13 Reasons Why You Need A Tripod for Photography

I’m often asked what photography gear I use for my photos. I’m asked so much in fact, that I put together a whole page on this site, dedicated to answering just that question!

One piece of photography equipment that I highly recommend is a tripod. In today’s post, I want to explain exactly why you need a tripod for photography, so you can understand the benefits to your photography of lugging around an extra bit of kit. If you’re in the market for a tripod after reading this post, see our guide to the best travel tripods.

Let’s get on with answering the question of why you need a tripod for photography.

Table of Contents:

Why You Need A Tripod For Photography

1. Photographing Long Exposures

If you want to do any kind of photography with shutter speeds longer than around 1/60th of a second, you are going to need a tripod so you don’t end up with blurry images as a result of your hand movements.

A perfect example of when you’re going to need a tripod is for long exposure photography – where you try to capture the movement of the world around you by opening the shutter for periods of time measured in seconds – and sometimes minutes!

There’s no way you are going to be able to hold the camera still for that long in your hands, so you’re going to need a tripod if you want to get shots like this.

or this:

2. Photographing in Low Light

If you’re not familiar with the exposure triangle, here’s a quick recap. It’s the way we describe the relationship between the exposure of the image, and the three tools we have at our disposal to manage that exposure – shutter speed, aperture and ISO.

Changing any of these three options directly affects the exposure, and they all work together to create the final look of the image.

Unfortunately, in any given scene there is only so much light to work with. As the day falls to dusk, or when we’re shooting inside, there might not be very much light available.

Our options to increase the amount of light we capture are to widen the aperture (thus decreasing the depth of field), to increase the ISO (making the image more noisy), or to reduce the shutter speed (making the image susceptible to hand shake).

Ideally you don’t want to decrease the aperture as that affects the depth of field of the image. You also don’t really want to increase the ISO, as noisy images are less than desirable.

So the only solution is to use lower shutter speeds – down to the slowest you can go without capturing unwanted motion in the shot, before adjusting the aperture and ISO.

And those slow shutter speeds are going to need, of course, a tripod so as to avoid the blur introduced by your hand movement!

More here on the exposure triangle, and on how the different parts of the camera work together to create the shot.

3. Photographing with Filters

As well as neutral density filters, which are largely used for long exposure photography as detailed above, I also like to use a polarising filter for my photography.

This accentuates certain colours in the sky, makes clouds pop right out, and cuts out glare and reflections.

More on the effects of a polarising filter here, in the meantime, just be aware that the darkness of the glass cuts the light, meaning you’re going to need to use lower shutter speeds, faster ISO rating or wider apertures to still get the shot, and a tripod will negate hand shake at lower shutter speeds when using a filter.

4. Photographing Landscapes

Landscapes are one of my favourite subjects to photograph – as regular readers will no doubt be aware!

For landscape photography, one of the most important camera settings to be aware of is the aperture – we want to use an aperture of at least f/8 and up to f/16 for the majority of landscape shots, ensuring we get a wide depth of field with everything clearly in focus.

Unfortunately, those narrow apertures reduce the light coming in, which means of course that we either need to reduce the shutter speed or increase the ISO in order to get the right exposure for the shot.

Since increasing the ISO will introduce noise to the image, our only option is to reduce the shutter speed, which, (you’ve guessed it!), means we’re going to need to sit the camera on a tripod to avoid hand shake.

As a guideline, anything under 1/60th of a second shutter speed is inadvisable for handheld photography.

5. For Any Video Work

Ok, so I know I said this was a photography post, and I don’t do very much video, but from time to time I need to do a piece to video, and since pretty much every camera these days comes with video functionality, it’s worth mentioning.

Video looks a million times better when shot on a tripod. Wobbly hand-held video screams amateur – stabilising your video with a tripod will instantly make it look more professional.

6. To Overcome Hand Shakiness

A tripod can help those who have a difficult time holding their camera still for regular photos, whether from age, illness, or a disorder such as essential tremor or Parkinson’s Disease.

Whilst in body and lens stabilization systems can help in these situations, if you still find yourself with blurry photos due to your hands shaking, a tripod can definitely help fix this and ensure you get sharp photos every time.

7. For Time Lapses

I don’t do a great many time lapses, but when I do, I do them on a tripod. A time lapse, in case you’re not aware, is a sequence of images shot a certain number of seconds apart, and then turned into a video which speeds up the action.

It’s hugely important that the frames are aligned, so a tripod is absolutely essential to time lapse photography.

8. To Make You Think About the Framing of Your Shot

This one is a little bit less tangible than the other reasons, however it does actually make a difference to your photography.

When you have your camera in your hand, it’s all too easy to just put it up to your eye and press the button without thinking too much about your composition, framing and subject matter.

When you start using a tripod, everything is going to take a bit longer. You have to set up the tripod, adjust the positioning of the camera, make sure everything is level and so on.

This process will slow you down, and force you to really think about your shot. In my experience, this can lead to much better results.

9. For Far Better Self Portraits

I may be fighting a losing battle here, but seriously, if you want a decent photo of yourself in front of something cool, a tripod is going to give you a far better result than a selfie-stick.

Yes, I appreciate the ease of use of the selfie-stick, the speed you can upload to social media, the fact you don’t have to hand your camera to a stranger to get a shot – all of those factors are powerfully persuasive.

But you are so restricted in terms of framing, where you can be in the shot, and by the capabilities of your smartphone camera.

Pretty much every camera in the world has a timer function which lets you press the button and take a picture after a set period of time has elapsed. Putting the camera on a tripod means you’re going to have a lot more creative control over the shot, and you’ll get much better results because of it. You could even shoot your own wedding.

For more on taking better shots of yourself when you travel, check out my guide to taking better couple shots when you travel, which has lots of tips and advice to help you out.

10. For Astrophotography

The stars are a lot of fun to photograph, but they pose the rather unique challenge of being only visible when it’s quite dark.

And of course, when it’s dark, that whole exposure triangle thing comes out to get us, and we end up having to shoot at both long exposures and, in many cases, at high ISO’s and low apertures as well!

Whichever type of star photography you want to do, be it static shots of the milky way, or epic long exposures of the stars wheeling across the sky, you are going to need a tripod to hold the camera still. The same applies if you want to take photos of the northern lights.

11. For HDR Photography

If you want to dabble in High Dynamic Range Photography, and get shots that look a bit like this:

Then you are going to need a tripod. High Dynamic Range photography allows you to take shots in challenging lighting conditions, where there is an extreme contrast between the dark and light parts of the image – such as a bright sky and a shadowy foreground.

It requires you to take multiple shots at different exposures, and then blend them together using software such as Lightroom, Photoshop or Photomatix Pro. See more photo editing applications here.

Those shots need to be lined up perfectly to get the right results, and since your camera takes a bit of time to take multiple shots, and your hand will move in between them, for best results you’re going to need a tripod.

12. People will Take you More Seriously

Ok, this is a bit of an odd one, but I’ve found it to be true on multiple occasions. When I’m shooting on a tripod, people will make a concerted effort not to get in the way of my shot – far more so than if I’m just shooting normally.

There is clearly the supposition that I must be either terribly serious, or actually working, and that I shouldn’t be interrupted.

Of course, this isn’t always the case, but I have had less shots ruined by errant passers by when shooting on a tripod. Admittedly, not a reason in of itself to purchase a tripod, but a nice to have nonetheless!

13. For Wildlife Photography

When you’re out shooting wildlife, you tend to need a big telephoto lens that lets you capture images of subjects that are further away.

Those big heavy lenses can be very heavy, and holding your camera up to your eye ready to catch a moment can quickly become tiring.

For this reason, a good tripod (or monopod) can make wildlife photography a lot easier. Depending on the photography situation, such as when you are on safari, you might instead find that a photography bean bag is better.

Whichever you choose to go for, the main thing is that you don’t miss a shot because your arms are tired!

How To Choose a Tripod for your Photography

Getting a good tripod is really important for your photography – you don’t want to make the wrong choice and then have to upgrade a few months down the line!

There are three main factors to consider when choosing a tripod: price, weight and stability. There is a saying that you can have two out of those three factors that make you happy, and the third will make you sad.

The first thing to consider is the weight of your gear. Tripods will have guidelines for how much weight they can hold, and you need to be sure that anything you purchase can hold the weight of your gear with lenses.

Something that is perfectly capable of holding a mirrorless camera system and lens might struggle to cope with something more serious like a full frame DSLR and a high-end telephoto zoom lens for example. You need to pick a tripod that is rated to be stable with the gear you are using.

Next up – you need to consider the weight of the tripod. The sturdier the tripod, the more it is going to weigh. You can reduce the weight of the tripod by investing in tripods made from more exotic materials, but that is going to directly impact the third factor, that being:

The price of the tripod. Tripods come in all sorts of prices, from really poor quality tripods costing less than $50, through to expensive tripods costing in excess of $1,000. My advice is to buy the best tripod you can afford for your gear, with a sweet spot being from around $100 – $500 depending on the features, stability and weight savings you are looking for.

There are a number of other factors to consider when purchasing a tripod.

First is the “release” system. This is how you attach the tripod to the camera through the tripod screw.

These days, most camera system use what is called an “Arca-Swiss” compatible design, so you screw a mounting place onto the bottom of your camera, and then you can slide the camera on and off the tripod easily.

I always use Arca-Swiss compatible tripods because it means that I can mount my camera to all of my tripods, as well as ensure compatibility with other accessories such as the Peak Design strap system.

Next is whether or not the tripod has an integrated “head” – the part that you attach the camera to and move it around on, or if you have to purchase the head separately.

Purchasing a separate head gives you flexibility over the type of head you buy, plus you can buy different heads for different functions (panning, video etc), but will usually come at a higher price.

Then there are the various other features you might want. These range from clever central columns that rotate away from the tripod itself, spirit levels to show you if the tripod is level, how compact the tripod is when you fold it up, how tall the tripod is (eye height being ideal if possible!), how many leg extensions it has, how easy it is to put up and put down, and so on.

Personally, I have two main tripods at the moment. I am thrilled to be an ambassador for Vanguard, whose products I recommend wholeheartedly. Currently I use the Alta Pro 2+ 264CT Tripod paired with a BBH-200 ball head, and it’s fabulous.

This is a very sturdy tripod, constructed from carbon fibre for weight saving, and is rated for loads up to 15.4 lbs, weighing a total of 4.95lbs (tripod 3.75lbs, ball head 1.2lbs).

My other tripod is the one I use primarily for travelling, where weight is more of a consideration, and that’s a tripod from the Vanguard VEO range, which are specifically designed as travel tripods.

I’ve been using these since they launched in mid 2015 as the original VEO, as well as the VEO 2 range, launched in 2017. One of my photos is even on the packaging, which is nice.

I’ve used multiple variants of these tripods, including the aluminium VEO 235AB and the carbon fibre VEO 265CB. These both have an integrated ball head, so you don’t need to buy one separately.

The VEO 2 265CB, which replaced the original VEO 265CB range, is my current go-to tripod for travel photography.

Vanguards VEO tripods have travelled with me to Yosemite, San Francisco, the Grand Canyon, Spain, Italy, the UK and many more locations around the world, and I’ve been very impressed by their performance and reliability.

Their carbon fibre construction means they are wonderfully light, and the VEO 2 265CB has a load capacity of (17.6lbs), as well an extended height of 59.1 inches. I also love how compact it is for travelling, folding up to a size of only 15.4inches.

It’s also well priced, and available online for an excellent price for a carbon fibre tripod with a head.

Discounted Price for Vanguard Products for our Readers!

As Vanguard Ambassadors we are able to offer you a unique discount code which will get you 20% off everything in the Vanguard USA, Vanguard UK, Vanguard Spain, and Vanguard Germany online store websites.

Just use code FindingTheUniverse (case sensitive) on checkout.

Other Popular Tripod Options

There are lots of other tripods on the market of course. We have a more comprehensive guide in our guide to the best travel tripods, but here are some to check out.

The Peak Design Travel Tripod. We also use this tripod for travel, and it offers a great balance between portability and stability. It folds up really small and is obviously fully compatible with the Peak Design strap system we use. I have a review of the Peak Design camera strap system as well as the Peak Design travel tripod that you might find helpful.
The 3Legged Thing Leo 2.0 Tripod. This is a well known tripod manufacturer and we think this is one of their better travel focused tripods. It can transform into a monopod and has a high load capacity, but it is a little on the heavier side for a travel tripod.