LCD monitors give photographers more power than ever before to work with the photographic art form. However, they are not perfect, and — like many things in photography — they have their own limitations. When you understand these limitations, you will be able to get the most from your camera.

LCD screens often show a bit less than the full picture displayed on your monitor, typically 97 percent of the actual picture. This discrepancy between the preview picture and the final picture has plagued photographers for some time. Virtually no film cameras ever gave a full view of the image through the viewfinder, for example. If you shoot pictures with precise framing and no cropping, you will want to be aware of how much extra will show in the actual photograph. Of course, with digital photography it is very easy to crop just a bit if you need to.

LCD monitors also use a lot of battery power, so if you are trying to conserve batteries most cameras allow the option of turning the LCD off. If your camera has an LCD viewfinder, you may be able to shut that off as well.

Small, reduced images appear sharper. Until you gain some experience, it may be hard to judge the sharpness of a picture. Most LCD screens have a zoom control that will allow you to look at a blow-up of a section. An extreme enlargement should reveal any streaks of camera movement or blur due to the camera being out of focus. As always, you should realize that this enlargement is only an approximation of what the image might look like full size on a computer monitor.

Color is also tricky for a number of reasons. First, the camera will interpret the color of light sources differently than you do with your naked eye. Experienced photographers are used to this, but novices may find this variance troubling. The LCD screen, in turn, will display the color image with some differences from the actual photograph. Generally, the difference will not be great but it will be noticeable.