If you have some experience with a super zoom camera or a camera with a telephoto lens, then you probably know that it can be surprisingly challenging at times to prevent the camera from shaking when you're taking pictures or recording video out in the field. Even the slightest vibrations - including when you place your finger on the shutter button - can ruin your shot.

I've been shooting at very high focal lengths for the last eight years with Nikon super zoom cameras. I'm currently shooting with the Nikon COOLPIX P1100 camera which has a focal length range of 24mm to 3,000mm (35mm equivalent). Like most people, I might occasionally ruin a shot by getting the exposure wrong, but the one thing by far that prevents me from getting good shots at long focal lengths is camera shake. So, I've thought a lot about how to deal with camera shake over the years!

This is the second article in a series where I'm focusing on how to reduce or eliminate camera shake at high focal lengths. In part 1 of the series, I covered what causes camera shake, what type of photography is most susceptible to camera shake, and where in the focal length range you are likely to see camera shake. Understanding camera shake will help you to formulate a shake reduction strategy that's right for your situation, so if you haven't already done so, I recommend that you read part 1 first.

My experience tells me that mounting your camera to a tripod is usually the most effective thing that you can do to reduce or eliminate camera shake. But you'll need a tripod with certain features to get the best results. Over the years, I've learned that there are a lot of things to consider when choosing a tripod, so I'll cover each component of the tripod in a separate article. This article will focus on tripod legs. The next article will cover tripod feet and then we'll move on to the tripod head.

Camera shake reduction isn't limited to tripods, so subsequent articles in my camera shake reduction series will cover other equipment, accessories, and techniques that you can use to mitigate or prevent the effect of camera shake. Then we'll spend some time discussing how to use some widely available technology to deal with camera shake in production and postproduction. And finally, I'll wrap up the series by sharing the specific gear that I use to reduce camera shake.

TRIPOD COMPONENTS

If you only ever do one thing to reduce camera shake, then you should put your camera on a tripod. In most cases, changing from handheld to tripod mounted will have more impact on camera shake than anything else you can do. Mounting a regular camera on almost any kind of tripod should dampen a sufficient amount of camera shake. But for a camera with a telephoto or super telephoto lens, the tripod needs to be especially sturdy. A cheap tripod from the local department store is not going to adequately eliminate camera shake at long focal lengths!

As seen in the diagram below, a tripod consists of three components: (1) the tripod head, (2) the tripod legs, and (3) the tripod feet.

The tripod head is what the camera mounts to. The head usually has one or more swivel points that allow you to pan the camera from side to side and to tilt the camera up and down.

Tripod legs are the "sticks" that support the tripod head. Each of the legs of a tripod usually has multiple sections with lock/release mechanisms that allow the height of the legs to be adjusted. A tripod has three legs, because if it only had two legs it would tip over and that wouldn't be very helpful :)   And it if only had one leg, then it would be called a monopod. By the way, the camera shake reduction ideas in this article for tripod legs also apply to quadpod legs (four legs). Now that I think of it, the camera shake reduction ideas would apply to octopods too :)

Tripod feet are what makes contact with the ground. The right type of feet must be used for the various types of ground surfaces or the tripod might not stay in place.

It's also important to consider how the components of the tripod connect to each other. You'll want solid connections because vibrations will take advantage of the weakest link in your tripod setup. This is especially true when you're shooting with a telephoto lens or a super telephoto lens.

OK, let's jump into the details of tripod legs. Here are some things to keep in mind when researching a solid set of tripod legs that can reduce camera shake.

WEIGHT

It's not fun to carry a heavy tripod around with you, but the reality is that a heavier tripod will eliminate more camera shake than a lighter tripod. Physics tells us that a tripod with more mass will have a greater resistance to movement. So for tripods made of the same material, more mass means more weight. Sometimes the laws of physics can be kind of annoying :)

When people ask me how to determine if a tripod is sturdy enough, I tell them that if you hate carrying it around because it's so heavy then it's a sturdy tripod! :)

How heavy should a tripod should be? Well, that depends on how you'll use it. For example, if you usually park your car close to your photo shoot locations and you just have to carry your gear a short distance, then you can get the heaviest tripod that you can safely carry. But if you tend to walk or hike a while before you reach your photo shoot location, then your tripod should be on the lighter end of the scale. At the end of the day, it's a trade-off between camera shake reduction and the effort it takes to bring the tripod with you.

Or you can cheat like I do and buy one tripod for each of those scenarios! I have a heavy aluminum tripod for photo shoots that are close to where I park my car and I have a lighter carbon fiber tripod for longer hikes. We'll talk more about tripod materials later in this article.

I decided not to recommend a target weight for a tripod because what seems light to one person can seem heavy to another. And the lightest tripods might not be in your budget. When I buy a tripod, I compare the weight of each tripod that I'm interested in and select the tripod with the features I need that weighs the least.

Luckily, there are some ways to enjoy the benefits of a heavy tripod without the hassle of lugging it around with you. My favorite way is to convince someone else to carry my heavy tripod for me! :)   But, read on if that's not an option for you.

Some tripods have a hanger on them (see the picture below) that allows you to hang weights on it. This allows you to make the tripod heavier after you've reached your photo shoot location and setup the tripod.

If you're shooting in an area where it's OK to disturb the surroundings, then you can gather up some rocks or other heavy items and place them into a bag which is hung from the tripod hanger. Or, you can put the gear that you're not using into the bag and hang that from the tripod hanger. Better yet, keep your extra gear in your backpack and hang the backpack from the hanger.

Hanging weights from a bag or a backpack can help in most situations, including most windy days. But in super windy conditions, the extra weight can swing back and forth which in itself can shake the camera. There are a couple of things that you can try in super windy conditions. The first thing is to put weights in a tripod weight net instead of a tripod weight bag. Because the net attaches to all of the tripod's legs, there's no pivot point from which the weight can swing.

The other thing that you can try is to connect a rope to the tripod hanger. The rope should be long enough to reach the ground with some extra length that runs along the ground. While you are using the camera, step on the part of the rope that's on the ground so that it pulls the tripod down. Now the tripod is essentially anchored to the ground until you take your foot off the rope. And a rope doesn't add much weight to the gear that you carry to your photo shoot location.

If you hang weight from a tripod hanger or place weight in a tripod net, be careful that the combined weight of your camera, the lens, any other gear that you mount to the tripod, and the extra weight that you add doesn't exceed the total weight rating of the tripod. That could cause the tripod to become unstable or collapse.

DESIGN OPTIONS

Each leg of the tripod consists of two or more sections that slide in and out of each other so that you can vary the height of the tripod. This is called "telescoping". There are two common tripod leg section designs to consider when you need to reduce camera shake.

Some tripods have a single tube per leg section. The tubes are hollow so that they can retract inside of each other.

For tripods with one tube per leg section, look for tripod legs that have thicker tubes. Tripod legs with thicker tubes are sturdier than tripod legs with the same design and thinner tubes. And thicker tubes have more mass which dampens more vibrations than thinner tubes.

But keep in mind that thicker tubes mean more weight. If weight is a concern, then consider a tripod made of carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is lighter than aluminum, so the increased weight of thicker carbon fiber tubes is less than the increased weight of thicker aluminum tubes.

Thicker carbon fiber tubes are often described by manufacturers as having additional "layers" of carbon fiber. How many layers are enough to reduce camera shake? Well, I actually don't have a specific number of layers in mind. I just look for the tripod with the most layers that also has the other features that I need.

The other design approach for making sturdy tripod legs is for each leg section to have multiple tubes. The tubes for each leg section slide in between the tubes of the leg section above it when you want to reduce the height of the legs.

Multiple tubes per leg section are sturdier than a single tube because two thinner tubes are sturdier than one thicker tube. And spacing between the tubes helps with load distribution which can make the tripod more stable.

There's an easy trick that you can use with tripods that have multiple legs per leg section if you're at a photo shoot location and you're experiencing camera shake. Each leg of most full-size tripods has at least three telescoping sections. But because the legs are telescoping, the bottom section of each leg will only have one tube.

Because it only has one tube, the bottom leg section is less rigid than the other sections and therefore more likely to transmit vibrations and other motion that can cause camera shake. So... don't use the bottom section! Leave it retracted into the section above it and just use the top sections of the legs to support the camera. Sure, you might be hunched over the camera because it's not as high off the ground, but hey, sometimes you need to do what you need to do to get the shot! I've gotten some funny looks from people on a windy day when I'm hunched over a short tripod taking pictures!

MATERIAL

The two primary options for tripod leg materials these days are carbon fiber and aluminum. Which is better at reducing camera shake? I'm not a materials scientist, but my understanding is that carbon fiber naturally absorbs and dissipates vibrational energy, while aluminum tends to be heavier which helps it to resist movement. So, both materials can contribute to a set of tripod legs' ability to reduce camera shake.

But carbon fiber has a higher strength to weight ratio, so carbon fiber tripod legs will be lighter than aluminum tripod legs of the same design and strength. As is often the case with selecting a tripod, the question of which material is better goes back to the question of how you plan to use the tripod. If you're going to be carrying the tripod a lot, then my choice would be carbon fiber.

One other thing to keep in mind is that carbon fiber tubes are manufactured to a specification that can vary from one manufacturer to another. Cheap carbon fiber tripod legs will not perform as well as higher end carbon fiber tripod legs with the same tube diameter. Your best bet is to focus on tripod manufacturers that have a solid reputation for selling tripod legs with high quality carbon fiber.

SPREADERS

A tripod leg spreader connects all three legs to each other. The spreader keeps the legs at an equal angle and distance from the center which prevents them from splaying too far outward or collapsing. This results in increased stability of the tripod, better distribution of the tripod's load, and quicker tripod setup.

But a spreader can also help to reduce camera shake. That's because connecting the legs to each other increases the collective rigidity of the tripod legs which can further reduce unwanted vibrations. In addition, a spreader reduces the tendency of each tripod leg from slipping or shifting on loose terrain because it is held in place by the other two legs.

Want the option to manage the weight of a tripod with a spreader? Look for a tripod with a removeable spreader, so when you need your tripod to be lighter, then you can leave the spreader at home or at your studio. Plus, removing the spreader also allows each of the tripod legs to be positioned at separate angles which can be helpful when on uneven terrain.

CENTER COLUMN

The pyramid shape of the tripod legs is an important part of what makes it sturdy, so the camera (on a tripod head) should be positioned directly on the top of the pyramid. I never put a camera with a telephoto lens on a tripod with a center column that raises up from the tripod's pyramid shape.

As a single thin tube, a center column is inherently more flexible than the rest of the tripod so it will almost always introduce camera shake from the wind or just touching the camera with your hand. This is especially true for a camera with a long lens because its center of gravity can be significantly offset from the center column.

If you only have access to a tripod with a center column, then retract the center column all the way down and secure it tightly. If you really need a center column for use with wide angle lenses (which don't show camera shake as much) then look for a set of tripod legs with a removable center column.

The purpose of a center column is to raise the camera higher than is possible with the tripod legs alone. Rather than using a center column to get the camera to the height that you need, use a set of tripod legs that meet your height requirements. Yes, using tripod legs alone to get the height you need could make the tripod heavier and the legs might not collapse to a smaller size for carrying the tripod, but these are the burdens we bear as photographers with telephoto and super telephoto lenses :)

LOAD CAPACITY

The load capacity for a set of tripod legs is the maximum weight that the tripod can support. Manufacturers list the load capacity in the tripod's specifications.

The load capacity includes the camera, lens, tripod head, any accessories attached to the tripod, and any additional weight that you add to increase the tripod's stability. I'm not sure how manufacturers establish the maximum load capacity for a set of tripod legs, but I'm guessing that the tripod's ability to reduce camera shake decreases the closer you get to the maximum load rating. Based on that assumption, I try to select a tripod that has a maximum load capacity that is greater than the maximum weight that I plan to put on the tripod.

WRAP UP

Thanks for reading my article on how to reduce camera shake with tripod legs. I hope that you found it helpful!

Do you have other ideas about tripod legs to share? Let me know by clicking on the envelope icon in the Article Contributors section below and I'll add the top ideas to the article and credit you!

I did want to mention again that the thoughts in this article are based on my experience with super telephoto focal lengths out in the field and your experience might be different. Always do your own research before using any of the ideas in this article.

Keep an eye out for the next article in my series on reducing camera shake where I will be talking about tripod feet. Can I fill an entire article with my thoughts on how tripod feet can reduce camera shake? I don't know, but we're about to find out!