TRIPOD's USES! STUDY your ISO and Shutter speed Behavior

When you finish sign your receipt of your DSLR at the shop, then, somebody in the shop help you pack the DSLR set..

You got camera body..

Lens..

Bag..

tripod...WHAT? a "BIG LONG UGLY-TO-WALK-AROUND" TRIPOD?

tripod? why?

let skip it for a while...

Always happening to amateur, asking an advice and opinion from "professionals" or "good" photographers is the must. Starting from "Waa..how to you do this..." or some amateur want to show their skills a bit, they will ask "waa... what ISO/Shutter speed/aperture do you set"..hehe

Whatever the question is, the pro probably answered the question with simple word such as "uhu, just focus on the subject"

OR

they will just say "use TRIPOD"........................tripod????????????????????

Ok back to the story







TRIPOD

Why we use tripod?

First thing come in your head is, "off course, to shoot my own photo!".. because dslr's kit lens somehow can't focus your own face when you try to take your own photo. (not very wide as your phone camera = 6mm)

That it?

NO..maybe the tripod physical function only for yourself portrait photo, but actually it help your DSLR camera to take photo that sharper than your handheld snap.
Confuse?

ok, basically, tripod use to hold your camera. This is because :

when your shutter turn slow in low light condition, your handheld snap may blur your photo because in slow shutter speed, if the body receive even small shake (commonly due to breathing and the hand shake itself), the image will definitely experience "Overall Blur".
So this tripod give you very steady position and hold your camera still without any shake while your shutter doing it work (accept if their any earth shake).

You might want to know this: Why my shutter are very slow in dark?

Shutter speed is design to limit the light to entered the sensor. It act "open up" and "close down".

When the body receive good light (ambient light) from environment, the shutter will speed up because it don't want to allow to many light enter the sensor and avoid it to be too bright (we call it "overexposure").

(high speed shutter speed, about 1/1250 second)


When it get low light environment, the shutter will decrease it own speed to allow light enter more to sensor, so that the the image will not experience low exposure(underexposure).

(very slow! about 30 second!)

The slow shutter part is where we use the tripod!
also, when you use low ISO (low ISO give you nice and small amount of noise, but slow down the shutter), tri to use the TRIPOD if possible~


End of story? Not yet!

Now I will show you SOME (some only..there actually a lot) Shoot that really need TRIPOD :

Light Graffiti



light graffiti is an idea of slowing the shutter speed to make the moving light source to look continuously "draw"

What? How?

Simply use your Manual mode at your DSLR dial. Then, set your shutter speed to the slowest speed, the the "BULB" status will be appear. BULB speed is where you can control your shutter as long as you hold the shutter button.
Increase your aperture a bit (5 to 7 is good stop, may use different for different light source power)

then use TRIPOD for avoiding long exposure (long exposure mean the shutter open and the sensor expose for some time).

Starting from the shutter been press and hold, your friend start to draw anything with the light. Basically, this kind of effect your bright torch light. Release the shutter after the drawing is done.



Blurry Water (don't know the right term for this one)



Also with same concept like the graffiti does. This effect's idea is to manipulate the shutter speed to slow speed so that the moving subject (the waterfall) will be blur and the the still subject (the Hermit, stone and the plant) will stay in focus (freeze).

HOW?!

Just stand your DSLR on the tripod, Set very law ISO, and set your aperture to small (for example f/18, dont be confuse!)

I suggest you use aperture priority mode on this one (because it adjust the shutter speed automatically for you)

the Shoot^~^ (make sure your spot is suitable, for example, waterfall, fountain etc..)

And many more! (support this post any I may post you another photo using tripod^~^ and tips to do it^~^)


Other Example Shoot using TRIPOD that you might want to research by yourself :

#Panorama
#HDR
#Sequence (I post it later^~^)
#Macro
#Light trail

and you may research on

#Strobist

ok hope it help you a bit^~^