■Vanquish camera shake and gain new angles.Here’s an idea that’s so obvious it
isn’t always explored to its fullest extent. A high enough shutter speed can free you
from the tyranny of a tripod, making it easier to capture new angles, or to shoot
quickly while moving around, especially with longer lenses. I tend to use a mono-
pod or tripod for almost everything when I’m not using an image-stabilized lens,
and I end up missing some shots because of a reluctance to adjust my camera sup-
port to get a higher, lower, or different angle. If you have enough light and can use
an f/stop wide enough to permit a high shutter speed, you’ll find a new freedom to
choose your shots (see Figure 7.4). I have a favored 170mm-500mm lens that I use
for sports and wildlife photography, almost invariably with a tripod, as I don’t find
the “reciprocal of the focal length” rule particularly helpful in most cases. I would
not hand-hold this hefty lens at its 500mm setting with a 1/500th second shutter
speed under most circumstances. Nor, if you want to account for the crop factor,
would I use 1/750th second. However, at 1/2,000th second or faster, it’s entirely
possible for a steady hand to use this lens without a tripod or monopod’s extra sup-
port, and I’ve found that my whole approach to shooting animals and other elusive
subjects changes in high-speed mode. Selective focus allows dramatically isolating
my prey wide open at f/6.3, too. Of course, at such a high shutter speed, you may
need to boost your ISO setting—even when shooting outdoors.
Chapter 7 ■Advanced Techniques 185
Figure 7.3
A large amount
of artificial illu-
mination and
an ISO 1600
sensitivity set-
ting allowed
capturing this
shot at
1/2,000th sec-
ond without
use of an elec-
tronic flash.