The other day I was out shooting (without a tripod). The lighting was fantastic but changing by the second. There was a fair amount of cloud but the sun was breaking through at regular intervals. Because of the cloud cover, different parts of the scene were in sunlight and shadow and the illuminated areas were changing quickly. How I would have liked my tripod.

With the tripod I would have composed the image and connected the remote cord and waited for the light. I could turn around, look at the sky and work out when the sun show up again. I would already have estimated the exposure and when the sun did appear I would squeeze the remote release and bracket the exposure knowing that the composition would be spot on. With a tripod all I would need to concentrate on would be the lighting. Everything else would be set up and ready to go. (Ansel Adams was known to wait for days in a tent waiting for the light to be just right.)

Without the tripod I still had to wait for the light but now I was almost rooted to the spot so that I didn't blow the compostion. And when the sun did appear I had to work extra fast to secure the composition before bracketing. Even now, the composition in each of the bracketed shots will not be quite the same. Often in this situation I will find that the best composition does not correspond to the best exposure and lead to a great deal of frustration. With a tripod there would be no problem.

There are other reasons why a tripod can be an advantage . When there is water in the picture it always looks very silly if it is pouring out of one side of the image. Photoshop can sometimes tidy this up but with a tripod there is no need. Fit a spirit level to the hotshoe and the frame is level. Same for architectural shots.

Using a tripod slows down the process and makes you reflect more about a shot. Would it be better from 10cm lower, for example. As they say, failing to plan is planning to fail.

Final thing, with a tripod and remote release you know there is no camera shake. Without, even with anti-shake, you only hope there will be no camera shake.

Of course the big down side is that a tripod does weigh a lot but it does improve the results. Mine 'lives' in the boot of my car so it is always available (except when I use my wife's car as I did on the day in question).

Copyright © Greg Wright 2006 - All rights reserved