This friend and teacher I had used to say:
“There are only two kinds of pictures: those made with a tripod and those trembled and blur!”
Of course this is an extreme definition but, some how, it is correct. It doesn’t matter how careful we can be, all our photos will be trembled unless we use a tripod. Is just a matter of enlarging them and we can see that in every picture. Even when using a very brief exposure time such as 1/2000 or shorter.
Experience help to minimize this problem, but the handling of the camera is also important. And the way we hold the new and compact cameras, those that don’t have an eye level viewfinder but just an electronic screen, imposing some 20 to 25 cm between camera and face, are the worst.
We can’t make those steady triangles with our body, arm, forearm and chest, both forearms and chest, holding the camera steady to our face. It is almost impossible make a sharp and perfect photograph without that!
As for me, I took that definition not literally but into consideration through the years. So, I have several tripods, from the old, heavy duty and unusual shape “Benbo” to the one classic and portable “Gitzo”, from the ultra light and small “Bilora” to the one made of wood and having something like 70 years old. This is the one I use on my “oldfashion” project.
I can recommend the “Benbo” for its robustness and ability for having your camera how close you want, where ever you want, how ever you want, and never worry about sand, water, mud or so at the lower sections of the legs.
But I also read, somewhere:
“If you can’t have a good tripod, get a monopod!”
And this is so truth! Having the camera on a tripod gives us the sense of security. But if it isn’t as steady as we think, we will have trembled pictures the same way. With a monopod, we know there isn’t that steadiness and have extra attention to it.
So, I got, through time, two monopods: my main one, an all duty “manfroto”, light, going as height as I want and fast to use, and my first one, used now a days as a stand for an extra flash, since it have some small three legs on the bottom, allowing it to stand alone.
And I go far than this, as for stands and steadiness concern: I also use some grips, from different brands. They are useful for small cameras and, most of all, to have a second or third flash secured where ever I want, from a door or doorpost to some pole on the street, the pelmet of a window, the back of a chair or even the window of a car. Getting that other light into those dark corners or doing a nice back light in parties or others meetings. Nice to be forgotten on the trunk of a car or inside those heavy cases where we carry all kinds of stuff.
But I go further on the steadiness business: I have some done by myself: the beanbag and the WC chain.
As for the first, is just a piece of an old trouser, just half of the leg, with one end close and the other having Velcro. Carried all times into my vacations bag. If and when I want to do a night photograph, I go to the groceries, get some beans and half fill up it. Then, I put it on the top of a wall, on a car, on a rock, where I need, and adjust its shape to receive the camera, positioning it just as I want. At the end, I put it back into my bag and use the beans, or rice or whatever I used, to do some meal. Comfortable to photography and stomach!
The WC chain is the smallest and lightest stand I know. With 2 or 2.2 meters long and having a photographic screw at one end, we fix it on the camera, level the camera with our face, steep the other end and push up all the set. This way, we prevent the gravity from act and our muscles from trembling. Whit practice, we can go down as three stops in time exposure and get acceptable pictures. With practice!
But, since I’m not a common user of the photographic paraphernalia, I use the monopod to go as high as I can, doing what I call “If I were taller” series. I put a small camera on my monopod, tilt it a bit down if needed, turn on the timer and, holding the set from its bottom, I get it as high as I can. This way, I get some unusual perspective. To do some still live, portraits or even reportage. Of course I have to consider the delay, being never sure of the exact moment of the shooting. As for framing, well, is a question of guessing, practice and luck.
This is one of them.
Texto e imagem: by me
“There are only two kinds of pictures: those made with a tripod and those trembled and blur!”
Of course this is an extreme definition but, some how, it is correct. It doesn’t matter how careful we can be, all our photos will be trembled unless we use a tripod. Is just a matter of enlarging them and we can see that in every picture. Even when using a very brief exposure time such as 1/2000 or shorter.
Experience help to minimize this problem, but the handling of the camera is also important. And the way we hold the new and compact cameras, those that don’t have an eye level viewfinder but just an electronic screen, imposing some 20 to 25 cm between camera and face, are the worst.
We can’t make those steady triangles with our body, arm, forearm and chest, both forearms and chest, holding the camera steady to our face. It is almost impossible make a sharp and perfect photograph without that!
As for me, I took that definition not literally but into consideration through the years. So, I have several tripods, from the old, heavy duty and unusual shape “Benbo” to the one classic and portable “Gitzo”, from the ultra light and small “Bilora” to the one made of wood and having something like 70 years old. This is the one I use on my “oldfashion” project.
I can recommend the “Benbo” for its robustness and ability for having your camera how close you want, where ever you want, how ever you want, and never worry about sand, water, mud or so at the lower sections of the legs.
But I also read, somewhere:
“If you can’t have a good tripod, get a monopod!”
And this is so truth! Having the camera on a tripod gives us the sense of security. But if it isn’t as steady as we think, we will have trembled pictures the same way. With a monopod, we know there isn’t that steadiness and have extra attention to it.
So, I got, through time, two monopods: my main one, an all duty “manfroto”, light, going as height as I want and fast to use, and my first one, used now a days as a stand for an extra flash, since it have some small three legs on the bottom, allowing it to stand alone.
And I go far than this, as for stands and steadiness concern: I also use some grips, from different brands. They are useful for small cameras and, most of all, to have a second or third flash secured where ever I want, from a door or doorpost to some pole on the street, the pelmet of a window, the back of a chair or even the window of a car. Getting that other light into those dark corners or doing a nice back light in parties or others meetings. Nice to be forgotten on the trunk of a car or inside those heavy cases where we carry all kinds of stuff.
But I go further on the steadiness business: I have some done by myself: the beanbag and the WC chain.
As for the first, is just a piece of an old trouser, just half of the leg, with one end close and the other having Velcro. Carried all times into my vacations bag. If and when I want to do a night photograph, I go to the groceries, get some beans and half fill up it. Then, I put it on the top of a wall, on a car, on a rock, where I need, and adjust its shape to receive the camera, positioning it just as I want. At the end, I put it back into my bag and use the beans, or rice or whatever I used, to do some meal. Comfortable to photography and stomach!
The WC chain is the smallest and lightest stand I know. With 2 or 2.2 meters long and having a photographic screw at one end, we fix it on the camera, level the camera with our face, steep the other end and push up all the set. This way, we prevent the gravity from act and our muscles from trembling. Whit practice, we can go down as three stops in time exposure and get acceptable pictures. With practice!
But, since I’m not a common user of the photographic paraphernalia, I use the monopod to go as high as I can, doing what I call “If I were taller” series. I put a small camera on my monopod, tilt it a bit down if needed, turn on the timer and, holding the set from its bottom, I get it as high as I can. This way, I get some unusual perspective. To do some still live, portraits or even reportage. Of course I have to consider the delay, being never sure of the exact moment of the shooting. As for framing, well, is a question of guessing, practice and luck.
This is one of them.
Texto e imagem: by me
1 comentário:
You might want to look into this hiking staff, monopod and tripod all in one:
http://bit.ly/Lcyyz
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