Among the many things that digital photography brings is chimping. Huh? What’s photography got to do with primates you ask? Before you lob banana peels at me, chimping is the act of looking at the LCD of your camera. You know after you take the shot, you just have the urge to press the preview or playback button? That’s chimping.
According to Wikipedia, the word was supposedly “coined by Robert Deutsch, a USA Today staff photographer, in September of 1999. The phrase is most likely derived from comparison between the sounds and actions some make while reviewing images and those of an excited primate (Oooh! Oooh! Aaah!), or when a photographer is completely absorbed in the act of analyzing, admiring or proudly displaying a shot to others.” I’m a chimper too. But hopefully not a serial one. Or should a person who chimps be called a chimpee? Or chimp?
Young chimpers/chimps/chimpees
Why do we chimp? More often than not, it’s to check if we got the shot. DSLR users would want to see if they got their settings right. Chimping also helps weed out the bad shots, so you spend less time doing it on the computer. But don’t go overboard with chimping, coz you may just miss the shot! Chimping also eats up your battery juices. As with most things in life, over-reliance on chimping to get a good shot would hamper your development as a photographer. Afterall with digital, you can tweak the settings and go through tens of shots without batting an eye. That’s the reason why some photo clubs set frequent activities where their members’ LCDs are taped over to prevent them from relying on instant feedback. At the end of the hour, everyone will check how many of their 35 or x number of shots are usable. This helps to develop the analytical skills. Same reason for shooting with prime lenses where you force yourself to see things differently and getting the shot by moving around, rather than relying on zooms.
So the next time I asked what is it that you’re chimping, don’t get me wrong. I mean no offense! I just want to see what you’ve just shot.
Jamie Pang Photography by Jamie Pang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
