Photo Tip of the Month - Tricks with tripods by: Bruce Stein

Often times we buy something for a single purpose and find out that the real fun begins when we explore new and different uses for that item; such is the case with tripods.

The obvious reasons to own a tripod are to steady the camera for longer than normal exposure times under available light conditions or to support the camera while shooting family or self portraits, both very valid reasons for owning a tripod. However, there are ways to use a tripod to make them more fun and less utilitarian and achieve cool special effects in the process. One such way of “playing” with the tripod is to try a panning motion shot, which can be accomplished without a tripod with less pleasing results, as you can see with the accompanying photos.

In the first photo I used the Promaster 7100 tripod and the car and the background are sharper than in the second photo where the camera movement is evident. Panning is a relatively easy method to achieve the effect of a reasonably sharp moving subject that shows that it is indeed moving. To best way to perform this function is to set your DSLR to the shutter priority mode and select a slower than normal shutter speed, typically less than one-thirtieth of a second I shot these at one-sixth of a second. In bright sun, you will probably need to use a neutral density filter (or a circular polarizing filter) to cut down the amount of light hitting the sensor to get your shutter down to the desired speed. From there all you do is follow the subject at approximately the same rate of speed that it’s traveling and when you feel that you’re tracking it at an even pace, snap the picture.

Good luck and have fun!