To obtain a stable camera for long exposures, the tripod is only part of the overall picture. There are many accessories to add to your tripod to make your photographic life easier and to make your images even sharper.
When you purchase your camera it will come with a standard 1/4″-20 screw socket for mounting to the tripod, this is somewhat inconvenient if you need to quickly mount the camera to the tripod.
I do prefer a tripod in many situations. Some examples of where I find a tripod useful and in some cases essential are as follows:
When using a long telephoto lens.
With Macro photography a tripod can greatly increase your success rate.
Where you want to carefully frame an image, a tripod is very useful, especially for landscape images.
Long time exposures require a tripod. Sometimes I may use a 10-stop Neutral Density (ND) filter for water scenes, resulting in exposures several minutes long.
Night photography. Even though cameras now can use extremely hig ISO settings a tripod can be very handy for night images and is essential for star images at night.
The movement of water can help to create interesting images. In order to capture images such as these it is essential to use a tripod, as shutter speeds close to 1 second or greater will be required. Generally a shutter speed of 1/8 of a second will start to blur the moving water, but with a tripod any shutter speeds up to 1/2 minute can be tried.
A tripod will make a significant improvement to the sharpness of many images. Generally a tripod will comprise two main parts, the main part comprising the three legs and the upper part comprising the head to allow movement of the camera. A tripod is very usefull in obtaining sharp landscape images and also very usefull… Continue reading Using a Tripod
Many images will be improved if a monopod is used to stabilise the camera and lens. A monopod will not stabilise a camera to the same extent as a tripod, however it will aid significantly in obtaining sharper images. The monopod illustrated below can be used by itself or it can be used in conjunction… Continue reading Using a Monopod
Long ExposuresLong exposure photography is generally refered to when the photographer uses shutter speeds greater than can be hand held and still get sharp images. There are several options to turn to when this occurs.
Image Stabilization or Vibration Reduction which is built into some lenses, will assist in allowing the use of longer exposure times, in some circumstances this can be by the equivalent of three to four stops. This means that a shutter speed which would normally 1/100 of a second hand held could be extended to possibly 1/10 or 1/5 of a second, using one of these lenses. Image stabilization lenses compensate for the movement of the camera and lens by moving an element inside the lens to stabilize for any movement of the image at the sensor plane. Image stabilization or vibration reduction can be very usefull in longer lenses from 100mm and upwards.
Would you like to capture a full frame image of a dangerous creature or a shy animal or bird. It is quite easy if you use a remote camera release. Today there are many types of remote releases available for cameras, there are cable releases, infra red or radio controlled releases. There are also many types on remote triggering devices to automatically trigger your camera as an animal or bird approaches.
