40D owners: what level do you set your screen to?

I am curious what level you set you LCD screen to as far as brightness?

My real question is... if I set my brightness to the highest setting, will it look like a proper exposure when I am really under exposing? (without looking at histogram)

microman23 wrote in post #4195652
I am curious what level you set you LCD screen to as far as brightness?

My real question is... if I set my brightness to the highest setting, will it look like a proper exposure when I am really under exposing? (without looking at histogram)

Regardless of the camera, the brightness setting on the LCD screen isn't going to give you and accurate representation of the exposure of the image. What you are able to discern on the screen is going to depend on the ambient lighting as well as the screen brightness. You really need to depend on the histogram for exposure.

I set my LCD brightness to what is necessary for the ambient lighting conditions.

Mark

One mark back from full seemed to work for me when I had a 40D.

First, I don't have a 40D. I shoot with a 30D.. BUT......

When I properly expose an image (by histogram and then when viewing on the computer) it almost always appears overexposed on the LCD on the camera. I NEVER use the jpg representation on the camera to judge anything other than composition, but if I do want to see a more accurate representation I turn the brightness down a notch.

Once again, I NEVER use the LCD to judge color, saturation, exposure, white balance or anything other then composition. At times I can get an idea of my background blur or motion blur but I've learned to also not use it for focus and sharpness issues because it's not accurate enough to make those judgements.

Just use your head.........look at the preview & histogram. Find a shot that is just about on the right for the highlights (according to the histogram, not LCD) and adjust it as close as you can to match........just about where it's ready to blow the highlights out. That or just open it on your pc and view, then adjust your LCD. It's important to know your camera and understand if your lighter or darker on your LCD compared to your monitor.

........that is of course only if you prefer to judge from your LCD. Personal I have mine set to view preview and LCD, this way you can truly see how far your preview is off. Then after a while you can judge your shoots with just the LCD because you will get a feel of how much darker / lighter it is than the actual shot.

Personally I'd never use the just the LCD for anything important, but for snapshots the above might help.

I leave it at default. I only use the LCD for histogram and reviewing composition.

I set it to what's reasonable for the lighting conditions I'm in. I try to err on the dark side to minimize the impression that my photos are bright enough. I still find myself subconsciously using it as a gauge.

microman23,
On my 40D & 5D I find the default setting for LCD brightness is the closest to actual exposure. If you turn up the brightness and use the LCD to check your exposure, then yes you will have underexposed photos even though it looked ok on the camera LCD screen.

John_B wrote in post #4197375
microman23,
On my 40D & 5D I find the default setting for LCD brightness is the closest to actual exposure. If you turn up the brightness and use the LCD to check your exposure, then yes you will have underexposed photos even though it looked ok on the camera LCD screen.

I think you are right, unfortunately. It just looks SO vivid at 100% brightness.

rowdyred94, I use it as a gauge sometimes too. I try to use the histogram most of the time though.