Why Chimping In Street Photography Isn’t (always) Bad
What is Chimping?
Chimping in Street Photography, for those who aren’t familiar is the act of viewing the screen on the back of your (digital) camera after you take a shot, to see whether you like the photo you’ve just taken. The general view in the street photography community is that it’s bad to do this because you may miss another good shot while you have your head down glued to your screen. I believe however that it’s something that can help improve your photography especially if you’re just starting out.
Why it can help you
Firstly, we all like to think that we always have the correct settings on our camera at all times, However, as lighting conditions change I personally like to have more manual control over aperture and shutter speed, especially at night or when I’m in the London Underground. If you check your screen after taking the first couple of photographs it should be immediately obvious whether your image is correctly exposed or not. ‘Chimping’ will tell you this. There have been numerous times when I’ve been out for a while and looked down at my camera settings only to realise that I still have my shutter speed set to say 1/60 on a bright summers day, mixed with a wide open aperture, which has obviously led to very over exposed images! These settings were usually set when shooting at night the previous day. If I’d have ‘chimped’ straight away then I would have noticed the over exposed image on the screen. Some manual setting errors maybe less obvious such as having exposure compensation set incorrectly, but again ‘chimping’ will probably indicate this.
I’ve also had situations where I’ve come across a perfect scene, taken the photograph, looked down at the screen only to find it’s slightly out of focus. I’ve then had the chance to take it again in focus. Unfortunately it’s rare you get a second chance, but chimping can give you this opportunity.
Why you shouldn’t do it
However, and this is a big ‘however’, once you begin to understand your camera, which you should definitely make a point of doing, then these errors occur much less frequently. If you’re out shooting and the conditions aren’t changing for instance it’s overcast all the time then there is less need to change your settings and therefore less chimping should be required. I understand the argument that while chimping you’re potentially missing great shots, but with that thinking then you’d never go home, as you’d be missing shots all night while you’re in bed asleep!
Seriously though, for me the one big reason to avoid chimping where possible is to prevent the interruption to flow state. This is where you’ve got yourself to the point where you’ve built momentum by taking some images that you’re happy with, this creates a self fulfilling prophecy because it then gives you the confidence to carry on and stay out more, in turn you just have a good vibe. I’ve taken some of my best photopgraphs when feeling like this. To read more about flow state, check out my article about The Mental Challenge of Street Photography.. Do you agree with chimping in street photography? Let me know in the comments below!