Live view is a new innovation in DSLRs, though it has been around for years in point and shoot cameras. Live view lets you see the image on the LCD monitor before the image is shot. In other words, it is a live view of the scene before you. The first camera we owned that offered live view was the Canon 1D Mark III. I bought the camera specifically to photograph flying eagles in northern Japan during February. The 10 shots-per-second shooting speed proved to be awesome for wildlife action.

When I buy any new camera, I always study the manual like I am studying for my college physics exams. I soon came across a new concept (for me) called live view. At first, I didn't perceive the benefit of turning my expensive pro grade DSLR into a point-and-shoot camera, so I paid little attention to it. However, over the following months, I began to wonder if there might be some valid uses for it. Then, during our first summer field photography workshop in northern Michigan (in 2008), some of our brilliant students wanted to know if live view was good for anything. We didn't have a good answer, so we needed to find at least one valid reason to use live view, at least once in awhile. We challenged the class (an especially bright and talented group as it turned out) to find at least one highly worthwhile reason to use live view.

We all activated our live views and began using it. By the end of the week, all of us had learned a great deal from each other, and we found several wonderful reasons to use live view. As I write this, a year has flown by and other uses have materialized. Live view has radically changed how we shoot images. We are now faster and more precise than ever and you can be, too. Sadly, too many photographers still don't use live view, even though their camera offers it. It is time to change that! Live view is an enormously useful aid for shooting quality images fast and precisely. We encourage you to activate it and learn to use it.

Before getting into the reasons for using live view, be aware that live view is rapidly changing. Each new camera generation offers more options, so your camera may not let you do all of the things we speak about, or may let you do more, or may not have live view at all. Never-the-less, live view is worth exploring and learning how to use it well. Below is a list of twelve reasons for using live view. We will begin this list with some of the less compelling reasons to use live view and gradually work our way down the list to the most crucial reasons for using live view. Hopefully, along the way, we'll convince you live view can help you enormously.

1. View the Image on the LCD Monitor

There are times when it is easier to view the image on the LCD monitor, rather than looking through the viewfinder. We remember one student photographing Indian pipe, a white flower that lacks chlorophyl, and grows in the deep forest close to the ground. Due to nearby logs and rocks around it, it was nearly impossible to get our eye up to the viewfinder, so we activated live view. Even from seven inches away from the viewfinder, we could easily compose the wildflower without looking through the viewfinder. Admitted, if you are still fairly nimble, as we are, most of the time we do manage to get our eye to the viewfinder, so this use is presently of small benefit to us.

2. Shows What the Polarizer is Doing

Many of our students have trouble looking though the viewfinder to see the effect a polarizer is having on their image as they turn the filter. Some students find they can see the effects of reduced glare and greater color saturation easier by viewing the large live view image as they rotate the polarizer.

3. Our Nikon and Canon live view options show us the color rendition of the image as we change the white balance settings. This can be important if you shoot a JPEG image because you have less color adjustment capability to the image once it is shot. Since we always shoot RAW + JPEG, we can always take our RAW file and adjust white balance later on with no loss of quality, so it is of little importance to RAW shooters, but valuable to JPEG shooters.

4. View 100% of the Image

Unlike the viewfinders of most cameras, the LCD display shows 100% of the image that will be recorded. Many viewfinders only show 90 to 95% of the actual image. This means you are less likely to let an intruding hot spot or distraction such as a stick appear in the image when viewing 100% of the actual image. Of course, this isn't nearly the problem that it used to be with film, because you can always crop out distractions or use software to cover them up.

5. View a Bright Image Stopped Down

Many photographers check their depth of field by pushing a button or lever to stop the lens down to the shooting aperture. For example, with modern cameras and lenses, although you have set the lens to f/22 for plenty of depth of field, when you peer through the viewfinder, the lens isn't stopped down to f/22, so you see the depth of field produced at the wide open setting such as f/4 if the lens is a 70-200mm/4. Pushing in on the depth of field preview button stops the lens down to the actual shooting aperture, so now you can see the depth of field. In practice, the viewfinder becomes quite dark, so the depth of field you actually have is most difficult to see.  Most of us have struggled at one time or another trying to see the depth of field in the darken viewfinder.  It isn't easy or fun, is it?

Seeing the depth of field isn't a problem with live view. Pushing in the depth of field preview button stops down the lens, but the live view image remains a bright image, or at least simulates the actual exposure, so now it is easy to observe the depth of field and where it falls within the scene.

6. Grid Overlay to Keep Lines Horizontal or Vertical

Most live views offer the option of overlaying a grid. We highly recommend this! Use the horizontal lines to keep the horizon level, or sometimes vertical lines to keep the dominate vertical lines in the scene vertical. This is a very useful feature for landscape photographers. The grid also helps you avoid "bull's-eye" compositions.

7. No Mirror Slap Produces Sharper Images

The motion of the mirror moving up and out of the way, so the light can pass on through to the sensor, does cause a tiny amount of vibration resulting in images that aren't quite as sharp as they could be. This vibration problem is most acute between 1/4 and 1/30 second. That's why professional grade and many intermediate grade cameras offer the capability of locking up the mirror. With the mirror locked up before the image is shot, the mirror can't generate any vibration. Naturally, this only works if the camera is solidly mounted on a tripod or sitting on a stable platform such as a table or heavy bean bag.  If you use live view, the mirror is already up prior to making the exposure, so no mirror slap problem!

8. Shoot Quietly

Some of the latest camera's have live view options for quiet shooting. Noise is caused by the mirror and the shutter mechanism. The mirror is already up in live view, so no noise. Some cameras now have a way of quieting the shutter as well by making the imaging sensor the shutter. If you need a shutter speed of 1/125 second for example, the camera merely activates the sensor for that amount of time, instead of using the shutter to control the amount of light being recorded by the photodiodes (often called pixels) that make up the sensor.  Some cameras use other methods to quiet the camera, too.

As we mentioned, each reason we are listing for live view is getting progressively more valuable. The last four are the most useful features for nature photographers. The following four reasons are of enormous benefit to most photographers, so make sure your next camera offers live view if you current camera doesn't.

9. Simulates the Exposure

Hopefully, you have an option that lets the live view image simulate the exposure you actually get. On some Canon cameras, this option is buried in the custom functions, so check the custom functions if you don't find it with the live view menu choices. Always activate "simulate exposure" so you can see at a glance if the exposure is close to what you want.

10. The Live Histogram Speeds up Exposure Determination

An Important Tip for Canon Shooters

It is so much easier if you learn to meter manually and avoid autoexposure modes. Then you don't have to find the exposure compensation button and turn it in the correct direction and by the right amount. Using manual exposure, turning the main control dial, quick control dial, or ISO setting adds or subtracts light, depending on the direction you turn the dial. But, there is a problem with Canon cameras. When viewing the live view histogram from the rear of the camera, if you want to add light to move the rightmost histogram data to the right, you must turn the main control dial to the left to reach a slower shutter speed. This isn't very intuitive is it? Turn the dial to the left to move the histogram data to the right doesn't make sense to me, but that is how Canon cameras (at least the ones I have seen in workshops) are set up.

You could just remember that is how it works, but sometimes (and it is happening more often) my memory fails me. Better yet, let's change the direction of the dials! You can do that? Really? Sure! Once again, custom functions come to the rescue. Let's take my Canon EOS 5D Mark II for example. On page 183 in the "official" Canon manual, custom function #4 in Custom Function Group #4 is called, "Dial Direction during TV/AV". There are two options. The default option is #0 which makes you turn the main control dial to the left (when viewed from the rear of the camera) to make the histogram data move to the right. We already know that doesn't make much sense. So let's change it. Press Menu. Scroll over to the Camera icon. Now scroll down to C.FnIV: Operation/Others. Press the Set button which is in the middle of the Quick Control Dial. Now turn the quick control dial until you get to custom function #4 which is Dial direction during Tv/Av. Press the Set button again. Turn the quick control dial one click so 1:Reverse direction is highlighted and press the Set button again. Tap the shutter button to get you out of the menu and you are ready to go.

I realize the name of the custom function only refers to changing the dial direction in Tv and Av modes, but it works fine with manual exposure, too. Now turning the main dial to the right increases the exposure, so the histogram data moves to the right and vice-versa. It's wonderful!

This is a great strategy, but not entirely my own idea. I am well aware that every Canon camera I have owned allowed me to reverse dial directions because I am an "odd duck" perhaps and actually study all of the custom functions to see if they can help me shoot images faster and more precisely. I hadn't figured out a reason to use this option until one of my workshop students said, "it would be nice if the dials worked the opposite way to make moving the histogram data more logical". As soon as he said that, I knew I had a great reason to reverse the direction of the dials! We can't thank our inquisitive students (all of you folks) enough because they sure have done a lot to help us develop the incredible "shooting workflow" we now use and teach at our programs. Using our "shooting workflow", it is really fun for us to turn beginning photographers into accomplished shooters who can easily capture professional quality images in less than a week. Our heartfelt thanks goes to everyone for all of your input over the years. With your help, figuring out all of this new digital stuff has been and continues to be a ton of fun for us!

11. Scroll and Magnify to Finely Adjust Focus

You'll notice your live view display has a rectangle in the center of the image. This rectangle outlines the area that is magnified if you press the plus magnification button. Your camera offers you some way to move this rectangle to scroll around the image. In practice, move the rectangle to make it coincide with the exact spot that you want precisely focused using manual focusing techniques. Once you have the primary target centered in the rectangle, magnify the image on the LCD monitor 5x or sometimes 10x, depending on what magnification your camera offers. Now you can see the highly magnified area quite easily. Carefully focus the lens manually until the details in the rectangle are super sharp.

12. Magnify and View for Sharper Images

While it is obvious the subject must be precisely focused to be razor sharp, it also must be still, especially at slow shutter speeds below 1/30 second. Once focused, keep the image magnified and watch the subject carefully. If you are photographing a dew-laden butterfly or perhaps a dewy spider web, make sure the subject isn't moving at all to capture a truly sharp image. Remember, with long exposures below 1/30 second, the subject can't be almost still, it must be completely still. This technique works especially well for autumn color. Often your glorious red maple tree is twenty yards or more away. Even though it may look calm, the leaves might be wiggling just a bit, but you can't see them slightly tremble many yards away. Unfortunately, your image won't be sharp, especially at a typical shutter speed of 1/4 second. Place your rectangle over a section of the leaves, magnify the image by 5x, and watch carefully. Any movement of the leaves is obvious. Be patient, watch carefully, and trip the camera with a remote or cable release at the very instant the leaves hold perfectly still.

Live View Problems

While live view offers many fine aids to helping you shoot better images easily and quickly, it does have a few minor problems.

1. Hard to See Live View Image in Bright Light

It takes energy to make live view work, so expect the camera battery to run down much sooner when using it. Still, we don't find this to be a significant drawback. If your camera accepts a larger battery pack, that works quite well to keep you up and running. We always carry a spare (or two) fully charged battery with us, so we always have power.

3. Slows You Down

We find live view works fine for still objects, but it is a bit more cumbersome to use for composing the scene than looking through the viewfinder. Therefore, we tend to compose and focus the landscape image first, then activate live view. Live view is far too slow for action images such as racing cars or flying birds, so we never use it for this.

4. Autofocusing May Not Work or Be Slow

Current (Dec. 2009) cameras with live view may not offer any autofocusing capability or limited and slow autofocusing. We don't find this to be a problem with static subjects. If you do need autofocusing, live view may not work well for you. This situation will surely change in the coming years. Again, we tend to compose and autofocus first, using back-button focusing techniques that hopefully all of you are up to speed on by now. (We have been huge "back-button focusing" fans for at least fifteen years.  Hopefully, all of you are up to speed on it now.)

5. Heat and Noise Issues

It takes battery energy to activate and keep live view on. This energy generates heat. Heat can create noise in your images. Noise is random pixel errors in terms of color or brightnesses, and looks like grain in the image. If you find this is a problem, then turn live view off once in awhile. We haven't found this to be a problem yet, but we tend to photograph in cold climates. We wouldn't be surprised to find that using live view on a hot day may generate some deleterious noise.

The Future of Live View