Some photographers will tell you that a tripod is always necessary for taking pictures. Others will say it’s only needed in certain circumstances, or not at all. So what’s the answer? The truth is, it depends on what kind of photography you’re doing and how steady your hands are. In some cases, using a tripod can make your photos come out clearer because they won’t be moving around as much while you take them. But if they’re blurry or out of focus to start with, there’s no guarantee that a tripod will help!
But overall, a tripod helps to keep the camera steady and level, which can be especially helpful when you are taking landscape pictures or using heavy lenses.
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Reasons for using a tripod
Tripods are also useful for photographers who use flash equipment because they help reduce movement from this type of photography. Like in a commercial shoot, they can allow the photographer to step away from the camera to check lighting, computers, model positioning, etc without moving the camera.
Or if you’re a family photographer, it can allow you to handle props easier without camera movement. So although a tripod is not necessary for portrait photography it can be useful in certain situations.
Circling back to landscape photography, that’s where a tripod can really shine. Things like long-exposure photography and astronomy photography need tripods for sharp images. For long-exposure images, the shutter needs to stay open for a specific amount of time. The longer the shutter stays open the harder it gets to shoot an image handheld and still get a quality image.
Shooting in low light with a tripod allows you to keep decreasing the shutter speed without camera shake so you can get as much light as possible.
Macro photographers also use tripods quite often. Up close images of things like insects or flowers require either a really fast shutter speed and/or really steady hands. Having a tripod, it’ll help ensure you get the shot you’re looking for.
Wildlife photographers might want to consider using tripods as well, with their huge zoom lenses. Although it might be hard to follow that duck flying by on a tripod, it’ll help when you’re camping out in the brush with a huge lens capturing that duck while they’re swimming in the water with its other duck buddies. Sports photographers with long zoom lenses may also use tripods but generally they use monopods (single-leg tripods) so they can move the camera around quickly to follow the action.
Wrapping Up
Tripods are a great tool for photographers to have in their arsenal. They’re not always necessary, but they can make it much easier to take clearer photos without having your hands shake as you hold the camera. Hope you were able to get some useful tripod tips. Check out a review for my favorite tripod here.
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