Image stabilization, Tripods, and Crutches
Carl Weese has had an interesting series of articles on the Pentax K10d on The Online Photographer, including this article on image stabilization/anti-shake as a substitute for a tripod. Carl makes some fine arguments. And anti-shake looks really damn useful if you’re going to shoot handheld.
And, yes, I’d like to shoot handheld. But I will admit that I cling to my trusty Gitzo 1349 and my new good friend, a RRS BH-55. That tripod has held my camera steady without problems for more than a decade, without failure and without a hitch.
But it’s not just the fact that the tripod and head are my trusted friends. It’s that it’s darn hard for me to use a camera handheld. It just feels weird. I can’t get the camera in the right spot, and then let go while I fiddle with something. It seems hard to use the camera handheld and take the results seriously. I’m used to putting the camera on a tripod and then putting the tripod over my shoulder as I start the short walk from the car when I reach a promising spot, and carrying the camera in my hands (or on a neck strap) just doesn’t feel the same.
So part of it is that, from the point of view my process, the tripod is a crutch. I wonder, if I got an image stabilized lens for the 5d, how long it would take me to adjust to not using a tripod all of the time. Could I actually learn to enjoy working handheld?
I should both ways quite a lot. There is a whole lot to be said for going with the flow, reacting, changing your mind, shooting in a free-form, off the tripod way.
There’s a lot to be said for slowing down, taking the time to compose carefully, checking the frame twice, shooting, checking it again, getting the camera just so.
I think doing both feeds back and forth between the styles – so my handheld work benefits from the planning and care that I do in composition with a tripod, but my tripod work doesn’t suffer from being static too long.
The best sessions of landscape work I’ve done with a tripod have been frantic, frenzied rushes between one careful, slow composition and then a mad dash to find the next one. This stop-start flow got me a whole lot more good pictures than finding the spot, setting up and shooting one good composition 50 times (with tweaks)
If you are going to take one picture on a trip, that’s the best picture you are going to take all day – so I like to move when I shoot landscape on a tripod. Shoot, accept what I’ve shot, move on, build on the ideas and compositions until the light is gone.
I should above, obviously should be ‘I shoot’
I must say that, until about a few months ago, I shot exclusively on a tripod, doing much the same as you. I would mount my camera on the BH-55 head, walk to a shot, take the camera off (go figure), find a shot by moving all around, set up the tripod in the right postion, take the shot. Repeat.
Now, I’m kind of 80/20, tripod/hand held, but in truth, I much prefer the tripod, even with vibration reduction available.
I just like the absolute sharpness that I see when I use a tripod.
Obvious you are not a street shooter! That’s not a comment on the meaningfulness of your images, only about your style. Like most, I use the tripod when necessary, but walking shooting, either from the camera held at my eye, or just firing a shot from the chest, gets in the way. Example: http://www.frankarmstrong.net/gallery/album49/20051011_5052
This image could not have been made using a tripod. Mostly I’m a medium and large format kinda’ guy who has fallen in love with digital color.
[...] same location as the one above. For the photographers among you, you may notice that I’m not carrying a tripod, which brings up another topic for another time. This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, [...]