March 2, 2025 • 40 mins
In this episode of The Wild Photographer, host Court Whelan dives deep into the world of tripods and stabilization techniques essential for photographers. He discusses the importance of tripods, the differences between cheap and expensive options, and the various types of tripod heads. The episode also covers travel tripods, monopods, and alternative stabilization methods, along with recommendations for top brands. Finally, Court shares tips for achieving silky water photography, emphasizing the necessity of using a tripod for slow shutter speeds.
Takeaways
- Tripods are essential for slow shutter photography.
- Investing in a quality tripod can enhance your photography.
- The type of tripod head can significantly affect usability.
- Carbon fiber tripods offer a great balance of weight and stability.
- Travel tripods should be sturdy enough for field use.
- Monopods provide a lightweight alternative for stabilization.
- GorillaPods are versatile for travel and quick setups.
- Silky water photography requires careful shutter speed management.
- Understanding tripod leg mechanisms is crucial for ease of use.
- Choosing the right tripod brand can impact your photography experience.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Tripods and Stabilization
04:04 All About Tripods
08:02 Choosing the Right Tripod: Cheap vs. Expensive
16:30 Understanding Tripod Heads and Their Functions
22:03 Tripod Plates and Mounts
23:42 Travel Tripods
25:48 Other Stabilization (monopods et al.)
31:03 My Favorite Brands and my Top Tripod for Everything
35:04 Listener Question: Silky Water Photography...Techniques and Tips
39:04 Setting a Timer Delay for ALL Tripod Photos
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Wild Photographer.
I'm your host, court Whalen,and today's episode is a deep
dive in all about tripods andother stabilization and I'm
going to give you my toprecommendations throughout, but
especially at the end of theepisode, so make sure you stay
tuned for that.
In addition, I'm going to havea very short companion video to
this because I want to be ableto showcase some of the gear
(00:22):
that I'm using, so there's aseparate video I will be posting
on my YouTube channel.
That's just at Court Whalen onYouTube.
So if you head on over thereafter you see this episode,
you're going to get a lot morevisual, kind of tangible
evidence of what I'm trying toportray in this podcast.
But before we begin, I wanted togive a shout out to the
(00:44):
sponsors of this episode.
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(01:05):
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(01:28):
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We, as photographers, want tospend more time photographing,
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photography, and we want tospend less time on the promo
(01:50):
work, the marketing work, theextra sort of stuff like the
social media, the blog poststhat should go along with it,
and they're a wonderful partnerof this podcast, so big thanks
to them.
Go check them out.
Another new sponsor is ShimodaDesigns.
I think I've found finallyfound my be-all, end-all one
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(02:13):
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(02:34):
out there and I have to say I amabsolutely sold that this is
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(02:56):
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Yes, waterproof and wears likea normal backpack.
So again, amazing, amazing bagsthere at Shimoda Designs.
And last but not least, I wantto give a plug for myself.
I'm often asked how can you, aslisteners to this podcast, help
(03:17):
me, the wild photographer andCourt Whalen?
The best way, honestly, thenumber one way, is to head on
over to my YouTube channel andclick subscribe, and it does
help support all the gear andall the subscriptions I need to
edit and produce this podcast.
So big, big thanks.
If you do head over to YouTube,search Court Whalen that's just
C-O-U-R-T like a tennis courtand W-H-E-L-A-N and hit
(03:40):
subscribe on my channel.
Not least is that you canactually watch all these new
podcasts as well.
And, like I mentioned earlier,I'm going to post a very special
little segment of this podcastwhere I show off some of the
tripod gear.
So it's a nice companion tothis podcast itself.
But hey, without further ado,let's get into what you really
came here for, and it's allabout tripods and other
(04:01):
stabilization, with myrecommendations.
Here we go.
So, first off, let's talk aboutwhy a tripod in the first place.
I think most people realizethat a tripod is a key piece of
camera gear.
It's something that a lot ofpro photographers will have
strapped to their backpack orcarry along with them on photo
shoots.
But why might you need to useit other than just trying to
(04:22):
look like a pro photographer?
We are trying to be practicalout here, so do you need to
bring it out there?
Do you need to invest in one?
If you do, what sort of tripoddo you need?
We're going to get into allthose nitty gritty details
throughout the course of thisepisode, but let me start off by
saying when you use a tripodand really what it's all for, to
boil it down, other thanlooking like a pro and maybe
(04:44):
staking out your spot at a greatviewpoint, which, honestly,
it's very, very helpful forstaking out your little triangle
of area that you can keep yourcamera and and be waiting for
that sunrise shot or waiting forthat beautiful light.
Really, the main reason youneed it is when you are going to
be shooting slow shutterphotography now, if that term
doesn't make sense to you,basically, what we're talking
(05:05):
about is when you're leavingyour shutter open for a very,
very long time.
Most oftentimes we're talkingabout night photography, or
really early morning or lateevening photography, when we're
trying to capture as much lightout of a very, very dark
surrounding.
So again, tripods, they haveone really good use and it's for
slow shutter photography.
(05:25):
So let's cut to the chase.
If you don't do any slow shutterphotography or you don't think
you're going to get into it,tripods, in my mind, are kind of
cumbersome.
Let's be honest.
I'm going to give you tips andtricks throughout today that
will help you find the tripodsthat are the least cumbersome
ways to use it, that are theleast annoying to use.
(05:47):
But nevertheless, tripods areanother piece of gear.
They are something that youhave to set up.
You have to extend the legs,you have to find the position
and more often than not, whenI'm photographing wildlife,
because I know I'm at a very,very fast shutter, I'm not
worrying about a tripod becausethat's going to slow me down If
I'm moving from one side of thevehicle to the next to
photograph lions in Africa orpolar bears in Canada.
(06:15):
I do tend to be handheld.
However, for lots of my nightphotography I should say for all
of my night photography I'vegot a tripod underneath my
camera.
So it is still a veryindispensable piece of gear.
It's just not with me all thetime, it's not underneath my
camera all the time, but when Ido need it it's huge.
You can't take the photowithout it.
You can't photograph northernlights, you can't photograph
stars, you can't photographbeautiful sunrises.
(06:36):
There's a lot you can'tphotograph if you don't have a
slow shutter, and a slow shuttermeans you really need a tripod.
So that's just kind of gettingthe cat out of the bag, telling
you first and foremost right offthe bat why you need it when
you need it.
There are definitely times youneed it.
Heck.
If you're doing any sort ofvideography, like I'm doing
right now on my YouTube channel,you definitely need a tripod.
(06:58):
Now, another time you might wantto use a tripod.
It's not something that Ipersonally use, because I don't
have a super big telephoto lensthat I cannot handhold.
I tend to carry lenses with methat are packable, more
lightweight.
These are your zoom telephotolenses.
But another time that a lot ofpeople tell me they love their
tripod or monopod which we'regoing to get to in a little bit
(07:19):
is when they're lugging around abig, heavy lens and they want
to rest it for a minute.
They want to have it on thattripod, so when they may be
using a second camera or maybelooking around or hiking around,
they can at least have a sturdy, stable tripod that that big
camera and or that big lens sitson and you know caveat that is
also a really great time to useit as well.
(07:41):
But nevertheless, let's get intotoday's episode, where we dig
into all the different nuancesof what makes a tripod a great
tripod and what considerationsyou might have to make when
picking the tripod from yourexisting ones or perhaps going
out and buying a new tripod,something that I think that all
aspiring photographers should atleast invest in at some point
(08:01):
in their career.
Okay, so the first thing I'mgoing to talk about is the
difference between cheap tripodsand expensive tripods, and it's
not a number value per se,although usually in and around
$100 and higher you're gettinginto pretty good tripods, but
generally cheap tripods the onesyou might get from a big box
store, the one that might haveeven come free with your camera
(08:22):
one thing you're going to noticeis that they tend to be one
complete unit.
They don't have a separate setof legs and a tripod head.
When we get into the bettertripods the ones that I'm
definitely going to recommend isinvesting in a good, solid,
quote unquote more expensivetripod you're going to notice
that there are really twocomponents.
You have the tripod legs, whichmost people think is the tripod
(08:44):
itself, but then the tripodhead itself.
What is that part that connectsthe legs, the stabilization
themselves, to your camera, andyou might be surprised to learn
that there are a lot ofdifferent ways you can do it.
So I highly recommend puttingsome pretty deep consideration
into not just the legs but alsothe tripod head.
But before you get lost in allthat, let's talk about the
(09:06):
tripod legs first.
If you're going to go out andbuy a bigger, fancier tripod,
you're probably going to beshopping to buy both
individually, or you can buy akit that has a stock or a kit
head on it, but you'll alsolikely find that you get
different choices.
The same legs, the samematerial whether it's aluminum
or carbon fiber or somethingelse will come with several
(09:27):
different types of heads you canchoose from.
So let's dive into what makesthat different as well.
But again, first the legs wewant to talk about.
So the legs are, of course, themeat and potatoes of your
tripod.
This is the thing that createsthe stabilization.
This is also the thing thatyou're going to have to fuddle
with and I really emphasize theword fuddle, as non-scientific
(09:48):
as that might sound or be.
The tripod legs and how theyextend the clasps are really,
really important, becauseoftentimes, when we're out in
the field, when we're using atripod, we're moving around,
even though the basic gist ofhaving a tripod is to be still
and stay in one place.
That's not my style.
I'm still moving around, I'mstill changing angles, I'm still
going higher or lower, and sousing tripod legs, as silly as
(10:12):
it sounds, is one of the mostimportant parts of selecting,
slash buying your next tripod,and there are kind of two main
categories they fall into interms of the mechanism of using
your tripod and your tripod legs.
The first is going to be a verystraightforward kind of clip
system.
You unclip the leg and itextends.
You clip it and it locks.
(10:33):
The other same general processor idea of extending the legs,
but it's going to be a twist.
So you have some tripods thatare more of a twist system and
some that are clamp.
Great tripods come in bothvarieties.
So it's really up to you as towhich you think is going to be
easier.
For instance, sometimes when Ihave big, heavy mitts or gloves
(10:54):
on I'm photographing the Arcticfor the Aurora Borealis I find
that the clip or the clamptripod is a lot better.
So I'm not having to twist, I'mnot having to feel how tight it
is through my layers and layersof mittens and glove liners and
all that.
So I might like that clamp orclip system better, sometimes
for really quick and easydeployment.
(11:14):
Let's say my tripod is in mybackpack and I just want to take
it out really quickly.
Sometimes, depending on yourpreferences and what you think
works better for your style, youmight prefer the twist system.
What I generally find this ismy first recommendation of the
podcast is I do recommend theclip or the clamp system.
I'm using those two wordsinterchangeably here, mainly
(11:35):
because they have less room forfailure or error.
I can't tell you how many timesI've been photographing with a
photo group.
It might be in the Arctic,where conditions are harsh and
we're trying to speed throughthings, or we just happen to see
something on an early morningdrive on the side of the road
that really warrants a tripodand we start using those twist
(11:55):
legs and what might happen isthose legs will actually fall
out of their socket becauseyou've untwisted it too much.
Sometimes, when you twist themto get them tight, it ends up
being like a jar of pickles andyou can't undo it.
This might be because you're inthe heat of the day and it
turns into night, or vice versa,and that the metal of your
tripod actually expands a littlebit so that twist system binds
(12:16):
up.
So I personally generally don'tlike those.
I'm not going to go as far asto say steer clear of them per
se, but the main thing to knowis that there are two different
types of systems and I generallyprefer the clamp system.
I think that they are a littlebit easier to use and, frankly,
just in my own tripod research,especially in prepping for this
episode, I found there are a lotmore tripods, especially in the
(12:39):
nicer end systems, that areclamp oriented.
The next thing we want to talkabout when talking about the
tripod legs themselves is goingto be the material that they're
made out of, and you might beimagining that the more money
you spend, the lighter and thesturdier the tripod becomes.
That's absolutely a truism.
That's a thing.
If you can spend a couplehundred dollars more, you're
(13:01):
going to upgrade from aluminumto carbon fiber.
If you can spend a little bitmore, you're going to upgrade
from aluminum to carbon fiber.
If you can spend a little bitmore, those legs might retract a
little bit shorter, so you haveshorter segments.
That makes it a little bit moreportable.
Ultimately, what I recommend isgoing with a tripod that fits
your budget, getting into areally good tripod brand like
Manfrotto, peak Design, gitzoReally Right Stuff.
(13:21):
Those are some of my top brandsthat I personally use or have
used over the years, startingwith a good brand and getting
what your budget can afford.
But, as many of you are probablytravel photographers or
wildlife and naturephotographers that are
constantly on the go out there,even if it's just going to your
own backyard or your city parkor somewhere nearby.
Having it be portable is areally, really key, key thing.
(13:42):
So sometimes, when you areshopping online for tripods, you
might not get a sense of howlong those legs are, or you
might not be aware to look forhow many segments the legs come
in.
And the point being is that youmight see a tripod online and
you say, oh, this has only gottwo clips or two clamps to
extend.
That's easier than four.
Well, what that translates intois it packs down into a larger
(14:05):
size, so it's something thatmight take up the entire length
of your large duffel bag.
It might be something thatbarely fits in your backpack.
It might be something that isreally really hard to strap to a
backpack or to a pack.
So I do tend to look for thosetripods, when completely
collapsed, that are on thesmaller side.
It does mean that when I wantto deploy it and extend those
legs, I have more clamps andmore segments to pull out, but
(14:30):
the really key thing is that Ican bring it more places because
it is smaller when it packsdown.
Now I alluded to the idea ofmaterials, and this is a really,
really key thing too.
So a lot of the sort of basicor introductory tripods out
there are going to be more ofaluminum or some sort of
inexpensive aluminum alloy, somecombination.
(14:50):
It's kind of like wine.
It might not be a singlevarietal, it might be a mixture
of metals and we just don't knowwhat it is.
As we're getting more into thehigher end tripods in the $300
range, the $400 range, we'restarting to see that it's pure
aluminum.
It's lighter weight, it isgoing to be a little bit
sturdier until we get into theupper end range, which is going
(15:12):
to be, voila, the piece deresistance, carbon fiber tripods
, and these do make a bigdifference.
We're talking about relativelyexpensive compared to some of
the big box store $30 tripods,but in the $400, $500, $600
range, all of a sudden you'regetting the smallest, lightest
and most durable tripods outthere.
(15:32):
Yes, carbon fiber.
When you're looking for like abicycle frame or things like
that, we may have heard over theyears that they can dent, they
can break, they can tear, theycan actually rip because it is
carbon fiber.
But I have not found that to bethe case whatsoever with my
tripods.
I'm not using them like abicycle, I'm not going over
(15:52):
bumps in the road.
My carbon fiber tripods thathave had for many, many years
are not only lighter and smaller, but they're also really,
really sturdy.
And there's the added benefitthat carbon fiber actually
absorbs movement from the groundor from any sort of camera
shake a little bit better.
I'm not going to say thatthat's the sole or the most
important reason to go forcarbon fiber.
(16:13):
The number one reason is reallyfor it to be lightweight, but I
do find they're incrediblydurable and I do have that added
peace of mind that maybe just alittle bit of movement from a
slight breeze going by thatcarbon fiber is going to just
flex and bend minutely to buffercamera movement just ever so
slightly more.
So let's move on to the otherbig half of what makes up a good
(16:33):
tripod.
There's this little unit on topthat is the tripod head.
Now this attaches to the legswith just a screw on top.
It's either a three quarterinch or a half inch, but
nevertheless it is somethingthat is almost universally
interchangeable.
In fact, if you get the wrongsize, very often your tripod
legs the main unit of yourtripod will come with a little
threaded adapter.
(16:54):
So if you have a half inchscrew.
You can turn it into a threequarter inch screw or vice versa
.
But the tripod head I personallyview as just as important as
tripod legs.
It is going to be the thing youcome into contact with most in
terms of altering your shots,changing your angle, moving your
tripod from place to place.
It's the thing that you'regoing to be adjusting pretty
(17:15):
much just before you take theshot, just before you press that
shutter button.
I'm adjusting my tripod headfor levelness or to change it
from a landscape orientation toa portrait orientation.
So I'm constantly adjusting mytripod head, which, as you can
imagine, means that you want areally easy to adjust tripod
head.
Now I have my favorites, but I'mgoing to start by going through
(17:36):
all the various options outthere for photographers.
We're going to start with onethat's kind of the classic
tripod head.
That usually is the stock orthe kit tripod head, if you're
just buying some sort of combokit.
And this is the classic ballhead and it works very much like
a ball and socket.
It is essentially going to be aball that fits into a clamp and
(17:57):
you can tighten and loosen it.
You can tighten one side and itstays in plane.
You can pan left and right, andthen there's another knob,
usually that allows you toswivel it in any which way,
shape or form, in any direction,and that gives you full range
of motion across this more orless globe, uh, spheric axis.
So the ball head is great.
(18:18):
Um, it is the standard.
It's probably the mostminimalist, it's the lightest
weight, it's the most versatileand it's really really great for
photographers.
Um, I do think that there aresome better options out there,
but in general, the ball head.
You can't really go wrong.
It's just whether you have aspecific purpose or style that
I'm about to talk about next.
(18:39):
So, making a slight aside, we'regoing to get in the realm of
the pan tilt heads.
Now.
These are the ones, ironically,that you're going to see in
some of the less expensivetripod models, even though
designed high quality heads ofthe pan tilt variety are usually
a little bit more expensive.
This is something you'reprobably gonna be familiar with,
seeing.
(18:59):
It might be the tripod thatyour parents had growing up.
It's got the two sort of.
They look like screwdriversthat are bolted into the tripod
head and each one controls acertain axis up or down, or left
or right.
Now, these are fine, but now,all of a sudden, you have two
working parts.
So instead of just looseningone knob and getting a full
(19:20):
range of motion, full 360 axis,now you have two different knobs
that you're twisting andturning, that do two different
things.
It's a little bit complicated.
Now, where these things reallystand out and where they really
really help is actually withvideography, because what you
can do is you can set one planeto be completely rigid and you
can actually pan or tilt yourcamera lenses.
(19:43):
This is great for videographywhen you need to pan a moving
animal across a field or youmight want to create some sort
of dramatic effect of tiltingyour camera up to sort of unveil
the top of a tree, starting atthe trunk and slowly panning up
to the branches.
Again, this is more of thevideography world, so I'm not
going to hamper on it too toomuch, but sometimes you might
see this when looking for atripod.
(20:04):
Sometimes you might have thisat home already and you wonder,
well, why doesn't Cort love this?
Well, it's because it's just,it's a couple extra pieces you
don't need and it takes a lotmore time to adjust it perfectly
, not to mention these two largescrewdrivers that essentially
screw in and dictate the holdand the loosening aspect of it.
They stick out.
There's more weight, it'sharder to carry.
(20:26):
It's another thing you have tobreak down when moving from
location to location.
I'm just not a big fan unlessI'm doing a lot of videography.
Now, the third way is somethingthat's relatively niche and I
only know one cameramanufacturer currently making
this, although there couldcertainly be more.
Please feel free to leave acomment either here in the
podcast or on my YouTube channel, if you found another brand,
(20:48):
but it's Manfrotto, and theyhave what's known as a pistol
grip ball head.
This is really my favoritetripod head and I'll tell you
why.
What it does is it combines thebrilliance of the ball head
where you can really easilyloosen and tighten and get any
sort of direction.
You're not confounded by two orthree different axes.
However, as you pull thattrigger, it actually loosens the
(21:09):
ball head and as you let go ofthe trigger, it snaps it back
into place.
So the reason I love this somuch is that oftentimes, when I
am photographing with slowshutters, it's at night or it's
in really cold conditions likethe Arctic, and to be able to
use my ball head one-handed toactually move my camera around
this swivel around this ball andsocket is extraordinary,
(21:31):
contrast that with the standardball head and one hand has to be
on your camera so it doesn'tflop over and the other hand has
to be on the dial to loosen andtighten it into place.
So the pistol grip ball head isreally extraordinary.
Again, manfrotto makes it.
You can adapt that to anytripod legs that you have.
Again, these things areuniversally threaded and it's
(21:52):
really a next level for yourphotography.
I think by using it one-handedit speeds things up.
It gives me more confidence andassurity that my camera's not
going to flop over.
Really, really nice.
So next up, let's talk abouttripod plates and mounts.
This is the last little bit ofconnection.
We're talking about truly athin little plate between your
tripod head and your cameraitself.
(22:14):
This is the thing that youessentially bolt to the bottom
of your camera and this is whatusually works as some sort of
quick release to your tripodhead itself.
And I'm not going to go intoall the different makes and
models because there are a lotof really proprietary plates out
there.
However, there is one universalplate that is essentially
adopted by all tripod heads andit's the Arca mount A-R-C-A, and
(22:38):
this has a very, very specificsize and dimension that just
about any tripod head will take.
And this is really nice becauseyou can just have one plate
screwed to the bottom of yourtripod and whether you're using
two different tripods or youhave a travel tripod, you have a
bigger tripod, you have asmaller tripod like a GorillaPod
that you might be taking withyou on a hike, versus a bigger
(22:59):
one you're leaving back with youat camp or in the hotel.
Having just one plate so youdon't have to use a tool to undo
that plate for your camera isreally really great.
And again, the ARCA sizeA-R-C-A tripod plate is kind of,
I would say, the industrystandard at this point.
There are other plates anddifferent tripod manufacturers
(23:19):
will likely have their ownplates that do adapt to some
sort of quick release system andthose things are really really
nice.
But if you find yourself usingvarious different stabilization
devices or you find yourselfusing a small travel tripod
during the day or like aGorillaPod for hikes, whereas
you leave your bigger tripod atbase camp, it's really nice to
(23:39):
have that standard plate so youdon't have to constantly be
switching back and forth.
So I just mentioned traveltripods for one of the first
times in the podcast and this isa little bit of a tangent but
kind of a word of warning isthat if you go online or even to
your local camera store, youmight see some really small
tripods that are, you know, over$100.
So you know you're gettingsomething quality.
They're made of pure aluminumor in some cases even carbon
(24:02):
fiber, but they're really small,they pack down, but they can be
extended up to three and fourfeet.
I'm just going to give you alittle word of caution about
these, because I've had some badexperiences over the years
where they're's a little bit toofeeble, a little bit too frail,
not sturdy enough.
Remember, your primary functionof your tripod is to be the
rock, the metaphorical rock, ofyour camera.
(24:24):
So when you start getting thesesmall travel tripods, yes, it's
really great because it fits inlike the little water bottle
holder, your backpack, and it'slightweight and it takes up less
room.
But just be aware that there'sa.
If you get these small traveltripods, they are going to be
inherently less sturdy.
In addition, I've found thatsome of the corners they cut in
(24:44):
making them lighter weight andmaking them smaller, some of the
clasps or some of the ringtightening features of the legs
themselves aren't really up tosnuff.
They work in a different wayand they sometimes can fail in
the field.
I've seen this happen before.
We have a beautiful Aurora showin front of us and it kind of
erupts out of nowhere and we'rescrambling, we're getting
tripods ready and I'll grabsomeone's small lightweight
(25:05):
travel tripod and begin settingit up with them and the legs
kind of feel like toothpicks ina way.
They're obviously bigger thantoothpicks but they just feel so
unstable and boom, all of asudden that clasp just doesn't
work right and the legcompletely falls out Because
again, again, they're short,cutting some things such that
they are saving weight, savingsize, maybe saving on materials
to be that small, lightweighttravel tripod that when you need
(25:29):
it most it might not work theway you think it does.
So I do recommend getting onetripod for really all cases.
Get something sturdy, getsomething that is travel related
, but not the really, really,really tiny, small, inexpensive
travel tripods that collapsesmall, extend big but ultimately
could fail you when you need itmost.
Next up, let's get into a littlebit of the other stabilization
(25:52):
category.
So I'm going to move swiftlyover to pretty much the other
big category that a lot ofphotographers use and that is
going to be your monopod.
So a monopod, as you canimagine from the name, instead
of tripod, is just one postinstead of three.
So the obvious thing is thatthis is not going to be super
duper stable.
It's not going to stand up onits own.
It's something that you'regoing to have to hold while
(26:13):
you're taking the photos.
So while it's not going to workreally great or work at all for
slow shutter photography orespecially night photography,
star photography, auroraphotography, it is going to be a
nice stabilization device.
What I've heard before is that amonopod removes about one stop
of stabilization, meaning thatif you needed to shoot something
(26:34):
at 1, 40th of a second, let'ssay, you could actually put that
on a monopod instead of beinghandheld and shoot the same shot
with the same stabilization at1, 20th of a second.
But generally I don't usemonopods unless I'm carrying a
really big, heavy lens.
And this is where that littlething I mentioned at the
beginning of how somephotographers really like a
(26:55):
tripod in order to set their biglens on or help carry their big
lens or help position their biglens.
Monopods do brilliantly forthat.
They are significantly lessintrusive, significantly less
cumbersome, less bothersome thana full tripod.
So if you're, let's say,photographing grizzly bears on
(27:17):
the shores of Alaska and you'resitting on a little stool and
you're just kind of waiting forthe bears to come by all day,
having a monopod on you isreally great because you can
have your camera on it and notneed to bear the full weight of
your camera and lens and anyother accessories on it that
entire time.
It allows it to be touching theground, stabilized by the
ground itself.
Again, a monopod is just oneleg of a tripod so it can very
(27:38):
easily readily sway back andforth because there's only one
point of contact.
So it will swivel against theground.
But as long as you're okaytouching your camera, being in
contact with your camera whileusing a monopod, they can take
some weight off and they canalso help stabilize a little of
your hand movement, which isalways a thing in photography.
There's another category oftripods that is essentially a
(27:58):
tripod, but it's known.
I guess it's the brand name.
It's kind of like Kleenex, butit's called Platipod and I'm
sure there are othermanufacturers out there,
certainly by now.
But essentially what it is isit's a tripod in the sense that
it has a head to it, it has anattachment point, but instead of
legs it's just a flat metalpanel like the size of a small
reading book, and these thingsare really, really darn cool.
(28:21):
I have to admit I have notpicked one up yet because it's
just, frankly, one more piece ofgear that I don't want to bring
in the field, but they'rereally really cool.
If you're doing a lot of groundlevel photography, it's
essentially a tripod that startsat ground level.
So I think at some point in mycareer I'm going to pick one of
these up, especially if I'mphotographing big wildlife and I
(28:41):
want to be as close to theground as possible, which, let's
be honest, it makes amazingphotos if you can be on eye
level or on ground level withthings like bears or lions, etc,
etc.
And, believe it or not, thereare a lot of cases when you can
do that out in the field.
It's not like you're puttingyourself in danger.
There are indeed cases for it.
Not like you're puttingyourself in danger.
There are indeed cases for it.
(29:02):
But just keep in mind anothercategory of stabilization in
this tripod monopod category isknown as a platypod.
You can attach your camera toit and you can safely put it on
the ground.
So you get that nicestabilization effect when you do
need to be only inches abovethe ground.
The final category I'm going totalk about here is kind of like
a travel tripod, but without allthe fuss and I do love my
(29:22):
GorillaPod, I'm just going tocall it your GorillaPod category
.
There are other manufacturers,but they sort of invented this
category.
They invented this tripod, andit is a small tripod, usually
somewhere between eight and 12inches, let's say, and it has
flexible legs.
Now, I think the originalintention was to try to be
clever and have these swivelingsort of clampy like legs such
(29:46):
that you could wrap each one ofthese three legs around a sign
post or a fence post.
But really, what I've found itto be useful for is just a small
travel tripod that gets meclose to the ground, that
doesn't have the same woes asother small travel tripods,
meaning like the legs poppingout of socket or being too
flimsy.
These things are actuallyreally really stable.
In addition, they're incrediblylightweight and you can put any
(30:08):
tripod head on top of it.
So GorillaPods are really reallyuseful for those that just know
they don't want to bring atripod, but you might have a
little case.
You might have one or two shotsof the day where you need a
tripod, and those might be theshots of your day.
An instance that comes to mindis hiking in Zion National Park.
There are a lot of beautifulrivers.
Well, there's one mainbeautiful river in Zion National
(30:31):
Park, the Virgin River, andthere's this great hike called
the Narrows, and I might notwant to bring a full tripod each
and every day I go into theNarrows, but I might want to
have something that allows me totake some slow shutter
photography of moving water, anda GorillaPod is so lightweight
(30:52):
I'd be silly not to bring itwith me.
In addition, if you need it toclamp around a post, to do a
little family photo action,these again, these legs, are
designed to have little swivelsaround them such that you can
manually clamp them around anysort of object and they hold
lock tight.
Okay, I'm going to finish upthis episode with a little bit
of a dive into the varioustripod brands that I have come
to know and love throughout theyears, and I'm going to give you
some pretty specificrecommendations here and, right
(31:13):
up front, I'm going to tell youmy favorite tripod right now.
I do call it a travel tripodbecause it's super lightweight.
It's super small.
It almost is the size of likethe inner tube of a paper towel,
like it's incredibly small.
It is the Peak Design carbonfiber travel tripod, and don't
let that travel tripoddesignation fool you.
(31:34):
This thing is really reallysturdy and really really easy to
use.
Now you pay a somewhat prettypenny for it I think they're
retailing for about $600 now butI can tell you it's probably
the one tripod you'll never haveto purchase ever again.
It does it all.
It goes up to gosh, I don'tknow over five feet in height.
It gets all the way to theground.
(31:55):
The legs will swivel out veryeasily.
It's super portable andlightweight, like the GorillaPod
, and it actually comes with itsown ball head on it.
So it's one unit you don't haveto fuss with.
You don't have to add weight interms of you know figuring out
how much the legs weigh and howmuch the tripod weigh If you're
carrying it in your pack or ifyou're flying on small planes
(32:16):
and you have weight limits.
This Peak Design Carbon FiberTravel Tripod is.
It's the best.
So if you want to just stop theepisode now and pick that up.
It's a really really goodtripod.
The folks over there areengineers first and foremost,
photographers a strong second.
But they just have engineeredthis thing to perfection and it
takes that ARCA type plate.
(32:38):
So it's the same universalplate that you can use for other
tripods or even other peakdesign gear like the little
camera clip system.
It's a really nice tripod.
The one I had been using beforethat and I still have it in fact
I'm filming this episode on itright now is going to be my
Manfrotto carbon fiber tripod.
So notice, I do have twodifferent carbon fiber tripods.
(32:59):
It's because that's how much Ibelieve in carbon fiber for
being the best out there, andwhen you're a professional in
this space, you really do needto look and source and invest in
the best.
So Manfrotto is a great, greatbrand.
You might get a little bitoverwhelmed if you start
searching on Amazon or B&H Photofor Manfrotto tripods because
there are a lot of differentshapes and styles.
(33:22):
Now these tripodsods again havea removable tripod head.
You can get the pistol grip,you can get the ball head, you
can get those pan tilt heads andyou can get a variety of
different tripod legs.
You don't have to go for carbonfiber.
They have those that arealuminum.
They have those that are somesort of combination of metals
that are a little bit heavierbut will come in at a lower
price point.
They have some where there'sonly two leg segments.
(33:44):
So they stand at about you knowtwo feet when you're packing
them in a suitcase, but theyquickly, with very, very little
work, extend to four feet withjust one or two clips.
So it's a really nice thing tohave that variety, but it is a
little bit overwhelming.
So again, go back to my lessons.
Before think of how manysegments.
Start looking at the extendedsize, the collapsed size, the
(34:08):
weight of the legs and theweight of the tripod head itself
, if you're really trying to getinto the nitty-gritty of those
dimensions and that weight.
I'd be remiss if I didn'tmention two other key tripod
brands.
These are Gitzo, g-i-t-z-o andthen Really Right Stuff.
Really Right Stuff, in myopinion over the years, is kind
of the top pro photographer'schoice.
I have never owned onepersonally, so I can't give you
(34:29):
honest feedback of me using it,but they are the most sturdy,
that's for sure.
They're a little bit heavier,they're a little bit bigger, but
they are high-level prophotography tripods.
So if you find yourself doing alot of night photography, if
you find yourself doing a lot ofastrophotography or just want a
really good, sturdy tripod,maybe you have a bigger camera,
(34:50):
let's say, you use one of thosebazooka big prime lenses and you
need something that is ultrasturdy.
I've seen some really, reallygreat tripods from Really Right
Stuff over the years and yes, itis three words Really Right
Stuff is the name of the tripodbrand.
So today's listener questioncomes in.
It's a really really good,appropriate one, and it's
actually one that I've done afull episode on.
But I'm going to give you alittle bit of snippet.
(35:11):
I'm going to give you kind ofthe be all end all explanation
of how to do this technique.
But the question is how do youtake silky water photos?
And the great thing is, thefirst thing I do is I grab my
tripod.
That's an absolutely key thing,because when we're taking silky
water photos I'll explain whatthat means in a second we have
to have slow shutters.
Okay, let me repeat that wehave to have slow shutters and
(35:33):
therefore we have to have atripod.
So what is silky waterphotography?
Well, essentially, what it'sdoing is a slow shutter of
moving water, and the reason Icall it silky water is because
when you take the photo, at atenth of a second or one full
second, you can see the movementof the water.
The movement of the white wateralmost creates these streaks,
this silky like effect in yourcamera, and it's absolutely
(35:56):
stunning.
So I want to tell you how to doit.
There are some key ingredients.
Obviously, you needstabilization, so you need a
tripod.
You need to find some movingwater, and it's not just any
moving water.
You need to find some movingwhite water.
The more aeration in the water,the different colors really,
just the streaking in the photocomes from the white water
(36:16):
itself.
So whitewater rapids,waterfalls, babbling creeks that
are flowing over rocks, whereyou actually have that sort of
aeration.
When the water flows over therock, it creates a little bit of
turbidity and it makes thatflowing motion.
That's what you're looking for.
You're also looking for somestable aspects to the photo.
So it's not good enough just tofind moving water.
(36:39):
You really need to juxtaposethat movement with something
rock, solid and still.
Otherwise it's going to looklike an abstract painting.
Rocks work, a tree works, theentire landscape works.
You're going to be hard pressedto find a scene that doesn't
have something stable in it, butgenerally I'm not taking a slow
shutter silky water photozoomed in on the Colorado River
(37:01):
right in the middle of rapids.
That's not what I'm going for.
I'm trying to find somethingthat is static, something that
is like a rock, a rock wall, atree, and I'm making sure that
that's tack sharp so that whenyou compare the sharpness of
that with movement of the water,the movement of the water takes
on this beautiful, beautiful,artistic silky look.
So essentially, what I'm doingis I'm putting my camera on full
(37:22):
manual mode with auto ISO.
That's actually the settingthat I shoot on all the time for
all my photos, because I wantto control the aperture, I want
to control the shutter speed,but I don't really care what the
ISO is and because we'reshooting a slow shutter, this is
going to let in a lot of light,so I'm going to get a low ISO
anyway.
In fact, I might have to adjustif my ISO is too low, and I'll
(37:43):
tell you how to do that in asecond, but I'm starting with
something moderate like f5.6, f8, and one tenth of a second.
Okay, the main thing that'sgoing to change here is going to
be my shutter speed.
So very often what I'm doing isI'm going a little bit faster
and a little bit slower.
I'm sort of like broadening myreach out away in both
directions from one tenth of asecond.
(38:03):
So my next photo might be onefifth of a second.
My next photo might be onesecond and then two full seconds
.
Okay, then I'm going to go theother direction to take, you
know, back to one tenth of asecond.
I'm gonna go to one 20th andone 40th of a second.
This is going to give me very,very different looks for every
photo.
I can't tell you the exactshutter speed you should shoot
your moving water photos on,because it's entirely dependent
(38:27):
on the speed and the flow of thewater.
In addition, it's entirelydependent on the look you're
trying to get.
You might want just a littlebit of blur from the water, just
to show a little bit ofmovement.
That's something more like 1,20th, 1 40th of a second.
However, if you're filming araging waterfall in Costa Rica,
1 20th of a second might stillhave a lot of blur in it because
a lot of water moves throughyour frame in that split second.
(38:51):
But again, I'm usually shootingsomewhere in the range of 4
seconds to 1 40th of a second.
That's 1 over 4, 0.
Something in that range isgoing to give me my sweet spot,
where I'm looking for that silkywater each and every time.
One other pro tip I'm going totell you about silky water as
well as all tripod photographyis a really clever and easy way
(39:11):
to reduce any sort of movementin your camera.
So obviously, the tripod istaking out most of the movement,
but if you've ever noticed, asyou press that button, your
camera may move ever so slightly, that's not what you want,
especially if you're shooting ata slow shutter speed, like
we're talking about today.
So a really easy hack, withouthaving to buy another piece of
gear, is to set your camera on atwo second delay.
(39:33):
What this does is when youpress that shutter, it waits two
seconds to take the photo.
That is ample time for yourcamera to settle down and not be
moving anymore from youpressing that shutter button.
So that's something that I findmyself using for just about all
tripod photography.
All right, folks, that is ourdeep dive into tripods and other
stabilization we talked about alot today.
(39:54):
If you have specific questions,I sincerely invite you to head
on over to my YouTube channel,leave a comment on this video or
any video, ask that questionand I will get back to you.
I love talking to folks aboutcamera gear and camera tips, as
you can tell from me doing thispodcast, so don't be shy, let me
know what I can help out withand until next time, happy
(40:14):
shooting.
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Wild Photographer.
I'm your host, court Whalen,and today's episode is a deep
dive in all about tripods andother stabilization and I'm
going to give you my toprecommendations throughout, but
especially at the end of theepisode, so make sure you stay
tuned for that.
In addition, I'm going to havea very short companion video to
this because I want to be ableto showcase some of the gear
(00:22):
that I'm using, so there's aseparate video I will be posting
on my YouTube channel.
That's just at Court Whalen onYouTube.
So if you head on over thereafter you see this episode,
you're going to get a lot morevisual, kind of tangible
evidence of what I'm trying toportray in this podcast.
But before we begin, I wanted togive a shout out to the
(00:44):
sponsors of this episode.
The first is arthelperai.
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We, as photographers, want tospend more time photographing,
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work, the marketing work, theextra sort of stuff like the
social media, the blog poststhat should go along with it,
and they're a wonderful partnerof this podcast, so big thanks
to them.
Go check them out.
Another new sponsor is ShimodaDesigns.
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It's incredible.
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out there and I have to say I amabsolutely sold that this is
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Yes, waterproof and wears likea normal backpack.
So again, amazing, amazing bagsthere at Shimoda Designs.
And last but not least, I wantto give a plug for myself.
I'm often asked how can you, aslisteners to this podcast, help
(03:17):
me, the wild photographer andCourt Whalen?
The best way, honestly, thenumber one way, is to head on
over to my YouTube channel andclick subscribe, and it does
help support all the gear andall the subscriptions I need to
edit and produce this podcast.
So big, big thanks.
If you do head over to YouTube,search Court Whalen that's just
C-O-U-R-T like a tennis courtand W-H-E-L-A-N and hit
(03:40):
subscribe on my channel.
Not least is that you canactually watch all these new
podcasts as well.
And, like I mentioned earlier,I'm going to post a very special
little segment of this podcastwhere I show off some of the
tripod gear.
So it's a nice companion tothis podcast itself.
But hey, without further ado,let's get into what you really
came here for, and it's allabout tripods and other
(04:01):
stabilization, with myrecommendations.
Here we go.
So, first off, let's talk aboutwhy a tripod in the first place.
I think most people realizethat a tripod is a key piece of
camera gear.
It's something that a lot ofpro photographers will have
strapped to their backpack orcarry along with them on photo
shoots.
But why might you need to useit other than just trying to
(04:22):
look like a pro photographer?
We are trying to be practicalout here, so do you need to
bring it out there?
Do you need to invest in one?
If you do, what sort of tripoddo you need?
We're going to get into allthose nitty gritty details
throughout the course of thisepisode, but let me start off by
saying when you use a tripodand really what it's all for, to
boil it down, other thanlooking like a pro and maybe
(04:44):
staking out your spot at a greatviewpoint, which, honestly,
it's very, very helpful forstaking out your little triangle
of area that you can keep yourcamera and and be waiting for
that sunrise shot or waiting forthat beautiful light.
Really, the main reason youneed it is when you are going to
be shooting slow shutterphotography now, if that term
doesn't make sense to you,basically, what we're talking
(05:05):
about is when you're leavingyour shutter open for a very,
very long time.
Most oftentimes we're talkingabout night photography, or
really early morning or lateevening photography, when we're
trying to capture as much lightout of a very, very dark
surrounding.
So again, tripods, they haveone really good use and it's for
slow shutter photography.
(05:25):
So let's cut to the chase.
If you don't do any slow shutterphotography or you don't think
you're going to get into it,tripods, in my mind, are kind of
cumbersome.
Let's be honest.
I'm going to give you tips andtricks throughout today that
will help you find the tripodsthat are the least cumbersome
ways to use it, that are theleast annoying to use.
(05:47):
But nevertheless, tripods areanother piece of gear.
They are something that youhave to set up.
You have to extend the legs,you have to find the position
and more often than not, whenI'm photographing wildlife,
because I know I'm at a very,very fast shutter, I'm not
worrying about a tripod becausethat's going to slow me down If
I'm moving from one side of thevehicle to the next to
photograph lions in Africa orpolar bears in Canada.
(06:15):
I do tend to be handheld.
However, for lots of my nightphotography I should say for all
of my night photography I'vegot a tripod underneath my
camera.
So it is still a veryindispensable piece of gear.
It's just not with me all thetime, it's not underneath my
camera all the time, but when Ido need it it's huge.
You can't take the photowithout it.
You can't photograph northernlights, you can't photograph
stars, you can't photographbeautiful sunrises.
(06:36):
There's a lot you can'tphotograph if you don't have a
slow shutter, and a slow shuttermeans you really need a tripod.
So that's just kind of gettingthe cat out of the bag, telling
you first and foremost right offthe bat why you need it when
you need it.
There are definitely times youneed it.
Heck.
If you're doing any sort ofvideography, like I'm doing
right now on my YouTube channel,you definitely need a tripod.
(06:58):
Now, another time you might wantto use a tripod.
It's not something that Ipersonally use, because I don't
have a super big telephoto lensthat I cannot handhold.
I tend to carry lenses with methat are packable, more
lightweight.
These are your zoom telephotolenses.
But another time that a lot ofpeople tell me they love their
tripod or monopod which we'regoing to get to in a little bit
(07:19):
is when they're lugging around abig, heavy lens and they want
to rest it for a minute.
They want to have it on thattripod, so when they may be
using a second camera or maybelooking around or hiking around,
they can at least have a sturdy, stable tripod that that big
camera and or that big lens sitson and you know caveat that is
also a really great time to useit as well.
(07:41):
But nevertheless, let's get intotoday's episode, where we dig
into all the different nuancesof what makes a tripod a great
tripod and what considerationsyou might have to make when
picking the tripod from yourexisting ones or perhaps going
out and buying a new tripod,something that I think that all
aspiring photographers should atleast invest in at some point
(08:01):
in their career.
Okay, so the first thing I'mgoing to talk about is the
difference between cheap tripodsand expensive tripods, and it's
not a number value per se,although usually in and around
$100 and higher you're gettinginto pretty good tripods, but
generally cheap tripods the onesyou might get from a big box
store, the one that might haveeven come free with your camera
(08:22):
one thing you're going to noticeis that they tend to be one
complete unit.
They don't have a separate setof legs and a tripod head.
When we get into the bettertripods the ones that I'm
definitely going to recommend isinvesting in a good, solid,
quote unquote more expensivetripod you're going to notice
that there are really twocomponents.
You have the tripod legs, whichmost people think is the tripod
(08:44):
itself, but then the tripodhead itself.
What is that part that connectsthe legs, the stabilization
themselves, to your camera, andyou might be surprised to learn
that there are a lot ofdifferent ways you can do it.
So I highly recommend puttingsome pretty deep consideration
into not just the legs but alsothe tripod head.
But before you get lost in allthat, let's talk about the
(09:06):
tripod legs first.
If you're going to go out andbuy a bigger, fancier tripod,
you're probably going to beshopping to buy both
individually, or you can buy akit that has a stock or a kit
head on it, but you'll alsolikely find that you get
different choices.
The same legs, the samematerial whether it's aluminum
or carbon fiber or somethingelse will come with several
(09:27):
different types of heads you canchoose from.
So let's dive into what makesthat different as well.
But again, first the legs wewant to talk about.
So the legs are, of course, themeat and potatoes of your
tripod.
This is the thing that createsthe stabilization.
This is also the thing thatyou're going to have to fuddle
with and I really emphasize theword fuddle, as non-scientific
(09:48):
as that might sound or be.
The tripod legs and how theyextend the clasps are really,
really important, becauseoftentimes, when we're out in
the field, when we're using atripod, we're moving around,
even though the basic gist ofhaving a tripod is to be still
and stay in one place.
That's not my style.
I'm still moving around, I'mstill changing angles, I'm still
going higher or lower, and sousing tripod legs, as silly as
(10:12):
it sounds, is one of the mostimportant parts of selecting,
slash buying your next tripod,and there are kind of two main
categories they fall into interms of the mechanism of using
your tripod and your tripod legs.
The first is going to be a verystraightforward kind of clip
system.
You unclip the leg and itextends.
You clip it and it locks.
(10:33):
The other same general processor idea of extending the legs,
but it's going to be a twist.
So you have some tripods thatare more of a twist system and
some that are clamp.
Great tripods come in bothvarieties.
So it's really up to you as towhich you think is going to be
easier.
For instance, sometimes when Ihave big, heavy mitts or gloves
(10:54):
on I'm photographing the Arcticfor the Aurora Borealis I find
that the clip or the clamptripod is a lot better.
So I'm not having to twist, I'mnot having to feel how tight it
is through my layers and layersof mittens and glove liners and
all that.
So I might like that clamp orclip system better, sometimes
for really quick and easydeployment.
(11:14):
Let's say my tripod is in mybackpack and I just want to take
it out really quickly.
Sometimes, depending on yourpreferences and what you think
works better for your style, youmight prefer the twist system.
What I generally find this ismy first recommendation of the
podcast is I do recommend theclip or the clamp system.
I'm using those two wordsinterchangeably here, mainly
(11:35):
because they have less room forfailure or error.
I can't tell you how many timesI've been photographing with a
photo group.
It might be in the Arctic,where conditions are harsh and
we're trying to speed throughthings, or we just happen to see
something on an early morningdrive on the side of the road
that really warrants a tripodand we start using those twist
(11:55):
legs and what might happen isthose legs will actually fall
out of their socket becauseyou've untwisted it too much.
Sometimes, when you twist themto get them tight, it ends up
being like a jar of pickles andyou can't undo it.
This might be because you're inthe heat of the day and it
turns into night, or vice versa,and that the metal of your
tripod actually expands a littlebit so that twist system binds
(12:16):
up.
So I personally generally don'tlike those.
I'm not going to go as far asto say steer clear of them per
se, but the main thing to knowis that there are two different
types of systems and I generallyprefer the clamp system.
I think that they are a littlebit easier to use and, frankly,
just in my own tripod research,especially in prepping for this
episode, I found there are a lotmore tripods, especially in the
(12:39):
nicer end systems, that areclamp oriented.
The next thing we want to talkabout when talking about the
tripod legs themselves is goingto be the material that they're
made out of, and you might beimagining that the more money
you spend, the lighter and thesturdier the tripod becomes.
That's absolutely a truism.
That's a thing.
If you can spend a couplehundred dollars more, you're
(13:01):
going to upgrade from aluminumto carbon fiber.
If you can spend a little bitmore, you're going to upgrade
from aluminum to carbon fiber.
If you can spend a little bitmore, those legs might retract a
little bit shorter, so you haveshorter segments.
That makes it a little bit moreportable.
Ultimately, what I recommend isgoing with a tripod that fits
your budget, getting into areally good tripod brand like
Manfrotto, peak Design, gitzoReally Right Stuff.
(13:21):
Those are some of my top brandsthat I personally use or have
used over the years, startingwith a good brand and getting
what your budget can afford.
But, as many of you are probablytravel photographers or
wildlife and naturephotographers that are
constantly on the go out there,even if it's just going to your
own backyard or your city parkor somewhere nearby.
Having it be portable is areally, really key, key thing.
(13:42):
So sometimes, when you areshopping online for tripods, you
might not get a sense of howlong those legs are, or you
might not be aware to look forhow many segments the legs come
in.
And the point being is that youmight see a tripod online and
you say, oh, this has only gottwo clips or two clamps to
extend.
That's easier than four.
Well, what that translates intois it packs down into a larger
(14:05):
size, so it's something thatmight take up the entire length
of your large duffel bag.
It might be something thatbarely fits in your backpack.
It might be something that isreally really hard to strap to a
backpack or to a pack.
So I do tend to look for thosetripods, when completely
collapsed, that are on thesmaller side.
It does mean that when I wantto deploy it and extend those
legs, I have more clamps andmore segments to pull out, but
(14:30):
the really key thing is that Ican bring it more places because
it is smaller when it packsdown.
Now I alluded to the idea ofmaterials, and this is a really,
really key thing too.
So a lot of the sort of basicor introductory tripods out
there are going to be more ofaluminum or some sort of
inexpensive aluminum alloy, somecombination.
(14:50):
It's kind of like wine.
It might not be a singlevarietal, it might be a mixture
of metals and we just don't knowwhat it is.
As we're getting more into thehigher end tripods in the $300
range, the $400 range, we'restarting to see that it's pure
aluminum.
It's lighter weight, it isgoing to be a little bit
sturdier until we get into theupper end range, which is going
(15:12):
to be, voila, the piece deresistance, carbon fiber tripods
, and these do make a bigdifference.
We're talking about relativelyexpensive compared to some of
the big box store $30 tripods,but in the $400, $500, $600
range, all of a sudden you'regetting the smallest, lightest
and most durable tripods outthere.
(15:32):
Yes, carbon fiber.
When you're looking for like abicycle frame or things like
that, we may have heard over theyears that they can dent, they
can break, they can tear, theycan actually rip because it is
carbon fiber.
But I have not found that to bethe case whatsoever with my
tripods.
I'm not using them like abicycle, I'm not going over
(15:52):
bumps in the road.
My carbon fiber tripods thathave had for many, many years
are not only lighter and smaller, but they're also really,
really sturdy.
And there's the added benefitthat carbon fiber actually
absorbs movement from the groundor from any sort of camera
shake a little bit better.
I'm not going to say thatthat's the sole or the most
important reason to go forcarbon fiber.
(16:13):
The number one reason is reallyfor it to be lightweight, but I
do find they're incrediblydurable and I do have that added
peace of mind that maybe just alittle bit of movement from a
slight breeze going by thatcarbon fiber is going to just
flex and bend minutely to buffercamera movement just ever so
slightly more.
So let's move on to the otherbig half of what makes up a good
(16:33):
tripod.
There's this little unit on topthat is the tripod head.
Now this attaches to the legswith just a screw on top.
It's either a three quarterinch or a half inch, but
nevertheless it is somethingthat is almost universally
interchangeable.
In fact, if you get the wrongsize, very often your tripod
legs the main unit of yourtripod will come with a little
threaded adapter.
(16:54):
So if you have a half inchscrew.
You can turn it into a threequarter inch screw or vice versa
.
But the tripod head I personallyview as just as important as
tripod legs.
It is going to be the thing youcome into contact with most in
terms of altering your shots,changing your angle, moving your
tripod from place to place.
It's the thing that you'regoing to be adjusting pretty
(17:15):
much just before you take theshot, just before you press that
shutter button.
I'm adjusting my tripod headfor levelness or to change it
from a landscape orientation toa portrait orientation.
So I'm constantly adjusting mytripod head, which, as you can
imagine, means that you want areally easy to adjust tripod
head.
Now I have my favorites, but I'mgoing to start by going through
(17:36):
all the various options outthere for photographers.
We're going to start with onethat's kind of the classic
tripod head.
That usually is the stock orthe kit tripod head, if you're
just buying some sort of combokit.
And this is the classic ballhead and it works very much like
a ball and socket.
It is essentially going to be aball that fits into a clamp and
(17:57):
you can tighten and loosen it.
You can tighten one side and itstays in plane.
You can pan left and right, andthen there's another knob,
usually that allows you toswivel it in any which way,
shape or form, in any direction,and that gives you full range
of motion across this more orless globe, uh, spheric axis.
So the ball head is great.
(18:18):
Um, it is the standard.
It's probably the mostminimalist, it's the lightest
weight, it's the most versatileand it's really really great for
photographers.
Um, I do think that there aresome better options out there,
but in general, the ball head.
You can't really go wrong.
It's just whether you have aspecific purpose or style that
I'm about to talk about next.
(18:39):
So, making a slight aside, we'regoing to get in the realm of
the pan tilt heads.
Now.
These are the ones, ironically,that you're going to see in
some of the less expensivetripod models, even though
designed high quality heads ofthe pan tilt variety are usually
a little bit more expensive.
This is something you'reprobably gonna be familiar with,
seeing.
(18:59):
It might be the tripod thatyour parents had growing up.
It's got the two sort of.
They look like screwdriversthat are bolted into the tripod
head and each one controls acertain axis up or down, or left
or right.
Now, these are fine, but now,all of a sudden, you have two
working parts.
So instead of just looseningone knob and getting a full
(19:20):
range of motion, full 360 axis,now you have two different knobs
that you're twisting andturning, that do two different
things.
It's a little bit complicated.
Now, where these things reallystand out and where they really
really help is actually withvideography, because what you
can do is you can set one planeto be completely rigid and you
can actually pan or tilt yourcamera lenses.
(19:43):
This is great for videographywhen you need to pan a moving
animal across a field or youmight want to create some sort
of dramatic effect of tiltingyour camera up to sort of unveil
the top of a tree, starting atthe trunk and slowly panning up
to the branches.
Again, this is more of thevideography world, so I'm not
going to hamper on it too toomuch, but sometimes you might
see this when looking for atripod.
(20:04):
Sometimes you might have thisat home already and you wonder,
well, why doesn't Cort love this?
Well, it's because it's just,it's a couple extra pieces you
don't need and it takes a lotmore time to adjust it perfectly
, not to mention these two largescrewdrivers that essentially
screw in and dictate the holdand the loosening aspect of it.
They stick out.
There's more weight, it'sharder to carry.
(20:26):
It's another thing you have tobreak down when moving from
location to location.
I'm just not a big fan unlessI'm doing a lot of videography.
Now, the third way is somethingthat's relatively niche and I
only know one cameramanufacturer currently making
this, although there couldcertainly be more.
Please feel free to leave acomment either here in the
podcast or on my YouTube channel, if you found another brand,
(20:48):
but it's Manfrotto, and theyhave what's known as a pistol
grip ball head.
This is really my favoritetripod head and I'll tell you
why.
What it does is it combines thebrilliance of the ball head
where you can really easilyloosen and tighten and get any
sort of direction.
You're not confounded by two orthree different axes.
However, as you pull thattrigger, it actually loosens the
(21:09):
ball head and as you let go ofthe trigger, it snaps it back
into place.
So the reason I love this somuch is that oftentimes, when I
am photographing with slowshutters, it's at night or it's
in really cold conditions likethe Arctic, and to be able to
use my ball head one-handed toactually move my camera around
this swivel around this ball andsocket is extraordinary,
(21:31):
contrast that with the standardball head and one hand has to be
on your camera so it doesn'tflop over and the other hand has
to be on the dial to loosen andtighten it into place.
So the pistol grip ball head isreally extraordinary.
Again, manfrotto makes it.
You can adapt that to anytripod legs that you have.
Again, these things areuniversally threaded and it's
(21:52):
really a next level for yourphotography.
I think by using it one-handedit speeds things up.
It gives me more confidence andassurity that my camera's not
going to flop over.
Really, really nice.
So next up, let's talk abouttripod plates and mounts.
This is the last little bit ofconnection.
We're talking about truly athin little plate between your
tripod head and your cameraitself.
(22:14):
This is the thing that youessentially bolt to the bottom
of your camera and this is whatusually works as some sort of
quick release to your tripodhead itself.
And I'm not going to go intoall the different makes and
models because there are a lotof really proprietary plates out
there.
However, there is one universalplate that is essentially
adopted by all tripod heads andit's the Arca mount A-R-C-A, and
(22:38):
this has a very, very specificsize and dimension that just
about any tripod head will take.
And this is really nice becauseyou can just have one plate
screwed to the bottom of yourtripod and whether you're using
two different tripods or youhave a travel tripod, you have a
bigger tripod, you have asmaller tripod like a GorillaPod
that you might be taking withyou on a hike, versus a bigger
(22:59):
one you're leaving back with youat camp or in the hotel.
Having just one plate so youdon't have to use a tool to undo
that plate for your camera isreally really great.
And again, the ARCA sizeA-R-C-A tripod plate is kind of,
I would say, the industrystandard at this point.
There are other plates anddifferent tripod manufacturers
(23:19):
will likely have their ownplates that do adapt to some
sort of quick release system andthose things are really really
nice.
But if you find yourself usingvarious different stabilization
devices or you find yourselfusing a small travel tripod
during the day or like aGorillaPod for hikes, whereas
you leave your bigger tripod atbase camp, it's really nice to
(23:39):
have that standard plate so youdon't have to constantly be
switching back and forth.
So I just mentioned traveltripods for one of the first
times in the podcast and this isa little bit of a tangent but
kind of a word of warning isthat if you go online or even to
your local camera store, youmight see some really small
tripods that are, you know, over$100.
So you know you're gettingsomething quality.
They're made of pure aluminumor in some cases even carbon
(24:02):
fiber, but they're really small,they pack down, but they can be
extended up to three and fourfeet.
I'm just going to give you alittle word of caution about
these, because I've had some badexperiences over the years
where they're's a little bit toofeeble, a little bit too frail,
not sturdy enough.
Remember, your primary functionof your tripod is to be the
rock, the metaphorical rock, ofyour camera.
(24:24):
So when you start getting thesesmall travel tripods, yes, it's
really great because it fits inlike the little water bottle
holder, your backpack, and it'slightweight and it takes up less
room.
But just be aware that there'sa.
If you get these small traveltripods, they are going to be
inherently less sturdy.
In addition, I've found thatsome of the corners they cut in
(24:44):
making them lighter weight andmaking them smaller, some of the
clasps or some of the ringtightening features of the legs
themselves aren't really up tosnuff.
They work in a different wayand they sometimes can fail in
the field.
I've seen this happen before.
We have a beautiful Aurora showin front of us and it kind of
erupts out of nowhere and we'rescrambling, we're getting
tripods ready and I'll grabsomeone's small lightweight
(25:05):
travel tripod and begin settingit up with them and the legs
kind of feel like toothpicks ina way.
They're obviously bigger thantoothpicks but they just feel so
unstable and boom, all of asudden that clasp just doesn't
work right and the legcompletely falls out Because
again, again, they're short,cutting some things such that
they are saving weight, savingsize, maybe saving on materials
to be that small, lightweighttravel tripod that when you need
(25:29):
it most it might not work theway you think it does.
So I do recommend getting onetripod for really all cases.
Get something sturdy, getsomething that is travel related
, but not the really, really,really tiny, small, inexpensive
travel tripods that collapsesmall, extend big but ultimately
could fail you when you need itmost.
Next up, let's get into a littlebit of the other stabilization
(25:52):
category.
So I'm going to move swiftlyover to pretty much the other
big category that a lot ofphotographers use and that is
going to be your monopod.
So a monopod, as you canimagine from the name, instead
of tripod, is just one postinstead of three.
So the obvious thing is thatthis is not going to be super
duper stable.
It's not going to stand up onits own.
It's something that you'regoing to have to hold while
(26:13):
you're taking the photos.
So while it's not going to workreally great or work at all for
slow shutter photography orespecially night photography,
star photography, auroraphotography, it is going to be a
nice stabilization device.
What I've heard before is that amonopod removes about one stop
of stabilization, meaning thatif you needed to shoot something
(26:34):
at 1, 40th of a second, let'ssay, you could actually put that
on a monopod instead of beinghandheld and shoot the same shot
with the same stabilization at1, 20th of a second.
But generally I don't usemonopods unless I'm carrying a
really big, heavy lens.
And this is where that littlething I mentioned at the
beginning of how somephotographers really like a
(26:55):
tripod in order to set their biglens on or help carry their big
lens or help position their biglens.
Monopods do brilliantly forthat.
They are significantly lessintrusive, significantly less
cumbersome, less bothersome thana full tripod.
So if you're, let's say,photographing grizzly bears on
(27:17):
the shores of Alaska and you'resitting on a little stool and
you're just kind of waiting forthe bears to come by all day,
having a monopod on you isreally great because you can
have your camera on it and notneed to bear the full weight of
your camera and lens and anyother accessories on it that
entire time.
It allows it to be touching theground, stabilized by the
ground itself.
Again, a monopod is just oneleg of a tripod so it can very
(27:38):
easily readily sway back andforth because there's only one
point of contact.
So it will swivel against theground.
But as long as you're okaytouching your camera, being in
contact with your camera whileusing a monopod, they can take
some weight off and they canalso help stabilize a little of
your hand movement, which isalways a thing in photography.
There's another category oftripods that is essentially a
(27:58):
tripod, but it's known.
I guess it's the brand name.
It's kind of like Kleenex, butit's called Platipod and I'm
sure there are othermanufacturers out there,
certainly by now.
But essentially what it is isit's a tripod in the sense that
it has a head to it, it has anattachment point, but instead of
legs it's just a flat metalpanel like the size of a small
reading book, and these thingsare really, really darn cool.
(28:21):
I have to admit I have notpicked one up yet because it's
just, frankly, one more piece ofgear that I don't want to bring
in the field, but they'rereally really cool.
If you're doing a lot of groundlevel photography, it's
essentially a tripod that startsat ground level.
So I think at some point in mycareer I'm going to pick one of
these up, especially if I'mphotographing big wildlife and I
(28:41):
want to be as close to theground as possible, which, let's
be honest, it makes amazingphotos if you can be on eye
level or on ground level withthings like bears or lions, etc,
etc.
And, believe it or not, thereare a lot of cases when you can
do that out in the field.
It's not like you're puttingyourself in danger.
There are indeed cases for it.
Not like you're puttingyourself in danger.
There are indeed cases for it.
(29:02):
But just keep in mind anothercategory of stabilization in
this tripod monopod category isknown as a platypod.
You can attach your camera toit and you can safely put it on
the ground.
So you get that nicestabilization effect when you do
need to be only inches abovethe ground.
The final category I'm going totalk about here is kind of like
a travel tripod, but without allthe fuss and I do love my
(29:22):
GorillaPod, I'm just going tocall it your GorillaPod category
.
There are other manufacturers,but they sort of invented this
category.
They invented this tripod, andit is a small tripod, usually
somewhere between eight and 12inches, let's say, and it has
flexible legs.
Now, I think the originalintention was to try to be
clever and have these swivelingsort of clampy like legs such
(29:46):
that you could wrap each one ofthese three legs around a sign
post or a fence post.
But really, what I've found itto be useful for is just a small
travel tripod that gets meclose to the ground, that
doesn't have the same woes asother small travel tripods,
meaning like the legs poppingout of socket or being too
flimsy.
These things are actuallyreally really stable.
In addition, they're incrediblylightweight and you can put any
(30:08):
tripod head on top of it.
So GorillaPods are really reallyuseful for those that just know
they don't want to bring atripod, but you might have a
little case.
You might have one or two shotsof the day where you need a
tripod, and those might be theshots of your day.
An instance that comes to mindis hiking in Zion National Park.
There are a lot of beautifulrivers.
Well, there's one mainbeautiful river in Zion National
(30:31):
Park, the Virgin River, andthere's this great hike called
the Narrows, and I might notwant to bring a full tripod each
and every day I go into theNarrows, but I might want to
have something that allows me totake some slow shutter
photography of moving water, anda GorillaPod is so lightweight
(30:52):
I'd be silly not to bring itwith me.
In addition, if you need it toclamp around a post, to do a
little family photo action,these again, these legs, are
designed to have little swivelsaround them such that you can
manually clamp them around anysort of object and they hold
lock tight.
Okay, I'm going to finish upthis episode with a little bit
of a dive into the varioustripod brands that I have come
to know and love throughout theyears, and I'm going to give you
some pretty specificrecommendations here and, right
(31:13):
up front, I'm going to tell youmy favorite tripod right now.
I do call it a travel tripodbecause it's super lightweight.
It's super small.
It almost is the size of likethe inner tube of a paper towel,
like it's incredibly small.
It is the Peak Design carbonfiber travel tripod, and don't
let that travel tripoddesignation fool you.
(31:34):
This thing is really reallysturdy and really really easy to
use.
Now you pay a somewhat prettypenny for it I think they're
retailing for about $600 now butI can tell you it's probably
the one tripod you'll never haveto purchase ever again.
It does it all.
It goes up to gosh, I don'tknow over five feet in height.
It gets all the way to theground.
(31:55):
The legs will swivel out veryeasily.
It's super portable andlightweight, like the GorillaPod
, and it actually comes with itsown ball head on it.
So it's one unit you don't haveto fuss with.
You don't have to add weight interms of you know figuring out
how much the legs weigh and howmuch the tripod weigh If you're
carrying it in your pack or ifyou're flying on small planes
(32:16):
and you have weight limits.
This Peak Design Carbon FiberTravel Tripod is.
It's the best.
So if you want to just stop theepisode now and pick that up.
It's a really really goodtripod.
The folks over there areengineers first and foremost,
photographers a strong second.
But they just have engineeredthis thing to perfection and it
takes that ARCA type plate.
(32:38):
So it's the same universalplate that you can use for other
tripods or even other peakdesign gear like the little
camera clip system.
It's a really nice tripod.
The one I had been using beforethat and I still have it in fact
I'm filming this episode on itright now is going to be my
Manfrotto carbon fiber tripod.
So notice, I do have twodifferent carbon fiber tripods.
(32:59):
It's because that's how much Ibelieve in carbon fiber for
being the best out there, andwhen you're a professional in
this space, you really do needto look and source and invest in
the best.
So Manfrotto is a great, greatbrand.
You might get a little bitoverwhelmed if you start
searching on Amazon or B&H Photofor Manfrotto tripods because
there are a lot of differentshapes and styles.
(33:22):
Now these tripodsods again havea removable tripod head.
You can get the pistol grip,you can get the ball head, you
can get those pan tilt heads andyou can get a variety of
different tripod legs.
You don't have to go for carbonfiber.
They have those that arealuminum.
They have those that are somesort of combination of metals
that are a little bit heavierbut will come in at a lower
price point.
They have some where there'sonly two leg segments.
(33:44):
So they stand at about you knowtwo feet when you're packing
them in a suitcase, but theyquickly, with very, very little
work, extend to four feet withjust one or two clips.
So it's a really nice thing tohave that variety, but it is a
little bit overwhelming.
So again, go back to my lessons.
Before think of how manysegments.
Start looking at the extendedsize, the collapsed size, the
(34:08):
weight of the legs and theweight of the tripod head itself
, if you're really trying to getinto the nitty-gritty of those
dimensions and that weight.
I'd be remiss if I didn'tmention two other key tripod
brands.
These are Gitzo, g-i-t-z-o andthen Really Right Stuff.
Really Right Stuff, in myopinion over the years, is kind
of the top pro photographer'schoice.
I have never owned onepersonally, so I can't give you
(34:29):
honest feedback of me using it,but they are the most sturdy,
that's for sure.
They're a little bit heavier,they're a little bit bigger, but
they are high-level prophotography tripods.
So if you find yourself doing alot of night photography, if
you find yourself doing a lot ofastrophotography or just want a
really good, sturdy tripod,maybe you have a bigger camera,
(34:50):
let's say, you use one of thosebazooka big prime lenses and you
need something that is ultrasturdy.
I've seen some really, reallygreat tripods from Really Right
Stuff over the years and yes, itis three words Really Right
Stuff is the name of the tripodbrand.
So today's listener questioncomes in.
It's a really really good,appropriate one, and it's
actually one that I've done afull episode on.
But I'm going to give you alittle bit of snippet.
(35:11):
I'm going to give you kind ofthe be all end all explanation
of how to do this technique.
But the question is how do youtake silky water photos?
And the great thing is, thefirst thing I do is I grab my
tripod.
That's an absolutely key thing,because when we're taking silky
water photos I'll explain whatthat means in a second we have
to have slow shutters.
Okay, let me repeat that wehave to have slow shutters and
(35:33):
therefore we have to have atripod.
So what is silky waterphotography?
Well, essentially, what it'sdoing is a slow shutter of
moving water, and the reason Icall it silky water is because
when you take the photo, at atenth of a second or one full
second, you can see the movementof the water.
The movement of the white wateralmost creates these streaks,
this silky like effect in yourcamera, and it's absolutely
(35:56):
stunning.
So I want to tell you how to doit.
There are some key ingredients.
Obviously, you needstabilization, so you need a
tripod.
You need to find some movingwater, and it's not just any
moving water.
You need to find some movingwhite water.
The more aeration in the water,the different colors really,
just the streaking in the photocomes from the white water
(36:16):
itself.
So whitewater rapids,waterfalls, babbling creeks that
are flowing over rocks, whereyou actually have that sort of
aeration.
When the water flows over therock, it creates a little bit of
turbidity and it makes thatflowing motion.
That's what you're looking for.
You're also looking for somestable aspects to the photo.
So it's not good enough just tofind moving water.
(36:39):
You really need to juxtaposethat movement with something
rock, solid and still.
Otherwise it's going to looklike an abstract painting.
Rocks work, a tree works, theentire landscape works.
You're going to be hard pressedto find a scene that doesn't
have something stable in it, butgenerally I'm not taking a slow
shutter silky water photozoomed in on the Colorado River
(37:01):
right in the middle of rapids.
That's not what I'm going for.
I'm trying to find somethingthat is static, something that
is like a rock, a rock wall, atree, and I'm making sure that
that's tack sharp so that whenyou compare the sharpness of
that with movement of the water,the movement of the water takes
on this beautiful, beautiful,artistic silky look.
So essentially, what I'm doingis I'm putting my camera on full
(37:22):
manual mode with auto ISO.
That's actually the settingthat I shoot on all the time for
all my photos, because I wantto control the aperture, I want
to control the shutter speed,but I don't really care what the
ISO is and because we'reshooting a slow shutter, this is
going to let in a lot of light,so I'm going to get a low ISO
anyway.
In fact, I might have to adjustif my ISO is too low, and I'll
(37:43):
tell you how to do that in asecond, but I'm starting with
something moderate like f5.6, f8, and one tenth of a second.
Okay, the main thing that'sgoing to change here is going to
be my shutter speed.
So very often what I'm doing isI'm going a little bit faster
and a little bit slower.
I'm sort of like broadening myreach out away in both
directions from one tenth of asecond.
(38:03):
So my next photo might be onefifth of a second.
My next photo might be onesecond and then two full seconds
.
Okay, then I'm going to go theother direction to take, you
know, back to one tenth of asecond.
I'm gonna go to one 20th andone 40th of a second.
This is going to give me very,very different looks for every
photo.
I can't tell you the exactshutter speed you should shoot
your moving water photos on,because it's entirely dependent
(38:27):
on the speed and the flow of thewater.
In addition, it's entirelydependent on the look you're
trying to get.
You might want just a littlebit of blur from the water, just
to show a little bit ofmovement.
That's something more like 1,20th, 1 40th of a second.
However, if you're filming araging waterfall in Costa Rica,
1 20th of a second might stillhave a lot of blur in it because
a lot of water moves throughyour frame in that split second.
(38:51):
But again, I'm usually shootingsomewhere in the range of 4
seconds to 1 40th of a second.
That's 1 over 4, 0.
Something in that range isgoing to give me my sweet spot,
where I'm looking for that silkywater each and every time.
One other pro tip I'm going totell you about silky water as
well as all tripod photographyis a really clever and easy way
(39:11):
to reduce any sort of movementin your camera.
So obviously, the tripod istaking out most of the movement,
but if you've ever noticed, asyou press that button, your
camera may move ever so slightly, that's not what you want,
especially if you're shooting ata slow shutter speed, like
we're talking about today.
So a really easy hack, withouthaving to buy another piece of
gear, is to set your camera on atwo second delay.
(39:33):
What this does is when youpress that shutter, it waits two
seconds to take the photo.
That is ample time for yourcamera to settle down and not be
moving anymore from youpressing that shutter button.
So that's something that I findmyself using for just about all
tripod photography.
All right, folks, that is ourdeep dive into tripods and other
stabilization we talked about alot today.
(39:54):
If you have specific questions,I sincerely invite you to head
on over to my YouTube channel,leave a comment on this video or
any video, ask that questionand I will get back to you.
I love talking to folks aboutcamera gear and camera tips, as
you can tell from me doing thispodcast, so don't be shy, let me
know what I can help out withand until next time, happy
(40:14):
shooting.
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