When should you use a tripod?

[KenC]

For me it usually comes down to whether it's practical to carry and use a tripod. I spend a lot of time wandering about on city center streets in big cities, where both carrying and setting one up are almost impossible. In any situation where I can carry and set one up I do.

 

[Overread17 5]

That's beautiful! Why do you need a long exposure time for photos like these? Does it make it more colorful, or is it to keep the ISO and noise lower?

A few thoughts:

1) You might find the book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson to be of help. Further the series of 4 books by Scot Kelby called "The Digital Photography Book (1 through to 4) might also be of help.

2) Keeping the ISO low is NOT always the best way to get the most noise free photo. Now whilst it is true that if you increase the ISO the amount of noise also increases; it is also true that if you underexpose a photo then you will get more noise when you brighten it up in editing, than if you'd have correctly exposed it using a higher ISO value.
"Keep the ISO low" is a mantra often taught to those new to photography and its bad advice in general. Because it makes you focus on keeping the ISO low when it might not always be the best option. If you've already set your aperture and shutter speed then if the ISO needs to be higher to get the shot then chances are its best to raise the ISO above all else.

As you gain more experience you'll come to understand this better and be able to make that judgement call of when you can drop the shutter speed or widen the aperture instead of raising the ISO (or vis versa).

3) Use a tripod when you have one and when you need one. In theory most shots will benefit from one; although in many cases the benefit might just be reduced fatigue on yourself.

Several examples of common situations where a tripod is often critical have been made above including:

a) Long exposures - when you want to do a shot using a very slow shutter speed. Because then you need a stable platform to shoot from otherwise all you'll get is the blur as a result of handshake.
The rule of thumb posted earlier about minimum hand-shake shutter speeds is a good one to go by, but remember if you pose yourself properly - if you hold the camera right - if you lean against something firm (including the ground) - all these tricks can help you get an extra few shutter speeds before handshake blur is a problem.

b) Single position shots - if you're going to be doing something in a single spot for a long period of time a tripod can take a lot of weight off your arms. This might be waiting in a hide for a shot - it might be setting the camera up to take a long series of studio shots (eg copy work or photographing products). Landscapes are also popular as you're sitting there waiting for the light and then often might ahve a slower shutter speed too.

c) To help with stability in general - big lenses are often heavy and thus will fatigue you faster (which impacts your ability to handhold significantly) so a tripod to take the weight of a heavy lens is a big boon. Similarly if you're doing macro you might find it of help in some situations (you can do macro fully hand-held if you want or you can use a tripod - choice is yours).

d) For precise composition - sometimes you want the composition just so - to be just as you want it. This might be on a landscape - a person - a flower - a bug etc... Whatever the situation the tripod is there to help you.



NOTE higher end tripods have a tripod head that removes because what makes a tripod work isn't just hte legs but the head attached to it. Different heads are suited to different things and some are useless for others (eg geared heads are generally no good for any action based photography or situations where you're moving the head around fast).

Lower end tripods have a fixed head (generally speaking) which will typically be a 3 way head or ballhead in some cases.

 

[Designer]

Please go back and read the corrections to my earlier post.

 

[Vasco]

I use the tripod:

• whenever I need to get the focus, composition and angle just right
• when I will be using a slow shutter speed,
• when I'd doing macro or something with a very thin depth of field,
• and... whenever I want to impress the bystanders (because nothing screams "serious" as well as a tripod).

Three of the four above are true.

To impress the people around... I never thought...

 

[mcap1972]

When shooting landscapes.

 

[Ilovemycam]

Hello all! I'm fairly new to photography, but am having tons of fun learning! I got a tripod yesterday for Christmas. I was just wondering when you choose to use a tripod, and when you go handheld.

I go handhold 99.9% of the time since I am a documentary photog and can't carry a tripod with me. But I have a 6 or 7 tripods all over the place. Just seldom use em.

This shot could have been improved with a tripod.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...museum_Copyright_2014_Daniel_D._Teoli_Jr..jpg

And this could have been improved with a tripod.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe..._no.62_Copyright_2014_Daniel_D._Teoli_Jr..jpg

But if I had a tripod for the bike I would not have got this...

nsfw

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Pole_Dance_Selfie_@_Bikers'_Mardi_Gras_Copyright_2014_Daniel_D._Teoli_Jr..jpg/612px-Pole_Dance_Selfie_@_Bikers'_Mardi_Gras_Copyright_2014_Daniel_D._Teoli_Jr..jpg

You decide early on what type of photog you are. I'm a free hander, that is my style...sans tripod.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...ll_Life_Copyright_Daniel_D._Teoli_Jr_2013.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...ggalos_Copyright_2014_Daniel_D._Teoli_Jr..jpg

I hate, banal, boring photos. Tripods usually go hand in hand with boring work. (Although there are some dramatic landscape shots done with them. Just very rare when it comes to social documentary photos.)

I didn't use a tripod on this, but shot it blind, over a crowd. That is where doc photogs have to practice skills ...in bringing home the shot.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...iss_Copyright_2014_Daniel_D._Teoli_Jr._lr.jpg

Same way Bresson shot this one...

http://www.skinnerinc.com/news/wp-c...ri-cartier-bresson-photography-2609B-2201.png

Good luck in figuring out your niche!

 

[ifoundnemo]

That's beautiful! Why do you need a long exposure time for photos like these? Does it make it more colorful, or is it to keep the ISO and noise lower?

A few thoughts:

1) You might find the book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson to be of help. Further the series of 4 books by Scot Kelby called "The Digital Photography Book (1 through to 4) might also be of help.

2) Keeping the ISO low is NOT always the best way to get the most noise free photo. Now whilst it is true that if you increase the ISO the amount of noise also increases; it is also true that if you underexpose a photo then you will get more noise when you brighten it up in editing, than if you'd have correctly exposed it using a higher ISO value.
"Keep the ISO low" is a mantra often taught to those new to photography and its bad advice in general. Because it makes you focus on keeping the ISO low when it might not always be the best option. If you've already set your aperture and shutter speed then if the ISO needs to be higher to get the shot then chances are its best to raise the ISO above all else.

As you gain more experience you'll come to understand this better and be able to make that judgement call of when you can drop the shutter speed or widen the aperture instead of raising the ISO (or vis versa).

3) Use a tripod when you have one and when you need one. In theory most shots will benefit from one; although in many cases the benefit might just be reduced fatigue on yourself.

Several examples of common situations where a tripod is often critical have been made above including:

a) Long exposures - when you want to do a shot using a very slow shutter speed. Because then you need a stable platform to shoot from otherwise all you'll get is the blur as a result of handshake.
The rule of thumb posted earlier about minimum hand-shake shutter speeds is a good one to go by, but remember if you pose yourself properly - if you hold the camera right - if you lean against something firm (including the ground) - all these tricks can help you get an extra few shutter speeds before handshake blur is a problem.

b) Single position shots - if you're going to be doing something in a single spot for a long period of time a tripod can take a lot of weight off your arms. This might be waiting in a hide for a shot - it might be setting the camera up to take a long series of studio shots (eg copy work or photographing products). Landscapes are also popular as you're sitting there waiting for the light and then often might ahve a slower shutter speed too.

c) To help with stability in general - big lenses are often heavy and thus will fatigue you faster (which impacts your ability to handhold significantly) so a tripod to take the weight of a heavy lens is a big boon. Similarly if you're doing macro you might find it of help in some situations (you can do macro fully hand-held if you want or you can use a tripod - choice is yours).

d) For precise composition - sometimes you want the composition just so - to be just as you want it. This might be on a landscape - a person - a flower - a bug etc... Whatever the situation the tripod is there to help you.



NOTE higher end tripods have a tripod head that removes because what makes a tripod work isn't just hte legs but the head attached to it. Different heads are suited to different things and some are useless for others (eg geared heads are generally no good for any action based photography or situations where you're moving the head around fast).

Lower end tripods have a fixed head (generally speaking) which will typically be a 3 way head or ballhead in some cases.

Thanks everyone for your replies! This was very helpful to me. I actually just bought Understanding Exposure, and am working on reading it now.

 

[pgriz]

You'll have to work out for yourself what your needs are. I know that using a tripod slows me down a lot - and that's a good thing (for me). The effort of setting up the tripod, attaching the camera to it, making sure it's solid, etc., takes some time, and I think about what perspective I want, what the background will look like, whether vertical or horizontal formats will be more appropriate. Once I have the camera on, and the proper view selected, I use live-view for critical focusing, and checking the edges of the frame for unwanted or distracting stuff. It's also a good place to check whether my horizon is actually level, and if I'm using a wide or ultra-wide angle lens, that I'm not getting inappropriate perspective distortion. It's a much slower process than just raising the camera to your eye and snapping the shutter. But in the end, my keeper rate is higher when I use this approach. I now routinely also take a 3 or 5-frame bracketed exposures in the event that the scene could benefit from HDR treatment. If it is a one-time visit to a place, then I also take shots with different DOF for the scene (say at f/4, f/8, f/16) in the event that my vision of the scene at the time was off, and a different DOF would work better. With the camera fixed on the tripod, these options then give me something to work with once I'm home.