Put the LCD Monitor to Work

SCOTT KELBY

The second thing that levels the playing field is that now, with the LCD monitor on the back of your camera, you can see if you "got the shot." And by "got the shot," I mean you can tell if your color is in the ballpark, if your subject blinked when the photo was taken, if your flash actually firedthat sort of thing (I'm not trying to trivialize themthese are huge advantages). But because the LCD monitor is so small, it can also fool you. Everything looks in focus when it's 2" tall on the monitor. When you open that photo later in Photoshop, you might find out that the key shot from your shoot is horribly out of focus (or your camera focused on the wrong object, so the background is in sharp focus, but your subject is blurry). This actually happens quite often because (all together now) everything looks in focus on an LCD monitor. To really take advantage of the LCD monitor for focus, you'll need to zoom in and see if it's really in focus (see page 17 for how to zoom in).

The LCD Monitor Challenge

Another way the LCD monitor will make you a better photographer is through instant creative feedback. If you take your shot, look at the LCD, and what you see disappoints you, then it challenges you to come up with something better. It makes you work the shot, try new angles, get more creative, and experiment until you finally see on the monitor what you set out to capture in the first place.