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Tripods are one of the best ways to add that necessary stability to your pictures. Even while you take long exposure photos having a tripod can allow you to move your camera in a controlled way.
However, a tripod is often not so easy to carry especially when you only want to click your own pictures. In such cases, you might want to skip taking a tripod to keep your accessories bag light. Thus, it’s good to have a few tips in mind to allow yourself to click pictures even without a tripod.
Table of Contents
Here are a few tips that will help you Take Pictures of yourself without a Tripod?
Make your camera steadier
Without a Tripod, one of the best ways to capture your photos is to learn how to make your camera much more stabilized.
One of the quickest ways to reduce handshakes is to use to put your camera on a stable and solid surface. For example, a wall, bark of a tree, stairs, rock, car roof, etc. If you use such surfaces, in about 75-90% of the cases, you will get much more stability and sharper pictures.
You can also use your knees to add stability as you can see in the image below:
But did you ever wonder why do shakes occur?
Well, the simple answer to that is the bigger your aperture of the camera Is, the longer it needs exposure time for a good photo. When you expose the shutter to a long time to click a picture, the more chances of you introducing a handshake resulting in a camera movement while you let enough light capture a good picture. Thus, it is one of the main reasons why, when it gets darker, you often see shakes much more.
Having a Tripod reduces such shakes, which is often difficult to reduce from your hand.
Experiment with ISO
If you are a complete newbie in photography, you probably would have heard the term ISO a couple of times by now. Even if you haven’t heard, it is basically your camera’s sensitivity towards light. The higher the ISO number on your camera, the more the light is amplified by your camera sensor. Thus, if you have a higher ISO, you can take better pictures with lesser exposure.
However, the increased sharpness comes with downsides too when using higher ISO. It leads to pictures having added noise, making them have lesser sharpness and making them look grainy and unclear.
To get the best results, you need to play with your camera settings to know the optimum balance between ISO, exposure, and aperture settings. If you are planning to record yourself, you can use a low-light camcorder.
Once you start exploring you will get to know what works better for you in different scenarios. Sadly, that is the only way out and this only comes with experimenting and learning on the way.
Relax while posing
You don’t need to be too hard on yourself. Celebrate your imperfection while taking out photos too.
I am talking about the times when you are trying out a particular pose and you are not able to get it perfect even after playing a lot with ISO, exposure, aperture, etc.
Try changing out poses. Don’t opt for the perfect sharpness that you initially desired. You can always edit photos later on, to play with your background, skin tone, etc. In fact, with a not-so-great sharpness, you can use it to your advantage by adding blur to your surroundings, changing frame objects, etc.
Using relaxed poses is a great way to avoid unnecessary shakes thereby avoiding the use of tripod.
Previously when cameras did not use to be so great, most of the short film producers used it as an element and actually made a name in the industry. Also having some filters that portray a vintage look for example a black and white filter is a great way to get started to make your pictures look more surreal.
Self-Timer
If you are clicking pictures of all by yourself on your iPhone or any other android for that matter, a self-timer is a great way to give yourself the time to adjust for a particular picture before capturing. This way you can try out certain wavy poses too and experiment until you get something good to post on Instagram.
To get stability to your photos without a tripod, you can always use a stable surface to keep your phone.
Light Source
Understanding and playing with lights, you can add a whole new dimension to your images. One of the most basic hacks is to keep your camera opposite to the light source. This means you will be facing the light source directly. This way, your camera will get a much clearer light source that will add more sharpness to your frame and your picture (even without a tripod) will have a much clearer picture.
Baggy Clothes
Using baggy clothes to take your photographs allow yourself to be flexible as most of your shakes will be covered by the clothes you wear. Although not the best hack you might have heard but its definitely helpful. Desperate Times call for desperate measures.
Use Reflective Surfaces
when you have no one to click your photos and you want to make the best use out of what’s available just right in front of you, you can use shiny and reflective surfaces to capture selfies by creating a reflection of shiny surfaces on your pictures. The prime example that can be used is a CD if you have one at home.
This option is great to be creative with your selfies. By adding reflection, you can allow your pictures to be not so perfect and thus having a few shakes won’t interrupt you to get a perfect photo.
Conclusion
These were some ways and tips to take photos of yourself even without a tripod.
While having a tripod is obviously a great addon, but when you are starting out, you often tend to invest in other equipment and there are times when a tripod is not your utmost priority.
