To help you along we’ve compiled 9 practical tips you should know when using a tripod to ensure that you get the images you want.

9 secrets to using a tripod like a pro

1 Fit for purpose?
Heavy lenses demand chunky legs and a tightly locking head. Ball heads are fine for lenses up to 300mm, but don’t handle longer optics well.

2 Quick fit
A quick-release plate isn’t essential, but it enables you to attach and detach your camera from the tripod head quickly and easily. Once you’ve used one, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.

3 On solid ground
It’s no use if your tripod legs are bouncing around on spongy vegetation. Push them through any grass until they meet something solid, and drive them firmly into soft ground if required.

PAGE 1: Tripod tips 1-3
PAGE 2: Tripod tips 4-6
PAGE 3: Tripod tips 7-9

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There’s more to using a tripod than attaching the camera and firing away. Whether you’re using a budget model or an all-singing, all-dancing carbon-fibre tripod, there are some simple techniques you should use to get the best possible results.

One of the key ways to make the tripod as stable as possible is to use the strongest, most stable parts first. So use the thickest leg sections when initially setting the height. You should only raise the tripod’s centre column once you have used all of the leg sections.

Next, make sure that the feet aren’t going to slip or move during your exposures. When using a tripod on soft ground you can press the feet into the earth to make sure they are solid, but on rocky or hard ground it’s a little more difficult to prevent them from moving. On these surfaces you’ll find that keeping the legs as vertical as possible will keep the tripod more stable.

Finally, add a weight to keep your tripod firmly rooted to the ground. Attaching your bag to the bottom of the centre column is often the easiest way. On lighter tripods, 
watch out for overloading the legs, and in windy conditions make sure that the bag doesn’t sway and cause additional shake.

4 tips for sharper shots when using a tripod

Tip 1: Size matters
When you’re setting up your tripod and don’t need to extend it to full height, always make sure that you use the thickest sections of the legs first. These are stronger and offer more stability than the thinner, lower sections, which you should only use if you really need the extra height.

Tip 2: Avoid the centre column
When you are adjusting the height of the tripod, make sure that you use all of the leg sections first to avoid using the centre column if possible. Even the thinnest leg sections will be more stable than extending the centre column, as this is usually the tripod’s weakest area.

Tip 3: Find firm footing
Even the sturdiest, strongest tripod is useless if the feet aren’t on stable ground and securely positioned. On grass or soft ground, push the feet down into the surface to give it extra stability, while on rock or hard ground make sure that the feet aren’t going to slip or slide.

Tip 4: Weigh it down
If your tripod still isn’t stable enough to use very long shutter speeds, add some weight to the set-up by hanging your camera bag from the central column. Some models have a handy clip designed for this purpose, but simple bungee straps will have the same effect.

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But there’s no ‘perfect’ histogram. Each landscape scene you shoot is made up of a different blend of tones, and the shape of the histogram will reflect this.

A midtone landscape scene, such 
as a church surrounded by rolling green hills, is likely to show a histogram that’s humped around the middle 
of the scale, whereas trees silhouetted against a bright dawn sky would show a histogram that’s flat through the middle, but which peaks on the left and right (as the scene consists of just dark and light tones).

If the histogram goes beyond the edges of the scale, the picture information is ‘clipped’, and you’ll start to lose detail.

Below we’ve provided several typical landscape scenes that we might shoot here in the UK and how to interpret the reading on your histogram.

Example histograms… and what they mean

The built-in exposure meter has attempted to bring this naturally bright scene closer to the value of midtone grey, so the histogram is bang in the middle

By dialling-in positive Exposure Compensation, the brightness of the scene is restored, and the histogram shifts to the right (bright) end of the scale

Here, the exposure meter has again tried to bring this naturally dark scene closer to the value of midtone grey, so what should be dark is too bright and washed out

By dialling-in negative Exposure Compensation, the scene is restored to its natural darkness, and the histogram shifts closer to the left (dark) end of the scale

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Poor shadow detail can be a real problem when shooting high-contrast photos – especially if your subject is backlit and you’re exposing for the highlights. It’s possible to ‘bracket’ your exposures and combine multiple images taken with different settings in Photoshop to get the exposure spot on, but if your subject might move, even slightly, that’s not an option.

Fortunately, there’s more than one solution to the problem of poor shadow detail. Here are some of the best ways to add a little light into your images’ dark, shadow areas, and reveal hidden detail that will instantly illuminate even the trickiest of shots.

Three ways to add shadow detail to high-contrast photos

Step 1: Use a reflector
Bouncing light from a reflector into areas of shadow will help to reveal detail and reduce contrast in your shots. Simply hold the reflector so that direct light falls onto it, then angle it to bounce light back onto your subject.

Step 2: Add a burst of fill-flash
A pop-up or external flash is great for creating fill-in light when using semi-auto or manual shooting modes. You may need to use flash exposure compensation to reduce the fill light if the subject now appears too light.

Step 3: Rescue in ACR
If you weren’t able to fix the problem at the time of shooting, the shadow areas of your picture can be rescued later. If you use Adobe Camera Raw or similar software, use the Fill Light slider to increase detail in the shadows.

Waterfall pictures are some of the most satisfying subjects you can shoot with your digital camera. However, the fast moving water throws up some challenges for photographers.

Often, exposures end up disappointing – you may have set the wrong shutter speed, for instance, and won’t get the traditional blurred-water effect in your waterfall pictures. Other times the exposure ends up being too dark or light, due to having to cope with the combination of dark rocks and bright, foamy moving water.

One of the great benefits of taking waterfall pictures is that you don’t need a sunny day to photograph them. In fact, an overcast day is a bonus, as it allows you to use longer shutter speeds and reduces the contrast that’s likely to make getting a decently balanced exposure near impossible.

Making sure your waterfall pictures aren’t blown out, however, is probably the most important thing to look out for. If moving water is blown out and lacks texture, the shot is effectively ruined. Fortunately, your digital camera’s histogram should save any heartache.

Waterfall pictures: get set to capture moving water

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 01: Grey days are good days
Sunny weather is a disaster when you’re shooting waterfalls. The bright light means fast shutter speeds, when you really need slow ones for this effect. Even more importantly, a bright day means a high-contrast scene, with white areas that are in direct sunlight, and shadows that are in complete darkness.

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 02: Shoot after heavy rainfall
Overcast, grey conditions are best, but you also need to look at the weather for other reasons. In dry spells, waterfalls can turn into trickles. You need them to be in spate, a day or so after heavy rain, so that there’s plenty of water to shoot. Check locations and weather reports on the internet before you leave home.

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 03: Go slow with the ISO
We need to set a slow, or very slow, shutter speed in order to turn the flowing water into a frothy, milky foam in our shots. The first setting to sort out on your DSLR is the ISO. Turn this to its lowest sensitivity, which will be 100, 200 or L1.0 depending on the digital camera model you’re using.

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 04: Shoot raw files, not JPEGs
Even in dull weather, bright highlights can be a problem with waterfall exposure. To give yourself the most leeway when editing, you need to set the picture quality to raw. Then, so you can set the longest shutter speed available, switch the exposure mode to A (Aperture Priority).

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 05: Three legs all akimbo
A tripod is essential with slow shutter speeds. A model that enables you to splay out the legs independently is best for working on uneven, rocky terrain.

When shooting with a tripod, a cable release or remote control is also useful so you don’t jog the setup at every exposure.

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 06: How slow should you go?
Select the narrowest aperture that the lens allows – f/22 is a great starting point. With this set up, half-press the shutter button and look at the shutter speed the camera displays. A value of 1/4 second is good for fast, flowing water, whereas 20 seconds is good for babbling brooks.

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 07: Take it slower with an ND
If the conditions won’t give you a long enough shutter speed, put an ND filter in front of the lens to block out light.

An ND8 or three-stop neutral density filter cuts 87.5% of the light. An ND64 or six-stop cuts 98%. Alternatively, use a polariser to cut out up to 75%.

Better Waterfall Pictures Step 08: Avoid a whitewash
Shoot a test shot, and review the picture carefully – it’s easy to get an exposure that’s too dark or too light. Check the histogram. If the shot is too bright, with burnt-out water, set the exposure compensation to about -1EV and retest. If it’s too dark, without bright highlights, reshoot with exposure compensation set to +1EV.

Panoramic photos are a great way to showcase sweeping landscapes. By shooting a series of overlapping images and combining them on your computer, you can take in a much wider angle of view. This technique also means you don’t need an expensive wide-angle lens – your 18-55mm standard lens is fine.

This photo stitching technique is much better than taking a wide-angle shot and simply cropping it because it produces a picture with a much higher resolution. Stitching photos together in this way might sound complicated, but it’s not. All you need is a tripod and Photoshop Elements or higher. We’ve used Elements because it has a Photomerge Panorama tool that makes stitching photos really easy.

If you’ve ever tried lining up panoramic photos manually, you’ll know there are all sorts of issues with perspective and distortion. Thankfully, Photomerge resolves these problems for you, producing seamless panoramas automatically. You may need to crop off a few untidy edges, but the process needn’t take more than a few minutes.

There are two stages to creating panoramic images. The first is to take the series of overlapping shots that are going to be stitched together in Elements. This is the most important phase because Photoshop needs the right raw materials to work with. If your starting shots are misaligned or show colour or brightness shifts, the final panorama will look odd. The second stage is to stitch the images together in Elements. This is straightforward, though you’ll need to pay attention to the initial settings.

How to shoot and stitch panoramic photos

01 Get your tripod level
First, you need to get your tripod level. You can check this by loosening the horizontal pan axis and rotating the camera as you look through the viewfinder. You need to make sure the horizon stays level from one side of your planned panorama to the other. Alternatively, if your tripod has a spirit level built into the base, you can use that.

02 Switch to manual
Now switch everything to manual. In everyday photography, it doesn’t matter too much if the camera changes the colour balance or focus settings between shots. Here, it’s critical that the settings are identical for each frame. If they aren’t, you might get unwanted colour and brightness shifts across the panorama when it’s stitched together.

03 Play with settings
Choose a small aperture, then pan the camera across the scene, adjusting the shutter speed while checking the exposure indicator to find a good overall exposure. Pay attention to the sky to avoid burned-out areas. Now pick a Manual White Balance preset, such as Direct Sunlight.

04 Focus manually
Use autofocus to focus on your subject, then slide the switch on the side of the lens to focus manually. Make sure you don’t just turn the focus ring as far as it will go and assume that’s infinity – some lenses will actually focus past infinity.

05 Shoot your frames
Take a shot at the left end of your panorama. Make a mental note of what’s at the right-hand edge of the picture. Now pan to the right. Stop when the detail you’ve committed to memory is about a third of the way from the left-hand side, then take another shot. Repeat for three or four frames.

06 Launch Photomerge
On your computer, launch Elements, open all the shots in your sequence and select File > New > Photomerge Panorama. In the full version of Photoshop, use File > Automate Photomerge. The process is the same from here on, as are the panorama options in the next step.

07 Pick your panorama
Under Source Files, click Add Open Files. On the left, in the Layout area, select Cylindrical. This creates the panorama inside a virtual cylinder, which is best for landscapes. The Auto and Perspective options are more optically correct but create a ‘bow tie’ shape that requires a lot of cropping.

08 Filling the edges
Photoshop Elements does an amazing job of correcting perspective and merging frames, but it will leave irregular blank spaces around the edges. Elements 10, though, can automatically fill in the problem areas using surrounding details. The alternative is to crop your panoramas manually.

When managing depth of field, you need to think in terms of the zone of sharp focus as a distance range, from the near limit (the closest object that will appear sharp) to the far limit (the farthest). With hyperfocal focusing, you place the far limit at infinity, and this automatically maximises the depth of field available.

The hyperfocal distance will depend on the focal length of the lens and the aperture setting. However, once you’ve worked it out, and as long as you don’t change the settings, you’ll know that everything from a fixed distance in front of the camera right up to infinity will come out sharp. The near limit for depth of field works out to be exactly half the hyperfocal distance.

Hyperfocal distances
You’ll need a lens with a distance scale. Or, for instance, if you shoot with Nikon DSLRs and have a D-type lens, you’ll see depth of field markers on either side of the main focusing index. Align one of the left markers with infinity and set the aperture to f/22 or f/11 – that’s your hyperfocal distance sorted!

Handheld calculators
Some lenses and zooms don’t have depth of field markings, so you’ll need some help to calculate hyperfocal distances here. The ExpoAperture2 (£30, $40) covers a range of sensor sizes, focal lengths and apertures.

Phone apps
If you’ve got a smartphone, you’ll find that using an app such as Depth of Field Calculator (£0.69, $0.99) is much easier than juggling dials and lining up numbers. Once you’ve selected the camera, focal length and lens aperture, it tells you the distance to focus on.

In practice
Once you know the hyperfocal distance, you don’t need to worry about focusing. This shot was taken at a focal length of 31mm and an aperture of f/8, so the hyperfocal distance works out at 6.2m. When we focus on that, everything from 3.1m to infinity comes out sharp

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A lot of cool images and fun photo ideas pass through our inboxes, but rarely do they come with such punning potential.

If you think the annual pancake toss is flipping boring, why not avoid all the usual crepe and try a new photography technique that starts in your kitchen and ends looking through your wideangle pancake lens.

Lyle’s Golden Syrup has come up with a new way for photographers to celebrate Pancake Day by creating a new series of edible three-dimensional ‘panscapes’ that turn the humble pancake into an edible art form that you can make easily at home.

Food experts Polly Betton and Andrew Stellitano have built a series of 3D landscapes using the humble pancake as their basis, creating terrains ranging from desert islands and volcanoes to icebergs and forests, which were then photographed by food photographer Dominic Davies, who shot the images for chef Heston Blumenthal’s The Big Fat Duck Cookbook.

The ‘panscapes’ were all created using common household cupboard ingredients such as pancake mix, packets of meringues, cocktails sticks and Lyle’s Golden Syrup, which sponsored the project.

Below, watch Andrew make a forest ‘panscape’:

So get out your aprons and digital cameras and get to work! If you’ve made a panscape yourself, we’d love to see it!

And if you want to see more from Andrew, visit the We Love Baking Facebook page.

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The lone element in a minimalist landscape is hardly a new device. Popularised by the great painter and printmaker Edward Hopper, known for his solitary figures interacting with their environment, this great device has carried over into photography – particularly landscape photography.

For landscape photographers, using a single tree as a point of interest in your photos can be a great way to add drama and scale to your images. But how can you follow this great tradition and take pictures of trees on their own that stand out from all the others?

Below we offer 10 great tips for making your pictures of lone trees more creative.

Tip 1: Seasons
Capture a lone tree in all its seasonal glory. Get to know your surroundings, pick a number of trees and shoot as the seasons change. It’s quite possible to shoot stunning images in city parks or even by the roadside. Good imagery is simply about seasonal awareness and perfect timing.

Tip 2: Clouds
Clouds can make all the difference. Set the camera and wait for the right arrangement or cloud patterns to appear, because this will make or break an image. Try and get an even balance of clouds and sky, and then shoot images as they move across the frame in both landscape and portrait orientation.

Tip 3 Black and white
Monochrome imagery subtracts the colour and helps the eye explore textures and form. Trees work beautifully in black and white, but remember this isn’t just a resting place for drab uneventful images; effective use of this medium requires good light. Desaturate in RAW software to see results before conversion.

Tip 4: Infrared
Slip into a dream with infrared: it’s a brilliant medium for lone trees – see example shot below. Leaves appear snowy white and so does any grass surrounding the tree. Check whether your camera can support a screw-on infrared filter – or simply try playing with a colour image and an infrared software plug-in.

Tip 5: Golden hour
There’s nothing better than a riot of colour as a backdrop for a single tree. Use a colourful sunset and position the sun in the centre of the trunk to reduce its intense light – see below. Meter for the sky and you’ll avoid losing detail in the clouds. Stay until it gets dark, as clouds light up at different times depending on their height.

Tip 6: Moonlight
For an image with a unique twist, try shooting under a full moon. Choose manual mode, set your camera to ISO800 and f/4 and expose for 30 secs. It’s always better to have moonlight falling on the subject from the side – this helps give flattering shadows, just like daylight. Try to frame some constellations in the image too.

Tip 7: Light painting
Another night-time activity to master is light painting –see below left. A white head torch and a full moon are almost the same colour temperature, so try shooting into the moonlight and using a torch to light the subject. Again, ISO800 and f/4 for 30secs is a great place to start. Use the torch to light the subject and check your focusing meticulously, either in the viewfinder or in Live View. There’s nothing worse than the entire shoot being out of focus.

Tip 8: Sun-stars
This seems a very tricky technique, but set the camera on a tripod and hide the sun behind a thick branch. Move the tripod into the sun, so a small percentage is now visible. Choose f/16, meter and take a shot, as this will produce a wonderful starburst effect. Recompose and try f/22; some lenses can produce spectacular results.

Tip 9: Polarisers
Polarisers cut reflection from moisture particles in the air, revealing the true blue of the sky. There’s nothing better for increasing contrast around clouds and reducing the reflection from leaves and surrounding grasses. The effect works best at 90 degrees to the sun, but watch the corners for excessive darkening when using wide-angle lenses in particular.

Tip 10: Silhouettes
Compose an image into direct sunlight and meter on the sky. The excessive light will force the tree into silhouette and leave it looking menacing or perhaps even like an ink blot. Think about the composition in a new way, by framing with an even spread of lights and darks, rather than placing features using the rule of thirds. Let instinct direct you towards a harmonious balance.

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Coastal landscapes are some of the most popular subjects to shoot at any time of the year, thanks to their enormous creative potential. Bad weather means added drama, and the endless push of the tide means plenty of opportunity to hone your skills at long exposures.

Below, top landscape photographer Guy Edwardes shares his ten landscape photography tips for shooting watery scenes.

Tip 1: Check the tides

It’s very important to be aware of tidal conditions from a safety point of view, but they’ll also have an impact on your photos. One of the best times to photograph coastal landscapes is during a receding tide, when sandy beaches will be free from footprints and boulders, and pebbles will still be wet and shiny.

Tip 2: Get yourself a tripod and remote release

A good tripod and head are essential when you’re working at the coast. You’ll need one sturdy enough that it won’t be shifted by incoming waves. Shoot via a remote release when using long exposure times, but don’t let it dangle in the water!

Tip 3: Sea Spray

Spray from seawater will cause corrosion to photographic equipment. Protect your camera with a waterproof cover, such as an Op/Tech Rainsleeve, and wash your tripod in fresh water after each shoot. Regularly check the front element of your lens for spray, and clean it using lens fluid and a microfibre cloth.

Tip 4: Explore harbours

Small harbours and fi shing villages provide endless sources of inspiration. Use a telephoto zoom to compose interesting patterns, such as stacks of lobster pots or the refl ections of colourful fishing boats. High tide tends to provide the best opportunities.

Tip 5: Use a wide-angle lens

An extreme wide-angle lens is ideal for capturing sweeping coastal vistas. Try something in the range of 10-24mm with an APS-C sensor or 16-35mm with a full frame sensor. Set your tripod low and use a narrow aperture for best results.

Tip 6: Look for foreground interest

Include foreground interest to provide your shot with a feeling of depth. A nice arrangement of rocks, coastal wildflowers or patterns in the sand can all be used to good effect. Flowing water can also be used to lead the eye into the scene.

Tip 7: Shoot early and late

Make use of low-angled sunlight to enhance the texture of foreground features. The reflected colour of a spectacular sunrise or sunset will add atmosphere and impact to your images, and as light levels drop the resulting long exposures create additional mood.

Tip 8: Use Live View

Zoom in to 10x magnification in Live View and use manual focus to place your point of focus exactly where it needs to be. Hold down the depth of field preview button to view the image at the actual shooting aperture and scroll around using the multi-controller to check for foreground to background sharpness.

Tip 9: Use a neutral density filter

A strong, 3-stop neutral density filter (ND8 or 0.9) will allow you to set long exposure times all day long. Aim for around ½ sec for capturing the movement of waves, and up to 30 seconds to blur the motion of the sea. Shoot when the waves are receding in order to create subtle lines that draw the viewer’s eye into the shot.

Tip 10: Shoot in stormy conditions

Stormy conditions help to create some of the most dramatic images of the coast. Use a telephoto lens to compose crashing waves battering the shoreline from a safe distance. A lens hood will help to prevent too much sea spray from coating your lens. Remain vigilant, as one large wave can easily ruin your day!

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