why is chimping considered bad?

eddie1960 · 02-10-2011, 04:21 PM

Originally posted by Gashog

Thanks for the compliment!

The guys who bust my chops for things like that (....and not shooting RAW!), are the guys with photography degrees. I can take it. It's all good!

shot this from the hip[ zone focus on an old fed 5 (with an unfortunate light leak - if it wasn't for the light leak this would be a perfect street shot - film no chimping on this one lol reall in my mind a lot of people take rule to seriously. they are there to be broken and sometimes you get that lucky shot that wouldn't happen if you were over thinking it)

Arpe · 02-10-2011, 04:41 PM

I sometimes forget to chimp, but have been grateful when I remembered.

I was shooting a game of rugby and didn't realise I didn't have a card in the camera until 20m or so into the game!

Sometimes I may accidentally change a setting and not realise for a while until I check the LCD.

So chimp away.

Gashog · 02-10-2011, 06:00 PM

Originally posted by builttospill

I don't really think it's all luck if a skilled photographer takes a nice photo, but I do agree with the rest of your post.

My post?

Well I like your post too. I'll add my two cents since my brand of shooting (mostly walking around town) doesn't involve telling pretty girls where to put their hands (*sigh*).
I have to be in a good spot with the camera is set properly.
I do a reset and a quick run through the menus as soon as I get out of my truck. I take a few test shots and that's pretty much it. I check the LCD when ever I have a second if I'm moving fast...or after every shot if I'm not doing much, just to make sure everything is working and I didn't brain fart somewhere.
I've gotten a money shot here and there using scatter gun photography. Usually, it's because I know where to be and what to shoot at though.

builttospill · 02-10-2011, 09:06 PM

Thank you. I was referring to the post above yours, but I should also let you know I enjoy reading your posts and think you've done well contributing advice to the discussion.

I think you nailed it when you said you know where to be and what to shoot at. Make fun of me or throw rocks at me but I only shoot jpeg and I don't waste time "fixing" photos so I try to get it right the first time (which doesn't happen very often). I enhance some of them a bit in PS and I'm done. I'm not against PP, I just don't have the patience or knowledge for it.

Last edited by builttospill; 02-10-2011 at 09:13 PM.

Cannikin · 02-10-2011, 09:25 PM

I "chimp" very often to check focus and exposure. Quick zoom x8 and histogram means that I can check it and get to tweaking the shot within 5 seconds. 5-10 seconds hardly makes a difference since I rarely shoot action. If I do shoot action, I'm too busy with framing to ever look at the back anyway.

Better to make sure you have the shot as you want it when you're there, than to think you have the shot, only to find out later that you blew it and lost the chance forever.

**mattb123** · 02-11-2011, 09:45 AM

Originally posted by SpecialK

What you think you see is not what you always get - blinks, shots a fraction of a second late, etc. And machine-gunners have 5 misses and maybe 1 keeper.

Chimp during breaks, not while shooting.

I'll do it for composition when I'm shooting in a way that I cannot look through the viewfinder when shooting. Usually either down low or up high, or if I'm all sweaty on my mountain bike and I don't want to get sweat and sunscreen on the camera (and LV AF is too slow). But if I can look through the viewfinder I'm usually pretty confident about my compositions that I don't need to recheck that aspect of the shot.

opfor · 02-12-2011, 11:15 PM - **4 Likes**

First of all, everyone chimps. The problem is that some people take it to extremes.
Here are two pics I posted last summer in the aircraft section. The pics were taken by my wife. I appologize for the poor quality, she was trying not to laugh while she was taking them.
The subjects in question were using the spray and pray method. Furiously banging away for 20 or 30 shots on burst mode, then immediately checking to see if any were usable. Everyone in the vicinity thought it was hilarious.
Everyone chimps, just don't do it like a prat...:-)

Last edited by opfor; 02-12-2011 at 11:23 PM.

Gashog · 02-13-2011, 07:41 AM

HAHAHAHAHA!!!
*Like*

acrollet · 02-13-2011, 01:51 PM

Originally posted by opfor

Furiously banging away for 20 or 30 shots on burst mode, then immediately checking to see if any were usable.

funny stuff, fortunately or unfortunately I don't have any giant teles to make it super obvious that I'm chimping

magkelly · 02-13-2011, 02:15 PM

I usually don't take massive amounts of pics and just hope for the best. I'm not too worried about things in terms of my composition. But since I do prefer to use mostly old lenses and I do tend to do most of the work setting things myself I will use the LCD just long enough to generally make sure I've focused correctly and gotten a correct exposure. IMHO, there's nothing worse than getting home to find that fantastic shot you so carefully set up and thought you'd got is actually slightly out of focus and that you didn't catch it and try again.

As much as I love shooting with my old SLR's that is one of the major advantages of digital. I don't have to pray and hope and wait till the film gets back to know whether or not I did a good job. Nobody is perfect. But I really do dislike missing good shots I could have gotten because I can't see to double check myself. With an older SLR you take your chances and that is a part of the process. You just have to do your best and live with it if it turns out you screwed up, but with my DSLR and it's LCD screen you don't have that uncertainty and I rather like that.

For me old lenses and a DSLR is turning out to be the best of both worlds. I really like doing it myself AND being able to double check myself right then if I want to. Sometimes you do just have to put it on auto mode, trust the camera and shoot. There's no time to fuss, but usually I do most of my own work if I can. Checking myself from time to time in the LCD to make sure I'm ding as well as I think I am and not totally screwing things up? That's just part of the work flow.

Gashog · 02-13-2011, 03:34 PM

Chimping - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yes I did!

eddie1960 · 02-13-2011, 03:49 PM

ok after reading the origins i have to admit to chimping in action scenarios, damn when i think i just got a great shot i like to confirm it. years of waiting for the contact sheet make me impatient
it is probably one of the nicest things about digital
i still like film and watching a print come to life in a tray of developer is much more magical than importing an image to lightroom and fine tuning it and printing on an inkjet printer, but being able to check a shot on the spot is pretty damn nice
that being said i don't think i would have learned as much about photography as i did in my teens if i could have chimped shots
it would have made me lazy about technique

Gashog · 02-13-2011, 04:06 PM

Originally posted by eddie1960

........that being said i don't think i would have learned as much about photography as i did in my teens if i could have chimped shots
it would have made me lazy about technique

I feel the opposite Eddie. I learned more with my first DSLR in one year then I did with my Bolsey, my K1000 and D50 in 20 years.
Actually, it was a little different with the first and second generation digitals. You think the n00bs have a steep learning curve now? New DSLRs' are 10 times more forgiving then the ones 9 years ago!

Edit: that's F50.... Not D50. I am ashamed

eddie1960 · 02-13-2011, 04:20 PM

Originally posted by Gashog

I feel the opposite Eddie. I learned more with my first DSLR in one year then I did with my Bolsey, my K1000 and D50 in 20 years.
Actually, it was a little different with the first and second generation digitals. You think the n00bs have a steep learning curve now? New DSLRs' are 10 times more forgiving then the ones 9 years ago!

i got better at applying what i had learned in the past since the advent of digital because it cost me nothing to experiment, but i had a whole new range of limitations imposed by digital (my 1st camera was a ds my second was a oly e 300, and my third was a k10..... it's only with the 4th the k7 i feel i'm approaching film qualities, i'm pretty certain the k5 will exceed a lot of them
)
given how forgiving digital is compared to say oh... kodachrome or agfachrome i'd agree kids have virtually no learning curve. when i first shot slides i'd be happy with a hit rate in the 10-15 % range that were acceptable. I'm a lot more demanding now, but can fix a lot of the problems that in the past were unfixable

Gashog · 02-13-2011, 04:48 PM

My S2 pro still smokes anything I ever shot 35mm. Agfa, Tri-X Pan, Velvia, Kodachrome, and what was that stuff you had to send out? You mail ordered it free and paid for the processing?
When I first got it, I thought the camera was broke the pictures were so bad. Nope!...it was me!

My first digital was an Oly D-600L.

02-13-2011, 04:06 PM	#58
Gashog Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: NY Photos: Albums Posts: 523	Originally posted by eddie1960 ........that being said i don't think i would have learned as much about photography as i did in my teens if i could have chimped shots it would have made me lazy about technique I feel the opposite Eddie. I learned more with my first DSLR in one year then I did with my Bolsey, my K1000 and D50 in 20 years. Actually, it was a little different with the first and second generation digitals. You think the n00bs have a steep learning curve now? New DSLRs' are 10 times more forgiving then the ones 9 years ago! Edit: that's F50.... Not D50. I am ashamed Last edited by Gashog; 02-14-2011 at 05:55 AM.

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02-10-2011, 04:21 PM	#46
eddie1960 Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Toronto Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 13,666	Originally posted by Gashog Thanks for the compliment! The guys who bust my chops for things like that (....and not shooting RAW!), are the guys with photography degrees. I can take it. It's all good! shot this from the hip[ zone focus on an old fed 5 (with an unfortunate light leak - if it wasn't for the light leak this would be a perfect street shot - film no chimping on this one lol reall in my mind a lot of people take rule to seriously. they are there to be broken and sometimes you get that lucky shot that wouldn't happen if you were over thinking it)

02-10-2011, 04:41 PM	#47
Arpe Pentaxian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: New Zealand Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 4,452	I sometimes forget to chimp, but have been grateful when I remembered. I was shooting a game of rugby and didn't realise I didn't have a card in the camera until 20m or so into the game! Sometimes I may accidentally change a setting and not realise for a while until I check the LCD. So chimp away.

02-10-2011, 06:00 PM	#48
Gashog Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: NY Photos: Albums Posts: 523	Originally posted by builttospill I don't really think it's all luck if a skilled photographer takes a nice photo, but I do agree with the rest of your post. My post? Well I like your post too. I'll add my two cents since my brand of shooting (mostly walking around town) doesn't involve telling pretty girls where to put their hands (sigh). I have to be in a good spot with the camera is set properly. I do a reset and a quick run through the menus as soon as I get out of my truck. I take a few test shots and that's pretty much it. I check the LCD when ever I have a second if I'm moving fast...or after every shot if I'm not doing much, just to make sure everything is working and I didn't brain fart somewhere. I've gotten a money shot here and there using scatter gun photography. Usually, it's because I know where to be and what to shoot at though.

02-10-2011, 09:06 PM	#49
builttospill Pentaxian Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Utah, Idaho Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,398	Thank you. I was referring to the post above yours, but I should also let you know I enjoy reading your posts and think you've done well contributing advice to the discussion. I think you nailed it when you said you know where to be and what to shoot at. Make fun of me or throw rocks at me but I only shoot jpeg and I don't waste time "fixing" photos so I try to get it right the first time (which doesn't happen very often). I enhance some of them a bit in PS and I'm done. I'm not against PP, I just don't have the patience or knowledge for it. Last edited by builttospill; 02-10-2011 at 09:13 PM.

02-10-2011, 09:25 PM	#50
Cannikin Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: SW Washington Posts: 833	I "chimp" very often to check focus and exposure. Quick zoom x8 and histogram means that I can check it and get to tweaking the shot within 5 seconds. 5-10 seconds hardly makes a difference since I rarely shoot action. If I do shoot action, I'm too busy with framing to ever look at the back anyway. Better to make sure you have the shot as you want it when you're there, than to think you have the shot, only to find out later that you blew it and lost the chance forever.

02-11-2011, 09:45 AM	#51
mattb123 Site Supporter Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Colorado High Country Photos: Gallery Posts: 10,872	Originally posted by SpecialK What you think you see is not what you always get - blinks, shots a fraction of a second late, etc. And machine-gunners have 5 misses and maybe 1 keeper. Chimp during breaks, not while shooting. I'll do it for composition when I'm shooting in a way that I cannot look through the viewfinder when shooting. Usually either down low or up high, or if I'm all sweaty on my mountain bike and I don't want to get sweat and sunscreen on the camera (and LV AF is too slow). But if I can look through the viewfinder I'm usually pretty confident about my compositions that I don't need to recheck that aspect of the shot.

02-12-2011, 11:15 PM - 4 Likes	#52
opfor Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Oxford, UK Photos: Albums Posts: 276	First of all, everyone chimps. The problem is that some people take it to extremes. Here are two pics I posted last summer in the aircraft section. The pics were taken by my wife. I appologize for the poor quality, she was trying not to laugh while she was taking them. The subjects in question were using the spray and pray method. Furiously banging away for 20 or 30 shots on burst mode, then immediately checking to see if any were usable. Everyone in the vicinity thought it was hilarious. Everyone chimps, just don't do it like a prat...:-) Last edited by opfor; 02-12-2011 at 11:23 PM.

02-13-2011, 07:41 AM	#53
Gashog Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: NY Photos: Albums Posts: 523	HAHAHAHAHA!!! Like

02-13-2011, 01:51 PM	#54
acrollet Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: USA Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 351 Original Poster	Originally posted by opfor Furiously banging away for 20 or 30 shots on burst mode, then immediately checking to see if any were usable. funny stuff, fortunately or unfortunately I don't have any giant teles to make it super obvious that I'm chimping

02-13-2011, 02:15 PM	#55
magkelly Veteran Member Join Date: May 2010 Photos: Gallery Posts: 5,901	I usually don't take massive amounts of pics and just hope for the best. I'm not too worried about things in terms of my composition. But since I do prefer to use mostly old lenses and I do tend to do most of the work setting things myself I will use the LCD just long enough to generally make sure I've focused correctly and gotten a correct exposure. IMHO, there's nothing worse than getting home to find that fantastic shot you so carefully set up and thought you'd got is actually slightly out of focus and that you didn't catch it and try again. As much as I love shooting with my old SLR's that is one of the major advantages of digital. I don't have to pray and hope and wait till the film gets back to know whether or not I did a good job. Nobody is perfect. But I really do dislike missing good shots I could have gotten because I can't see to double check myself. With an older SLR you take your chances and that is a part of the process. You just have to do your best and live with it if it turns out you screwed up, but with my DSLR and it's LCD screen you don't have that uncertainty and I rather like that. For me old lenses and a DSLR is turning out to be the best of both worlds. I really like doing it myself AND being able to double check myself right then if I want to. Sometimes you do just have to put it on auto mode, trust the camera and shoot. There's no time to fuss, but usually I do most of my own work if I can. Checking myself from time to time in the LCD to make sure I'm ding as well as I think I am and not totally screwing things up? That's just part of the work flow.

02-13-2011, 03:34 PM	#56
Gashog Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: NY Photos: Albums Posts: 523	Chimping - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Yes I did!

02-13-2011, 03:49 PM	#57
eddie1960 Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Toronto Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 13,666	ok after reading the origins i have to admit to chimping in action scenarios, damn when i think i just got a great shot i like to confirm it. years of waiting for the contact sheet make me impatient it is probably one of the nicest things about digital i still like film and watching a print come to life in a tray of developer is much more magical than importing an image to lightroom and fine tuning it and printing on an inkjet printer, but being able to check a shot on the spot is pretty damn nice that being said i don't think i would have learned as much about photography as i did in my teens if i could have chimped shots it would have made me lazy about technique

02-13-2011, 04:20 PM	#59
eddie1960 Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Toronto Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 13,666	Originally posted by Gashog I feel the opposite Eddie. I learned more with my first DSLR in one year then I did with my Bolsey, my K1000 and D50 in 20 years. Actually, it was a little different with the first and second generation digitals. You think the n00bs have a steep learning curve now? New DSLRs' are 10 times more forgiving then the ones 9 years ago! i got better at applying what i had learned in the past since the advent of digital because it cost me nothing to experiment, but i had a whole new range of limitations imposed by digital (my 1st camera was a ds my second was a oly e 300, and my third was a k10..... it's only with the 4th the k7 i feel i'm approaching film qualities, i'm pretty certain the k5 will exceed a lot of them ) given how forgiving digital is compared to say oh... kodachrome or agfachrome i'd agree kids have virtually no learning curve. when i first shot slides i'd be happy with a hit rate in the 10-15 % range that were acceptable. I'm a lot more demanding now, but can fix a lot of the problems that in the past were unfixable

02-13-2011, 04:48 PM	#60
Gashog Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: NY Photos: Albums Posts: 523	My S2 pro still smokes anything I ever shot 35mm. Agfa, Tri-X Pan, Velvia, Kodachrome, and what was that stuff you had to send out? You mail ordered it free and paid for the processing? When I first got it, I thought the camera was broke the pictures were so bad. Nope!...it was me! My first digital was an Oly D-600L.