Canon® EOS Digital Rebel XSi/450D For Dummies®

Chapter 4. Monitor Matters: Picture Playback and Live View Shooting

In This Chapter

• Exploring picture playback functions

• Viewing images on the camera monitor

• Deciphering the picture information displays

• Understanding the exposure histogram

• Deleting bad pictures and protecting great ones

• Using your monitor as a viewfinder in Live View mode

Without question, my favorite thing about digital photography is being able to view my pictures on the camera monitor the instant after I shoot them. No more guessing whether I captured the image I wanted or need to try again; no more wasting money on developing and printing pictures that stink. In fact, this feature alone was reason enough for me to turn my back forever on my closetful of film photography hardware and all the unexposed film remaining from my predigital days.

Of course, with the Rebel XSi/450D, you can use the monitor not only to review your photos, but also to preview them. That is, if you turn on Live View shooting, you can use the monitor instead of the viewfinder to compose and focus your shots.

Because both functions of your camera monitor involve some of the same buttons, bells, and whistles, I cover them together in this chapter. In addition, this chapter explains how to delete pictures that you don't like and protect the ones you love from accidental erasure.

For details about still more monitor-related topics, such as accessing camera ...