Focusing on Camera Stability: Tripod? Beanbag?

Using a tripod helps to achieve sharp, clean focus in photographs, but when that is impractical, a handy, beanbag camera support may be a better answer. Buy one or make your own, filling it with any of various types of filler.

Producing excellent photographic images, whether for personal or professional use, involves good composition, correct lighting exposure and sharp, perfect focus. Unfortunately, even if you have the greatest photo elements, perfectly composed with superb lighting, if the image is blurry or out of focus, everything else really does not matter.

Shaky, hand-held shots can ruin your images. If you read articles on how to take great photos, you will inevitably see the suggestion to use a tripod (or bipod or monopod) to hold and stabilize your camera and avoid camera shake, the nemesis of photography.

But what do you do in a situation where a tripod is impractical? If you are shooting exteriors on a windy day, even if you sand-bag or stake the tripod legs, you still risk having the whole thing blow over with possible disastrous damage to your camera and tripod. If the terrain is uneven, leveling the tripod legs can be a nightmare. And again, the tripod can overbalance and topple over.

Perhaps you have the perfect shot in your viewfinder, but you are on the edge of a precipice or cramped alongside or behind a wall or other solid object where there just is not enough room to set up a tripod. Or maybe you are shooting pets, toddlers, plants or insects and your best angle is low or ground level. (A side note: a remote control device for your camera is very handy when photographing a pet. It allows you to stand off to the side and distract the pet instead of having it stare at the camera lens. You will have less red eye problems!)

The solution to the precarious, cramped or low-to-ground level shooting angle problem? Pull a beanbag camera support out of your camera bag and you will have a steady shooting surface that will fit in, on, under or around just about anyplace.

Perch it on a rock, a wall, a fence, a chair, stool or table; rest it on your car hood, roof or window, a tree limb, outside on the ground or inside on the floor. It is practically limitless where you can utilize this handy gadget.

Taking this concept a step further, what are your options when choosing the type of beanbag support to use? If you spend some time researching on the Internet, try Googling topics such as camera beanbag support, camera support systems or camera support bags. You may be surprised at how many different choices of products as well as shapes and sizes are available to suit your particular needs. For example, you can find round, square, rectangular, saddle and sling types.

If you decide to buy one, you will probably have a choice of buying it filled or not. Filling the bag yourself is easy to do and can save you a bundle of money on shipping. As some of the products offered can get pretty pricey, you might even consider making your own beanbag support.

What can be used to fill the beanbag support bag? Well. The obvious-beans- would be okay as well as rice or dried peas. Keep in mind that if the beanbag gets wet out on location, a choice of organic filler can rot or get moldy, ruining thebag and/or liner as well as your day! Other suggestions are: sand, shot (as used in shot bags for hunters), plastic pellets (although they may be too light-weight to give maximum stability), small glass beads, stones or gravel from your local Home Depot.

I have even seen candy suggested for filler! Fill the bag with M&Ms and you have post-shoot munchies or something to stave off wilderness hunger pangs if you get lost.

What I use and recommend is aquarium gravel, which, although inedible, is clean and small enough to make the bag malleable so you can adjust and cushion the camera properly. It is also heavy enough to make the beanbag stay put in wind and sturdy enough to be impervious to wet conditions. If the bag, liners and contents do get wet, they are easy to dry out without consequences.

I personally use a support bag that has double, folding, aquarium gravel-filled cushions. It features a quarter inch threaded bolt that attaches to the bottom of the camera so that there is no chance of the camera sliding off the support bag. There are handles to carry the bag with the camera attached so that it is ready to shoot. The support bag is also extra cushioning protection around the camera when the whole thing is stored inside a larger, regular camera bag.

If you are interested in making your own beanbag support bag, there are instructions, as well as sources for the materials needed, on my website that is listed below.