Why You Need A Tripod

Let me start out by saying I’m not a member of the tripod guild of America and I’m not getting any kickbacks from Best Buy for writing this post; I just really think that anyone from a part-time food blogger to a photography hobbyist should own their own tripod.

I’ve been using a tripod on and off for a couple years now. After my first starting to get rough around the edges I upgraded to a Manfrotto 3-section tripod and pan tilt head last month and haven’t looked back. A good tripod might seem like a large, frivolous and expensive piece of equipment but it is anything but unnecessary. Compared to hand-held shooting, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for your pictures.

Increased Detail:

One of the biggest freedoms of using a tripod is eliminating shaky hands. When I’m holding the camera, I can’t push the shutter speed faster than 1/40 or 1/30 without risking camera shake; with a tripod you can set the shutter for as long as you’ll need and never have to deal with a blurry picture again. Longer exposures also let you use a good ISO value for crisp, clean detail and very little noise.

Free Your Hands:

It’s a pretty obvious fact that you can’t be behind the camera and in front of it at the same time. I know this because whenever I go on vacation I have a hundred pictures of the people I was with and very few of myself to look at. For food bloggers, using a tripod means you can take pictures of yourself actually handling the food and cooking the recipes, letting you create more interesting shots. For hobbyist photographers it means being able to take a family photo without awkwardly deciding which family member sits out and takes the picture.

Low-Light/Night Photography:

If you’re working with natural light, you have to time your day around the patterns of the sun. Sometimes that just doesn’t fit everyone’s schedule. With a tripod, you can set the camera to take long exposures so that even dark scenes come out bright and full of contrast.

Less Editing:

This is by far my favorite part about using a tripod: On average I take 70% fewer photos when using a tripod. That means 70% fewer photos to upload to the computer, 70% fewer photos to comb through for decent ones, and 70% fewer photos to edit in photoshop. All of that combined saves a lot of time.

Have I convinced you yet? Do you have anymore questions? Feel free to comment with them and I’ll help however I can.