Mike Johnson Photo + Video: Logan

3 Times to Always Use a Tripod

(That you may not have thought about before)

I love teaching photography to new photographers, whether it be through the community classes I teach, the local photography club or one-on-one, I love when I get the chance to see when someones eye's light up when the realize they can now start to turn their visions into reality! During all these teaching moments, one thing I always try to teach others is how important a tripod is, and the response I always get it 'Oh, I use a tripod when I shoot the stars or landscapes, but I never use it besides that'. I want to bring up three times you might not think about using a tripod but times that I find a tripod invaluable to my photography and why. Let's get started!

Studio Portrait Photography

Every time I'm in a studio, I have my tripod, always. Why? Two reasons. First, a tripod is going to get you sharper images. Always. No matter how careful and steady you are, those sticks under your camera will be steadier. Normally when you're in a studio, you're there so you can control every aspect of you image and get the best quality images. Locking your camera down will help optimize the quality your camera can produce. The second and more important reason to pull our your tripod in the studio is that you'll get a more natural image of your subject. When your face is smashed behind your lens and you're talking and directing your subject, they can't see you! You're not a face, or a person, you're a big scary lens! As soon as you drop your camera on a tripod you can pull your face out and give them a person to connect with. You can talk, direct and CONNECT with your subject. You get to be a real person and people connect with real people better than lenses.

On Location Family Photography

The second time I never fail to get my tripod out is on location family portraits. Once again, there are two main reasons. First, you get to be a person! Just like mentioned above, except now it's even more critical! How hard is it to get a little kid to look at a camera?! Seriously! But if you put the camera on your tripod you don't have to say "Hey Bobby! Look at the camera!". You'll frame your shot, set you setting and stand behind your camera and pull faces, make animal noises, and be goofy! Guess what? That kid is gonna watch you and he's probably gonna crack up laughing if you're silly enough. BAM! You've got him looking at the camera! Done! Also, by getting your camera on a tripod and not moving, it's much easier to do head-swaps in Photoshop if you need to. Just in case you didn't get everyone smiling naturally in multiple images. Head swaps are so much easier if your on a tripod.

Product & Food Photography

Sharpness. Sharpness is key when you're showing off someones gorgeous culinary creations, their hard work on hand crafted soaps, delicately weaved phone case, or whatever else you're shooting. Getting that camera on a tripod is going to maximize your sharpness and it'll make you think about your framing and composition more. Putting that extra time into framing and moving your tripod to the perfect location is going to pay off! Give it a go next time your shooting something small and up close, you'll be amazed at the difference in your images!

I hope next time you're heading out to shoot, you'll think about dusting off that old tripod and giving it a second chance. Of all the things that has drastically improved the quality of my images, my tripod might be number one. It doesn't matter what gear you're shooting on, a solid set of legs is going to take you're quality up a notch or two.

Top Tip

Don't buy a ~$50 big box store special! Get something solid, heavy and durable. It's all about being steady! Personally I bought my tripod used on ksl.com and got a $500 tripod for $100 and it's been going strong for years!

When do you use your tripod?! Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook and Google Plus!

4 comments

No comments

Sometimes you get an itch, an itch that won't go away no matter how you try. As a photographer I get some real bad itches. One of those it adventure photography, I absolutely love the outdoors, and love shooting people doing what they love. I think my wive get's tired of hearing me talking about how much I want people to do what they love. We only have one shot at this life, YOLO as the hipsters would say, and I believe that no matter what you should chase your dreams. Give it a shot and never look back. It might cost your life saving, a few trips to the hospital or even a close friend. But do what you love! And I love to capture people doing what they love. That's why I love commercial photography, I love working with business owners who have given their all to live their dreams.

One of my dreams, is to shoot commercial style adventure portraits. For some that may seem like a long silly bunch of words, but to me, what it means is this: I want to shoot portrait quality images of people in their favorite environment. The problem is, nobody trusts you when you don't have a portfolio. So this week I started to really build my portfolio in the direction I want to go. I begged Sammie Hansen, a local model from Provo to come work with me. I called and pleaded with my friends to come hang off a cliff with me. And we had a blast! I really have to share the behind the scenes shots from this shoot, it really was a lot of fun!

All of these shots were shot by Anthony Talcott, the son of Tonio Talcott, another local photographer. I'll tell ya, when I told my wife I was going to drag my $5,000 camera to the top of a 120 foot cliff and shoot pictures, she was a little panicked. When added that I was going to take close to a $1,000 in lighting gear and hang that off the cliff too, she freaked out (haha). But it was a blast! That's my buddy Eric in the orange shirt up there belaying Sammie so she doesn't fall. By the end of the shoot, he had both my and Sammie hooked into his harness and was doing his best to keep us both from falling. Honestly, he probably saved my life the whole time. I'm an idiot and inch closer and closer trying to get the right shot and he made me put a harness on.

I had to include this shot of my $300 light on a $10 light stand sticking out over the cliff... behind the rock holding the light is Tonio.

Here is another shot of Sammie and I getting ready to shoot our second location on the cliff. She's a lot less scared of heights than I was!

This shot was taken by Jeff Strong, another local photographer who was driving by and stopped and took this from below us with his cell phone! You can check out Jeff's work here.

Onto what we actually got from this shoot!

One thing I've got to tell ya! Sammie is seriously great to work with! I've worked with quite a few models over the years, and not many will let you hang them 100+ feet up! And really, the best part was, I could get her where I wanted her, and then ask her to move a hand here, or a foot there and she would. When I asked for a certain look, she would do her best to pull it off (while trying not to look down!). She was every bit as dedicated to this shot as I was, and I really appreciate that. So a shout out to her hard work as well!

This last one is by far my favorite image from the shoot. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I want to give a few shout outs before I let ya go though:

Thanks to Scot Weaver for coming out and holding lights, hauling gear and making us laugh. I always love working around him. Check out his incredible landscape and event photography here.

Thanks to Tonio Talcott for bring his extra light, his son and the willingness to climb to the edge of a cliff with me! Check out his portrait and event work here.

Thanks to Eric Schmidt, my long time friend who makes me go repelling and caving with him and pushing me to face my fear of heights. We've been talking about making a rock climbing image for over two years, and he sure made this one a lot safer!

And finally, thanks to Sammie Hansen, because, well, without her, I've have a picture of a rock face... and I'm not good an landscapes. So thank you for trusting me and working with me to create such a fun image!

If you or anyone you know loves an extreme sport (mountain biking, trail running, long boarding, motocross, snowboarding, ect), I have a million more ideas I wanna try, so send them my way!

Thanks,
Mike
http://endless.photography/

No comments

Pages

3 Times to Always Use a Tripod

(That you may not have thought about before)

Studio Portrait Photography

On Location Family Photography

Product & Food Photography

Top Tip

Introduction To Portrait Lighting

2015 Christmas Special

About Mike Johnson

Find me on Social Media!

recent posts

Blog Archive

Contact Me!