What Is Chimping?

Chimping is the act of looking at your camera’s LCD screen as soon as you have taken a photo.  The term is jokingly derived from the noises that photographers often make when they see a shot they like on the back of the camera (oooh ohh), followed sometimes by “ape like” hand motions for others to take a look.

To Chimp Or Not To Chimp, That Is The Question…..

There’s two distinct schools of thought on this.  At events, where action is not necessarily predictable, chimping can cause you to miss an important shot.  Over the years of digital shooting, there have been many images captured of photographers chimping in the background of football plays, or car crashes at race tracks.  In some cases, taking your eye off the action can actually be very dangerous so in general, chimping at sporting event during plays is not a good idea.

The other train of thought is that it can help you to get better photos. Instant feedback is one of the major benefits of shooting digital, so why not make use of it.  A lot of times, I AM a chimper.  There, I said it.  But I’ll often notice small things in my image that can be improved upon. Of course, if you are a landscape photographer then you might as well chimp away like you’ve just found a banana bounty!  There’s lots to be learnt from chimping, especially if you use your histogram to analyze your exposure.


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