Ian Plant

Tripod Heads for Landscape Photography

Ian Plant
Duration:   2  mins

Description

Once you have your landscape photography tripod selected, you need to know which tripod head is ideal for the circumstances you’ll be shooting in. In this video, you’ll learn about ideal tripod heads for landscape photography, taking a close look at several types of tripod heads. You’ll learn the pros and cons of each type, including aspects like flexibility, precision, and cost. You’ll also learn when and why to use each tripod head type. You may decide you just need one type of head, or a couple could be best to provide you with more options.

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One Response to “Tripod Heads for Landscape Photography”

  1. KEVIN ELMES

    Very interested in the trigger head for my monopod and the last one in the video for my tripod. Where can I get more information??

All right, let's talk about tripod heads for outdoor photography, in particular, landscape photography. My preferred tripod head is the simple ball head. The ball heads are relatively inexpensive. They're very lightweight. They're very small and portable. And they give you all the stability that you need. Their movements are very fluid and quick. So we have the camera on the tripod, you can very quickly change your position around. You can even flop it over for a vertical shot, quite easily. The downside of the ball head is that the movements aren't very precise. Sometimes it can be difficult to get the camera in exactly that perfect position, especially if you're trying to straighten your horizon. So if you're looking for some more precision with your landscape photography, I would recommend considering a gearhead. Now the geared heads are bigger than the ball heads, and they might be a little bit more expensive, but they offer very precise movements. So you can get the camera in exactly the position you want, when you want it. Another option for outdoor photography, some people use these trigger grip tripod heads, which basically, when you execute the trigger, you can move the tripod head around very fluidly. Now these tend to be very big and bulky and heavy. So I personally, don't favor them for my landscape work. But if you're doing something like outdoor sports or wildlife, it might be an option worth pursuing. I'm not a big fan of these myself, but some people really like them. And my final tripod head that I'm gonna talk about today is a level head and a panning head. So this is a head made by a company called UniqBall, which allows you to first level the tripod. There's a small bubble level over here, and you level the base of the tripod head. And once you've got that level, you can very easily pan the tripod head around in a circle. And this is useful if you're stitching multiple images together to make a panoramic photograph. So it's a very simple solution, very helpful solution, if you're planning on doing a lot of stitching.
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