shot film, and instinctively looked at the back of the camera after making an exposure? *guilty*

The whole attitude stems from "professionals that know what they're doing don't need to look... So when you look, you're saying you don't know what you're doing and couldn't predict how the image came out.

For me, if I'm photographing someone, I'll chimp until I get the look I want... meaning adjusting lights and exposure. After that, I hardly look anymore other than for sharp focus.

Has this author never heard of shooting tethered?! That's the whole point... make your adjustments to get them perfect before getting to the end.

It's like finishing a scan-tron test of 50 questions and then realizing you have 49 bubbles filled in.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Agree entirely with OP. It's a tool. Use it. Mistakes can be corrected IN THE FIELD this way. Too many people try to correct mistakes with software. It's a backwards way to about things. Do as much work in camera as possible.

A word of caution: Don't miss the moment because you are reviewing in the field. This very thing happened to me recently. I was checking focus and exposure, the "moment" passed and I missed the click.

That's the only disadvantage I see, the possibility of missing shots. Try not to do that.

 

[jake337]

I'll do it to get my exposure where I want it for a the first couple shots. If the lighting is pretty constant I'll chimp to set it and just keep shooting. Maybe checking it when I take a shot of someone with extremely darker/lighter skintones just to make sure they aren't over or under exposed.

I'll chimp outdoors in lighting that is changing.

 

[runnah]

For me, if I'm photographing someone, I'll chimp until I get the look I want... meaning adjusting lights and exposure. After that, I hardly look anymore other than for sharp focus.

Exactly. I don't know how people setup up lights without chimping. I guess you could use light meters and knowledge, but who has time for that!

 

[jake337]

Wouldn't polaroid backs also be chimping then????

 

[Overread]

There is a line between chimping too much and not chimping enough.

Beginners are likely to chimp too often and to also chimp badly (ei review without much thought or even without the histogram showing etc.... In addition they are likely to get into a habbit, shoot-chimp; shoot-chimp etc..... constantly. As a result this can hamper their learning (they get more focused on the chimping than on the shooting before the shot). As such I can understand discouraging people from chimping too often and to also reinforce this by teaching them how to review a photo in the best possible way so that when they do chimp they know what they are looking for.


Outright saying "Don't chimp" is probably bad advice for someone self learning as the greater amount of time between shooting and review is going to hamper their ability to prevent getting into bad shooting habits. Sure there were times when you couldn't chimp, back then you had polariods, external light meters reading ambient not reflected light and chances are you also made a LOT of mistakes - vast amounts of film lost to poor exposure and rescued in the editing labs (either by yourself or the technician at the store).

 

[Big Mike]

I think the issue or problem with chimping is that it can easily be overdone. If you look at the LCD for two seconds....every time you take a photo....you are over-chimping. In some scenarios, that won't be a problem, but in a 'professional' situation, I think it's undesirable if you are pausing for two seconds after every exposure. Imagine that you were posing for photos, and the photographer was constantly checking the LCD, it might seem like they didn't know what they were doing...or maybe that they weren't confident about the photos coming out.

At some point, you have to trust that what you are doing (technically) is correct for the result that you want. If you are confident in that, they you probably don't need to check the histogram. It doesn't hurt to get some confirmation...but if you don't expect that it will change, then why check it each time?

Good photographers are usually more concerned about connecting with their subjects. They are confident that the technical aspects are OK, so they don't worry about it.
If they were chimping all the time, it tends to break that connection with the subject, and it starts to show in the expressions of the subject.

 

[Ballistics]

Good photographers are usually more concerned about connecting with their subjects. They are confident that the technical aspects are OK, so they don't worry about it.
If they were chimping all the time, it tends to break that connection with the subject, and it starts to show in the expressions of the subject.

On an anecdotal level, I can't agree with this. I recently did a dancer shoot (which I posted here) and the environment was a lighting nightmare. I chimped on nearly every shot
but still held up a conversation and she enjoyed the shoot thoroughly. I was able to have momentum

When I was using a Hasselblad with a digi back a few months ago in the studio, it had a whopping 1FPS and was tethered to a Mac on a cart next to the camera. I would literally shoot wait,
look, and then show the model what I wanted her/him to do differently.