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Chimping or No Chimping- That is the Question

Posted on March 3, 2015April 12, 2021

About a year ago I was not even aware what chimping was. Hence whether I did it or not was irrelevant. But now that I know, I also know that I am not a big offender. In fact I am probably on the other side of the equation, I hardly chimp. But if you have not heard of the term chimping before, you might stop reading any further and declare me under the influence! And that is a risk I cannot take.

chimping
Chimping

Chimping is the habit of reviewing each picture that you take on the LCD of your camera immediately after you take it. Experts say that if done to extreme it can be dreadfully distracting. I would not know for two reasons, first that I am not an expert and second that as I said before, I do not do excessive chimping. If anything I fall into the other category.

Since I do not chimp much, I am on the other side of the equation. I can surely tell what are some of the drawbacks of not chimping. Recently I was in Mumbai to attend the 2015 Discover Thainess event. I went about shooting quite a few pictures without chimping. And then due to some reason I chimped. To my horror I realized that all my treasured pictures had the wrong white balance. All my pictures had a strong yellow tinge.

sweets-thailand
Thank God I was Chimping!

And I had already clicked about 25 pictures. I scampered to correct the white balance (basically moved it away from shade) and got better shots.

white-balance
A Better White Balance

And then I had to go back and click most of those 25 shots again. Had I not chimped, I would end up all the shots having poor white balance and I would realize it after the event. You may turn back and say I should have paid attention to the white balance at the beginning but then I am no pro and I do make mistakes, as silly as this one.

And even though white balance could be more associated with a DSLR but chimping can happen on any device, any camera. So what do you say? Do you indulge in chimping? Does it distract you? Has it saved your day sometimes, like it did mine?

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23 thoughts on “Chimping or No Chimping- That is the Question”

  1. Amrita says:
    March 4, 2015 at 12:47 am

    Yes yes! I do a lot of chimping! Wid my Sony Cybershot & Lenovo A6000! 😛

    Reply
    1. Mridula says:
      March 4, 2015 at 10:09 am

      Now I wonder why I don’t! Everyone who commented here does it, I will also do i more from now.

      Reply
  2. Maniparna Sengupta Majumder says:
    March 4, 2015 at 2:15 am

    I didn’t know the term 😀 I chimp too, often 😛

    Reply
    1. Mridula says:
      March 4, 2015 at 10:08 am

      I will also join the chimping gang now 😀

      Reply
  3. rupam { xhobdo } says:
    March 4, 2015 at 7:40 am

    Yes 🙂 Thanks for the post

    Reply
    1. Mridula says:
      March 4, 2015 at 10:07 am

      Everyone is saying yes! I need to do it more! 😀

      Reply
  4. mumbaiiteanu says:
    March 4, 2015 at 8:10 am

    I chimp often, thank God, coz a couple of times I realised I was using the wrong settings of camera, and got a chance to click again.

    Reply
    1. Mridula says:
      March 4, 2015 at 10:06 am

      I need to do it more often 😀

      Reply
  5. Indrani says:
    March 4, 2015 at 9:11 am

    Happy chimping and happy clicking.
    I too chimp. 🙂

    Reply
    1. Mridula says:
      March 4, 2015 at 10:01 am

      Indrani 😀 I don’t do much, I should start I guess.

      Reply
  6. Prasad Np says:
    March 4, 2015 at 11:59 am

    I don’t think there is any right or wrong way… My thought is this: The camera makers wanted us to chimp, that is why the screen was added 🙂

    Reply
    1. Mridula says:
      March 4, 2015 at 1:33 pm

      I am glad I did this posr Prasad, I go forward to chimping!

      Reply
  7. Ravish Mani says:
    March 4, 2015 at 12:00 pm

    It’s better to chimp than regret later 🙂

    Reply
    1. Mridula says:
      March 4, 2015 at 1:31 pm

      Agreed Ravish.

      Reply
  8. Abhijit says:
    March 4, 2015 at 12:11 pm

    I did not know what is Chimping till now. I thought from the title, it is something to do with monkey bossiness that Chimpanzees do. Now after reading, I am wiser to an extent. Thank you.

    Reply
    1. Mridula says:
      March 4, 2015 at 1:30 pm

      Abhijit 😀 the first time I came across the term, I thought the same!

      Reply
  9. Niranjan says:
    March 4, 2015 at 3:25 pm

    Do you have a name to that? Wow!

    Reply
    1. Mridula says:
      March 5, 2015 at 9:52 am

      Yes Niranjan! 😀

      Reply
  10. dNambiar says:
    March 4, 2015 at 6:02 pm

    Hmm…so that’s what it means.
    I learnt something new today.
    And about Chimping — a little guilty. But I don’t think its distracting. I’ve found that to be a good thing to do, considering the many mistakes we tend to make.

    Happy Chimping, Mridula. 🙂

    Reply
    1. Mridula says:
      March 5, 2015 at 9:51 am

      Thank you Divya, that is what I need to do more!

      Reply
  11. Shrinidhi Hande says:
    March 5, 2015 at 4:05 am

    Learnt a new word…

    I don’t chimp compulsively…. only when there’s time or my intuition tells me there could be something wrong in the pic

    Reply
    1. Mridula says:
      March 5, 2015 at 9:46 am

      I need to develop that intuition 😀

      Reply
  12. sindhoooo says:
    March 12, 2015 at 10:29 pm

    Chimping! Nice word 🙂 Informative post it is… many of your readers have given nice tips too 🙂
    I do chimping sometimes not very much, not every time, but I do. It helps me to check the clarity especially when I will be taking macros.

    Reply

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About Me

I am Mridula Dwivedi and I started this blog in 2005. It has been an amazing ride. I have visited 33 countries till date! I have worked with many tourism boards and prominent travel companies. My blog was featured on the BBC and the Guardian.

I did my Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur. I worked full time in academics till 2015! I quit my job as a professor, thinking I will take a break for one year, which turned into five.

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