Beginner Common Landscape Photography Mistakes and how to avoid them!

Cheers Tom. A good little read put accross in such a way as the layman can understand it.

Gaz
 
That was the intention! I think as with any hobby there is a lot to learn when starting and I was trying to make things a little simpler by making the simple mistakes obvious and helping people hopefully improve faster than they would otherwise!
 
Some good points raised Tom, sorry, but I totally disagree on the tripod front though
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Lugging all that extra weight about is no fun and my carbon series 3 is more stable than the old Manfrotto 055CB I used to have
 
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tijuana taxi said:
Some good points raised Tom, sorry, but I totally disagree on the tripod front though
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Lugging all that extra weight about is no fun and my carbon series 3 is more stable than the old Manfrotto 055CB I used to have
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I knew that would be a contentious issue! It depends what situations you're using them in I guess. All other factors being the same the heavier tripod will be more stable though, physically that must be the case. However, as I'm sure you're aware the Carbon Fibre ones are often built to a higher standard with less play at any joints, etc.
I do like the satisfying weight of am aluminium tripod but everyone's going to have a different opinion I guess! [emoji4]
 
TPFoster said:
All other factors being the same the heavier tripod will be more stable though, physically that must be the case.
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That statement has really got me thinking, I'm not disagreeing with you, "common" sense suggests that would be the case but is it? Particularly, is a heavier tripod more stable in ways that matter to image quality? Yes a heavy tripod is harder to push over but presumably what is really required is a stiff (in the engineering sense) tripod that won't vibrate appreciably in response to external stimuli such as wind :thinking:

<Edit>

this little table suggests that carbon fiber has a greater Youngs Modulus and tensile strength than aluminium

main-qimg-b5c8e8a84d2d5d914650dc564e91d393
 
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Well not vibrating would be important but speaking from a 'laws of motion' point of view... Force=mass x acceleration. If you wanted to accelerate a heavier mass then you need a stronger force. Or the same force will accelerate a heavier mass less. Sure if one tripod has really wobbly joints then this is another factor to consider but that's why I said "all other factors being the same". The laws of motion will always apply and therefore a heavier tripod should be more stable.
 
There are laws other than those of motion. Ansel Adams (The Camera, p131) discusses resonant vibrations, and says that he has a 19 lb tripod that won't hold a 2 1/4 square camera reliably.
Edit for typo.
 
Yes but...

when I said "in ways that matter to image quality" I guess I was meaning something like transient response. AFAIK a tripod made from a stiffer material will have a higher natural resonant frequency but I can't at the moment get my head around the damping and whether a higher resonant frequency is a good or bad thing for IQ.
 
Resonance isn't something that photographers can easily measure in a meaningful way though. At least from my experience, the heavier aluminium tripod has always been more stable than CF ones my friends have been using. Also, good quote from someone on Reddit:
"On the tripod note, definitely just buy a heavy tripod, don't hang your camera bag off them because sometimes, even when they're hanging off a hook designed to hold the camera bag, in really strong wind they blow off and fall down a cliff into the f******ocean." ;)
The effect the wind has on visible tripod motion has a much more measurable and easily recognisable effect...in my experience at least!
 
I imagine if you are within anything like 50% of the wind loading needed to blow the thing over then there is little chance of keeping it still enough to get a decent image with anything but a very high shutter speed and I guess the height and spread of the legs has a much bigger effect than weight in this case. But what if you are shooting at 1/20 and a gust of wind "plucks" the tripod just before you open the shutter?

Anyway as I said, you are probably right, I'm just musing...
 
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