- As a beginner photographer,
you might wonder when you should use a tripod
or even how you use a tripod.
So in this video I'm gonna show you how
and when you use a tripod.
What a better place to do it than this stunning forest.
(gentle music)
Hi everyone, I'm Adrian.
I'm an Australian landscape photographer.
And on this channel,
I provide you with tips and tools to help you
improve your own landscape photography.
And welcome to the beautiful Yarra Ranges National Park
here in the high country of Victoria.
Absolutely spectacular conditions this morning again.
Forecast was for some fog in the valley below,
and I'm up here, had ran about 1200 meters,
absolutely beautiful foggy conditions and low clouds.
So really excited to talk to you today
about some of the best tips I found when using a tripod.
And today, it's for the first time in a while,
I've got the spikes in.
So let's talk about the pros and cons
of when you should use a tripod,
how you should use a tripod,
and let's get started.
So I've just framed a beautiful shot here,
lovely little tree,
probably a little sapling,
that's sort of leading into the scene
and I'll show you in a moment,
but um, got some lovely straight lines, these,
I think they're Alpine Ash
and some of them are mountain Ash trees as well,
which has created some beautiful depth and separation of,
with the fog and the low clouds actually helping that.
But what a magical morning!
But I thought the first tip is probably an important one
around when to use the tripod.
And this is a good example,
when you gotta have a slow shutter speed or, you know,
essentially the light is not optimal for shooting handheld.
So again, depending on your lens,
the camera and body stabilization,
we'll determine when you would need to use a tripod
for those sort of occasions.
But for today, at the moment we're shooting
at F/11 ISO 200 and that's giving me a shutter speed
of one sixth of a second.
So too slow to hold handheld.
I could try, I really could try.
But again, I like a sharp image,
certainly in the foreground through the mid ground,
then melting away so let's try that shot now.
(shutter clicks)
I'll show you the tree. Looks great!
Good start to the morning!
(gentle music plays)
The other thing you can think about with the tripod
is, you know, in the example I just used,
then I was using F/11. So if I step down the aperture,
say F/11, F/13,
obviously we're letting in less light into the sensor,
which means the scene's darker.
And so if it's darker than a slower shutter speed,
which is what you just saw,
you probably need to use a tripod.
Again, depending on the lens, in-built image stabilization,
all those things probably count.
But you know, if I want a sharp image like this,
it's just easy to carry the tripod.
Spectacular, actually the sunlight's going to break through.
So we're going to move further down the mountain
because I've got another location I want to check out.
But before we do so my next tip,
and I've just framed up this last shot,
is in terms of exposure bracketing.
So I've been exposure bracketing and that's,
if you're exposure bracketing,
which means taking exposure at one or two stops below
about the base exposure,
having a tripod ensures you get an even exposure.
So this shot here is framed up again.
We've got the clouds and the fog are starting to lift,
but a beautiful little scene here
with a tree leaning in, one of the Alpine ashes,
and we've got the other ones laid behind it.
So a very simple, very simple composition.
Obviously the fog and low clouds are really helping.
So I'm really excited about this shot.
So, if it's any good I'll show you now.
But thinking about some of the key things
that are really important with the tripod.
So the first thing to think about when setting up
when on a tripod is, depending on the lens,
It's important that you put on the two second timer.
So the two second timer ensures that,
by the time you compose the shot,
press the shutter button,
the shake not going through the tripod can create
a vibration or blur in images.
So it's really important that you have that on.
So I have that on now and we'll take the shot.
I think it was five seconds, actually.
Beautiful.
So the other thing to bear in mind
is whether you use image stabilization or optic steady shot,
depending on your camera and your camera system.
So in the Sony we have inbuilt body stabilization
here in the Sony A7,
the lens also has optic steady shot as well.
So when it's on a tripod, depending on the conditions,
you may not want to actually have that on.
So at the moment I have switched off, there's no wind.
It's very still here.
I'm not going to introduce any vibration,
those micro shakes.
However, if there was a bit of wind around,
potentially you would consider turning it on.
So it's more of a touch and feel sort of scenario,
where you sort of work out what works for you.
And you know, I think in windier conditions, you know,
I usually do actually have it on.
And then I just check how sharp those images actually are.
But again now very still,
sun's staring through a bit of sidelight
on the trees behind me, so I've got it switched off.
So I wouldn't use it more in these particular circumstances.
So next thing to think about when using a tripod,
is potentially geting an L bracket.
So if you have an L bracket,
you have the ability to turn the camera
without moving the tripod.
So the L bracket itself, as you see here,
it's currently in a horizontal or landscape mode.
I can be able to unclip it,
clips back on here, straight into portrait mode.
You can change the composition really quite quickly.
Now, if you don't have an L bracket
or haven't purchased one,
and you've only got the ball head like I have here,
even though it's on the L bracket.
So let's put that to the side.
It was shooting horizontal like this on top of the ball.
And then we swing it around.
We want to have the control still on the top here.
So swinging the ball head back to the left,
enables the controls to be on top of your camera
so you're accessing them.
Otherwise they'd be down here and you'd be like this,
trying to have a photograph.
So the next step is before you set up your tripod,
is to get around using the camera handheld
and sort of compose your shots.
So before you lock you tripod down to location,
where you're going to take the photograph,
really important to get out, handhold,
have a look around the scene and see what you can get.
Otherwise, you fixate on where you lock the tripod.
And so it's really important from a composition perspective.
So my next tip is if you can get a tripod with some,
the option to install some spikes,
really useful for when you're shooting at the beach
or in a rainforest like this,
where it's really muddy and you want to get stability,
extra stability.
The little rubber feet are handy,
but if you can get ones with spikes or this one here,
you can then, as you can see,
have it here and obviously covered in mud as well,
but it keeps the camera really stable and reduce any- oops!
potential shake you might get when shooting.
Well, I've just come out of the forest sat down,
made myself a cup of tea.
Hopefully you found value in this video
in terms of how to use the tripod
and the situations when to use the tripod.
If you have feel free to hit that like button.
If you have any questions about the tripod I was using,
the L bracket, anything along those lines,
drop a question in the comments below
and I'll do my best to get back to you.
If you're interested in landscape photography
here in Australia,
the next video you're going to want to watch
is the video I did recently
looking at how I scout and plan for location
up in Mount Buffalo.
I'll leave a link in the description below.
Other than that, I'll see you next video.
Bye for now. Cheers.