Maui Photo Tour and Workshop – Use a Tripod when creating scenic photogrpahs

by Douglas Hoffman on November 30, 2011

A tripod is one of the most important tools when creating scenic or landscape photographs.  Using a tripod eliminates the number one problem people have when taking scenic photographs and that is camera shake. The majority of people move their bodies when pressing the shutter and the result is blurry photographs.

A tripod holds the camera sits still, so when the shutter is pressed and the mirror rises inside the body to expose light to the chip, the camera does not move.   This is important because some of the scenic images photographers like to create use slow shutter speeds. For example to soften the look of a waterfall shutter speeds like  such as 1/4 or 1/8th are used   When the shutter is open that long its critical there is no camera shake.

slow shutter speed freezes the water fall.

A tripod holds the camera sits still, so when the shutter is pressed and the mirror rises inside the body to expose light to the chip, the camera does not move.   This is important because some of the scenic images photographers like to create use slow shutter speeds. For example to soften the look of a waterfall shutter speeds like  such as 1/4 or 1/8th are used   When the shutter is open that long its critical there is no camera shake.

Fast shutter speeds like 1/250 and 1/500th freeze the action and camera shake is not much of an issue.   For example if creating an image of a breaching whale a shutter speed of 1/1000th of a second will capture the drops of water coming off the whale.

Breach in front of resort in Kauai

To see more whale and landscape images check out this collection