Almost every new SLR camera shipped in the last few years has included a feature known as “Live View”. For Point and Shooters it has been a given that you would be able to see a live image of your intended subject before you squeeze the shutter, but for digital SLR’s it has always been a little bit more complicated.

The thing is, there’s a darn mirror inside the camera that gets in the way, and it has to be moved before the camera sensor can see the same scene that the lens sees. It took the manufacturers a few years to figure out how to make it all work elegantly (in fact it’s still not perfect because autofocus performance takes a big hit in live view mode, but that’s a subject for another article). In the mean time SLR shooters never got used to having live view on the back of their cameras, and it’s one of those features that gets used very rarely (almost never) by most serious photographers.

Here are 5 reasons why you should use Live View for landscape photography:

1. Bigger Viewfinder: Let’s face it, the viewfinder in your SLR is small. Even if you’ve got one of those fancy-pants professional cameras that shows 100% of the image that the sensor sees (most non-pro SLR’s only show 90-95% of the scene), it’s still very small. With a bigger view you can get better compositions and more easily see the distractions and annoying backgrounds that you might not notice otherwise. Simply put, bigger is better baby!
2. Testing Critical Focus: While in live view mode you can zoom the image on the LCD (typically 5x or 10x) to get a much better idea of what you are actually focusing on. This is particularly helpful for macro photography, but it’s also great for landscapes.
3. Stronger Compositions: The image displayed on the LCD during Live View typically includes grid lines to help you compose your image. These lines can help you check that your horizons are straight and level and that your trees and buildings are vertical. They can even help you improve your composition by clearly showing guidelines for compositional rules of thumb such as the “Rule of Thirds.”
4. White Balance Preview: When you change the white balance setting in your camera, the image in your viewfinder doesn’t change, so you really can’t be sure how it’s going to look. Fortunately the image on the LCD changes instantly to show how your white balance affects the image. Sure, you can change the white balance in software (such as Adobe Lightroom) later (if you shoot RAW), but why not get it right in the camera instead? I find this feature to be invaluable when I’m trying to decide if I really have a good image in front of me…
5. Exposure Simulation and/or Live Histogram: For some users the single biggest reason to use Live View is for the exposure simulation (the live preview image in the LCD will automatically adjust based on the exposure settings to display the brightness of the final image). Alternatively you could simply choose to show a live histogram (which would also represent the final image rather than what you’re seeing on the screen) overlaid on the live image. Both of these features are very useful for preventing blown highlights or underexposed images. You can even use both at the same time.

There are many other great reasons to use live view for all types of photography. These are just a few of the best reasons that are most applicable to landscape shooters. Do you use live view? Please leave a comment telling me about your experiences with it… If you haven’t used it before then you should definitely give it a try on your next shoot!

Windows Vista has a really annoying habit of changing the way that it displays files in folders in Windows Explorer (or My Computer) based on the content in those folders. For example if a folder contains pictures it tends to show small icons (or thumbnails) instead of a simple list of files. And the default view for other file types tends to be a list of file names that doesn’t display any of the other details about the file, such as that date that it was changed or the file size.

Even more annoying is that Vista doesn’t respect the file folder view that you have selected (in the Folder Options dialog) if the contents of a folder changes. For example, if I have a folder that contains only text files that is set to show “All Details”, and then I add some pictures to that folder, Vista will automatically change the view to the “Pictures” view.

I honestly don’t know anyone that prefers to see their files as icons, and I personally want to see all the other details (sometimes called metadata) about my files all the time.

I finally found a permanent fix for this problem. Instead of detailing it here, I’m just going to provide a link to the source of the solution. They even provide a downloadable REG file that you can execute to automatically fix it for you. So, click the following link if you want to see the “All Details” view for all of your folders on all of your drives, all of the time.

Note that this is another Vista tip that I assume will also apply to Windows 7, but I haven’t been able to test that yet. I’ll get back to you sometime on or near October 22nd!!

UPDATE Oct 27, 2009 – This trick is definitely still applicable to Windows 7, and it works perfectly!