Is this Really the End of the Tripod?

In today's episode, I showed you how I am using Adobe Lightroom AI Denoise to help me shoot in lighting conditions that I normally would be using a tripod for, but I am now able to shoot free handed. This is a wonderful way to lighten up my backpack. But is it a good idea?

When I am shooting long exposures or in low light conditions, I always set up a tripod. I do this so I can keep a low ISO value. This helps me to create high quality photos. Besides, there is nothing like coming home from a trip overseas to a memory card full of motion blurred photos.

There are many times when I do not want to carry a tripod or when using one is not ideal.

Let's say that I am wondering the canals of Venice. I don't want to have to set up a tripod every time I find an interesting composition. What I want to do is just have my camera hanging on its strap over my shoulder. It is easy to grab, compose, and shoot. No need to worry about opening a backpack and finding a composition where people are not trying to walk through. For me, this is a much more enjoyable way to indulge in my passion.

The problem is light. Without a doubt, in these narrow medieval streets, if you can call them that, I will have limited lighting. To compensate, I either need to use a tripod, or increase my ISO. If I increase the ISO, I increase the amount of noise in the image. Well, with AI denoise, that is not an issue.

I am still trying to find the ISO that I can go to and still have high quality photos. The past weekend, I photographed the retirement ceremony for a Navy buddy. My Iso was jumping around from 640 - 12800. What I noticed is that above ISO 10000, the AI denoise made the photos a bit soft. Good enough for free work, but not for fine art photography. When out and about shooting without my tripod, I will set the upper limit on the ISO to be below 10000.

Your upper values will vary from camera to camera so you will need to test your camera, its settings, and the final product from Ai Denoise so you know when you are safe to shoot freehand, and when it is time for the tripod.

In short, the tripod is going nowhere but, you can start doing more without it.