If you’re new to landscape photography, you’ve probably heard that a tripod is essential. It’s one of those pieces of advice that gets repeated so often that it can start to feel less like advice and more like a rule. To be fair, tripods are incredibly useful. There are some situations where it can be helpful. But I don’t think you always need a tripod for landscape photography. In fact, I think relying on one for every shot can sometimes work against you. It can slow you down, restrict how you explore a composition, and make you less responsive when the conditions suddenly change.
The Pro’s of Tripods
Sharpness
This is probably the number one argument I hear in favour of using a tripod. A tripod gives your camera a stable platform, which can help you get the sharpest possible image. If you’re shooting at slower shutter speeds, using a longer lens, or working with a high-resolution camera, that stability can absolutely be valuable. But how much does that extra sharpness actually matter? I’m not talking about a totally unsharp handheld image vs a perfectly sharp tripod image. I’m talking about a difference in sharpness you can only see slightly on a 100% view.
For many landscape photographers, our images are primarily viewed online. Instagram, websites, social media and other platforms compress images and display them at relatively small sizes. In those situations, the difference between a carefully stabilized tripod shot and a sharp handheld shot is difficult to see.
That doesn’t mean sharpness isn’t important. If you’re making large prints, working with extremely high-resolution files, shooting medium format, or simply want to extract every last bit of detail from your images, a tripod can be a great tool.
A tripod can be useful for tele-zoom photos to create stability.
But maximum technical sharpness isn't always the most important thing when you're standing in front of an incredible landscape.
Focus Stacking
Focus stacking is another area where a tripod can make life much easier. When you take several images at different focus points and combine them in post-processing, having the camera completely stationary means that all of your frames line up perfectly. This can save a lot of time when you’re processing the images later. Landscape photographers use focus stacking frequently, particularly when we want everything from the foreground to the distant background to be sharp.
Long Exposures
Long exposures are another obvious reason to use a tripod. If you’re photographing a waterfall, stream or waves and want to use a slow shutter speed to create movement in the water, keeping the camera still is essential. A tripod allows you to use those slow shutter speeds without introducing camera shake into the rest of the image.
Night Photography
Night photography is probably the situation where I would most strongly recommend having a tripod. If you’re photographing the Milky Way, stars, an aurora or another night-time landscape, you’ll often need a longer exposure. Even if your camera performs incredibly well at high ISO, there are limits to how slow you can make your shutter speed while still getting a sharp handheld image. A tripod gives you the stability you need.
So yes, there are definitely situations where a tripod is an incredibly useful piece of landscape photography equipment. But there’s another side to the argument.
The Cons of Tripods
A Tripod Takes Time to Set Up
This is probably my biggest issue with using a tripod for landscape photography. Landscape photography is all about the changing conditions.
Mist can appear out of nowhere. A beam of light can hit the side of a mountain for only a few seconds. The clouds can suddenly glow with colour at sunset. A break in the clouds can completely transform a scene. An animal might wander into exactly the right place and suddenly become the perfect subject. These moments don’t wait for you to finish setting up your tripod.
The longer you spend adjusting tripod legs, attaching your camera, checking the height and fine-tuning your composition, the more likely you are to miss something happening in front of you.
I’ve seen photographers arrive at an incredible sunset and immediately start setting up their tripod. By the time everything is ready, the light has changed and they’ve missed “the shot”. Sometimes the most important thing is simply being ready to shoot.
The Tripod Becomes an Anchor.
A tripod can restrict your composition. I often see photographers establish a rough composition, put their tripod there and then start fine-tuning everything around that position. Once the tripod is set up, moving it can feel like a chore. Maybe the camera needs to be slightly lower. Maybe moving two metres to the left would make the foreground much stronger. Maybe changing the focal length would give you a better relationship between the foreground and the mountain.
But instead of experimenting, it’s easy to think, “That’s close enough.” Without a tripod, you can move much more freely. You can crouch down. Walk forward. Step backwards. Move left or right. Change your height. Try a completely different foreground. You’re not committed to the first composition you found. And that freedom can lead to better photographs which leads me to my third point.
A Tripod Can Restrict Exploration
This is perhaps the biggest reason I like going without a tripod. Landscape photography, for me, is about exploration. It’s about walking around a landscape and seeing what’s there. Searching for the unexpected. Getting closer to the foreground. Climbing higher. Moving lower. Trying a composition that you hadn't considered when you first arrived.
When you have a tripod with you, there can be a tendency to find a promising location, set everything up and stay there. After all, you’ve spent time getting the tripod into the perfect position. You’ve adjusted the height. You’ve levelled it. You’ve composed the image. Now you don’t want to move.
But What About...?
At this point, you might be thinking: Okay, but what about long exposures? What about night photography? What about focus stacking? These are all legitimate questions. And the answer is that there are ways to deal with each of these situations without automatically reaching for a tripod.
What About Long Exposures?
There are alternative ways of stabilising your camera, depending on the environment and the type of photograph you’re trying to create. You may be able to use the surrounding landscape or your own body to create a stable shooting position.
What About Night Photography?
Night photography is definitely more challenging without a tripod, but even here, you have options. You can rest your camera on a bench, rock, fence post, car roof or another stable surface. You can then use whatever is around you to adjust the height and angle of the camera. For example if you put the camera on the roof of the car for a night shot, you can adjust the tilt by putting your wallet, bits of cards or a flat stone underneath the lens to lift it higher. Sounds more complicated than it is. This works particularly well with cameras that have touchscreen autofocus and shutter capabilities.
If you can focus and take the photograph without physically pressing the shutter button, you can reduce the chance of moving the camera when you take the shot. Obviously, a tripod is still the easier and more reliable option for many night photography situations. But the point is that you don't have to let the absence of one stop you from making the photograph.
What About Focus Stacking?
This is another area where I think photographers can become overly dependent on the idea that everything needs to be perfectly aligned in-camera. A tripod certainly makes focus stacking easier. But you can learn to focus stack without relying on automatic focus-stacking modes or perfectly aligned images. I often use a combination of two methods that Max taught me: the copy-and-paste method and the clone stamp method. Both can be used to create focus-stacked images without requiring every frame to be perfectly aligned when you shoot. We describe these techniques in more detail in [this article]. And if you want to go really in-depth, check out Max's online tutorials or sign up for one of our workshops, where you'll get access to all of his tutorials.
The Answer
So let me ask you a critical question: What is more important in landscape photography: the sharpness of the image or the composition? For me, the answer is obvious. Composition. A technically perfect photograph with a poor composition is still a poor photograph. You can have the sharpest image in the world, incredible dynamic range and every pixel perfectly resolved, but if the composition doesn't work, none of that technical perfection is going to save the photograph. On the other hand, a beautifully composed photograph can be incredibly powerful even if it isn't technically perfect. This is particularly relevant when you're deciding whether to use a tripod.
If carrying a tripod means you're less willing to move, less willing to experiment or more likely to settle for the first composition you find, then perhaps the technical benefits aren't worth the creative cost.
Alternatives to Traditional Tripods
As mentioned earlier, there are situations where you do need some additional stability. So here are a few ways you can stabilise your camera without using a tripod.
1. Use the Surrounding Environment
This is something I see Max doing a lot, particularly for night photography or telephoto images where he's shooting at very long focal lengths. Look around you. Is there a fence post? A large, flat rock? A bench? A wall? The roof of your car? All of these can potentially give you a stable surface to rest your camera on. You don't necessarily need a dedicated piece of equipment. The landscape you're photographing can sometimes provide everything you need. This works particularly well if your camera has touchscreen autofocus and shutter capabilities, such as the Nikon Z8. You can position the camera, touch the screen to focus on the area you want and take the photograph without physically pressing the shutter button. This helps reduce the chance of introducing camera movement.
2. Use Your Body
This is probably the technique I see Max use most often. Learning to use your own body as a form of stabilisation is an incredibly useful skill, and it's something I think every landscape photographer should learn. There are lots of ways to do this. Rest your elbows on your thighs. Rest the camera on your knee. Use your foot or thigh to support the camera. Brace your arms against your body. Find a stable position and use your own body to create as much support as possible. It might not give you the same stability as a tripod, but it can be surprisingly effective. Most importantly, it doesn't stop you from moving.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, I don't think you need a tripod as a landscape photographer. I would encourage you to focus first on composition and developing your eye for scouting a scene. Learn to see the relationships between the foreground, middle ground and background. Learn to recognise interesting light. Learn to move around a landscape and find the strongest possible composition. Those skills are far more important than having the most technically perfect file.
Max Rive is most driven by seeking new perspectives in the natural world and capturing them in his own distinguished style. Max's powerful portrayals of his interactions with the mountains has earned him international recognition in the outdoor community.
Madison McCardle is a passionate landscape photographer driven by curiosity and a desire to capture the true essence of each place she explores. Through her lens, she seeks new perspectives that reveal the beauty and authenticity of the world.
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