Steadying Equipment

The idea of handheld shooting, as just discussed, is the freedom to do without a tripod, with its added bulk and weight, and slow setup.

Nevertheless, just as the camera can quickly be steadied against a part of the body, there are various supports, mostly small, that can be brought into use quickly and easily without compromising the freedom to move and shoot. The trade-off between stability on the one hand and lightness and ease of setting up on the other is here skewed heavily toward the latter.

One of the disadvantages of all mounts in this kind of shooting is the time it takes to attach the camera (or lens) and some kind of quick-release plate is important. An L-shaped plate, as shown opposite, allows the camera to be ...

Get The Low Light Photography Field Guide now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.