*For more information visit AdoramaTV YT page, and of course you can keep up with David on Instagram and Twitter @DavidBergman. LATEST UPDATE: David opened up new IGTV episodes where you can ask him questions live! find out more at http://www.AskDavidBergman.com
After you take a picture do you immediately look at it on the back of your camera? Do you do that after every single photo? Photographer David Bergman suggests you to stop it right now! And here is why.
Mr Bergman shares: “So where is that term ‘chimping’ come from? Well I first heard it when I worked at a newspaper in the 1990’s, and we got our first digital cameras. We’d be covering basketball games and all of us were sitting next to each other and immediately after a play for the first time ever, we can actually see the picture on the back of the camera!”
“Back in the film days we had to wait till we got back to the office, but not only can we look at our own pictures but we can look at our competitors pictures! Also we looked and sounded like a bunch of primates, oh, so therefore we started calling it ‘chimping’.”
“Part of being a photographer, is not missing those little moments in between the big moments, and when you look at the back of your camera, you’re gonna miss something! Maybe you take a posed picture of your kids, but then after you do that, keep shooting, and when everybody has their guard down, sometimes those are when the best moments happen. Another reason not to look at the back of your camera, is that it tends to make you lazy, if you’re doing a shoot and you see that you’ve got a picture that you really like, you might not push yourself harder to keep making better and better pictures.”
“Lastly another reason to just say no to chimping…. is that it takes you out of the real-life experiences that are happening all around you. At a concert for example, take a few pictures, but then please don’t spend the next five minutes looking at those pictures and missing the concert! Live your life and enjoy the moments as they happen, and don’t keep your face buried in the back your camera!”
“Is it ever okay to look at the back of your camera? Well of course, at the beginning of a shoot, when you’re just getting your settings right, go ahead and use that tool to check your exposure and make sure everything is working properly, but then please just go ahead and set it, and forget it and keep shooting!”
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