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You don’t need to stick with the default monitor and viewfinder display; you can use the following techniques to alter what you see:

  During shooting, press the DISP button to change the amount and type of picture-taking data that appears. Figure 1-20 shows the various monitor displays in the order they appear each time you press the DISP button. In the viewfinder, the same data appears, but with most of it appearing at the top and bottom of the display, as shown in Figure 1-21. Note that the Information display shown in Figure 1-20 is available only on the monitor and only during photo shooting. (All figures here show photo-related data; see Chapter 7 for help understanding video data.)FIGURE 1-20: During photo shooting, press the DISP button to cycle through these monitor displays.Some details to help you understand a few screens:Histogram display: This mode displays a Brightness histogram, which is a chart that indicates the distribution of image brightness values from black to white. (I labeled the histogram in Figure 1-21.) The Brightness histogram offers a more reliable indicator of exposure than simply looking at the scene on the monitor, because the brightness of the image can be affected by the ambient light in which you view it. Chapter 3 explains how to read a Brightness histogram, but the short story is that lots of spikes at the far right end of the chart mean that the scene is likely overexposed (too bright), and a heavy concentration at the other end signals possible underexposure.If the Brightness histogram doesn’t appear, open the Custom Settings menu, choose Shooting/Display, and check the status of the Apply Settings to Live View option. When this option is disabled, so is the Brightness histogram.Information display: This screen enables you to view picture-taking settings without the distraction of the live preview. You can modify this screen’s color scheme, switching from dark type on a light screen to white type on a dark screen. To do so, open the Setup menu and choose Information Display. Option B is the default; choose W for white type on a dark background.Virtual Horizon display: This feature is useful when you need to make sure that the camera is level to the horizon. If the two horizontal lines in the graphic are yellow, tilt the camera until they turn green, as in the figures, indicating a level position.FIGURE 1-21: Data is arranged a little differently in the viewfinder, and the Information display is unavailable. To quickly hide all data, press the red Record button on top of the camera. Press the button again to bring the data back into view. Of course, this trick only works when shooting photos; when you’re shooting videos, pressing the button starts and stops recording. Additionally, you can’t use the button to hide and display data if you use the customization options that I discuss in Chapter 10 to assign a different photo-shooting function to the button.

 You can add gridlines to help align your shots, as shown in Figure 1-22. Open the Custom Settings menu, choose Shooting/Display, and select Framing Grid Display. You can choose a 3 x 3 or 4 x 4 grid design.

 The camera enables you to adjust display brightness and color — but use caution. Normally, the live preview updates to reflect changes you make to color and exposure settings, which is obviously helpful when determining whether the new settings are on target. You can turn off these updates, but I can think of only one reason you may want to do so: When using the viewfinder, some people find that frequent display updates cause eyestrain. Turn the feature on and off via the Apply Settings to Live View option, found in the Shooting/Display section of the Custom Settings menu. A reminder icon appears just above the Touch Shutter symbol on the monitor and in the upper left corner of the viewfinder. The symbol looks like a camera labeled with the word View! Turning off this setting also disables Histogram display mode. When you change the setting to On, the symbol disappears and Histogram display mode becomes available.You also can make wholesale baseline changes to display brightness and color via four options on the Setup menu: Monitor Brightness, Monitor Color Balance, Viewfinder Brightness, and Viewfinder Color Balance. But if you change any of these settings from their defaults, what you see in the displays may not provide an accurate reflection of the picture. For example, if you increase monitor brightness, an underexposed photo may look just fine in the displays.FIGURE 1-22: You can add gridlines to the displays as an additional framing alignment aid.As you ponder these adjustments, keep in mind that what you see in the displays often doesn’t match what you see with your eyes exactly because the camera can’t capture all the variations in brightness and color that the human eye can discern. You may want to try using the Active D-Lighting and HDR features discussed in Chapter 3 to broaden the range of tones the camera can capture. If you determine that the camera displays are out of whack, I suggest taking the camera in for a service check, using the adjustment options as only a temporary solution.

You also can customize the displays you see when you’re reviewing photos and recording videos. Check out Chapter 8 for details on playback options; see Chapter 7 for video recording options.