Looking bright

Why should you bother changing the LCD brightness of your camera’s rear display? Craig Matthews

WheN you get your camera, the screen is almost certainly set to auto by default. This does an OK job, but it may often be too bright and give you a false impression of your exposure when you are reviewing images.

I always switch my screen brightness to manual in the menu, then set it one increment darker than the middle. There’s no scientific reason for this, but it gives me an LCD brightness that is OK in brighter conditions, and not too glaring in average light conditions. Of course, the screen brightness has no correlation to the exposure you are setting in the camera, so you also need to check the Histogram reading for accurate exposure assessment.

The only time I will dim the screen brightness further still is when I’m shooting in very dark conditions – for example, in the dark interior of a hide where my eyes are more accustomed to low light, so a sudden bright screen can be difficult to assess quickly.

At the end of the day, Craig, the brightness of your screen isn’t going to make a huge difference one way or the other in most situations, so if you choose to leave it on Auto, it’s not going to be an issue. But there may be times when, purely for comfort’s sake, setting the brightness manually to suit your eyes is a useful thing to do.