I do not mean to be impolite or unhelpful, but this exact question has been asked so often, and even very recently that I'm encouraged to answer, "Use the search feature!"
I do not mean to be impolite or unhelpful, but this exact question has been asked so often, and even very recently that I'm encouraged to answer, "Use the search feature!"
Nah. Assuming you're photographing in a place where driving a tent stake into the ground isn't prohibited, a much better solution is to carry a tent stake and a stout piece of cord, and run the cord from the hook on the bottom of the center column through the hole in the tent stake, pulling firmly upward on it to compress the tripod against the ground for each exposure. Then you can relax and leave it loose while you compose your next photo. When it comes time to move on, assuming you've chosen the right sort of tent stake, you can easily pull it out of the ground, brush the dirt off, wrap the cord around it, and toss it back in your pack.
The benefit of this approach is that it's not only cleaner -- no need to be getting your hands dirty playing in the dirt all day -- but usually lighter to carry and, perhaps most importantly, also far more effective at stabilizing the tripod, since a cord pulled taut doesn't swing in the wind as a bag full of dirt does, adding more energy into the system that the tripod will subsequently need to dissipate.
Edited: If you're photographing in a place where using a tent stake is prohibited or impossible, you can simply forego the stake and step on the cord with your foot, pinning it to the ground. You adjust the tension by adjusting the position of your foot along the cord ... works great!
The "hanging" of a bag (of rocks or whatever) below the tripod should be done with the bag solidily touching the ground -- not swinging.
"Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China
Thanks Chris, Vaughn and Audii. I will look into a cord and a long enough bag to transfer vibrations to the ground.
So I have done this for close subjects. The thing with distant subjects is that it becomes hard to observe or track the motion of the spot. So the way I do it now is to put on a longish lens, start up live view and magnify to the max and observe how much the image moves. With the aluminium there is a fair bit of ringing visible for distant subjects and a 200mm focal length. But it will be an interesting exercise to do it with the LF gear at close range and extrapolate the results to long distances. Thanks.
"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig."
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