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Introduction
In film days using a tripod meant being serious about photography. It was part of being a professional or a committed amateur. It was an essential aspect of doing photography seriously, of creating above-average images.
This was the rationale when the best landscape photography films, such as Velvia or Provia, had an ISO of 50 or 100 at the most. Obtaining the extensive depth of field required in landscape photography requires using a small aperture which when combined with a low ISO calls for a slow shutter speed. Add to that using large, heavy and cumbersome cameras -- medium format, 4x5 or 8x10 -- and you had a situation in which not having a tripod means not being able to ta...

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Alain Briot creates fine art photographs, teaches workshops and offers DVD tutorials on composition, raw conversion, optimization, printing and marketing. Alain is the author of Mastering Landscape Photography, Mastering Photographic Composition and Marketing Fine Art Photography. All 3 books are available from Alain’s website as well as from most bookstores. You can find more information about Alain's work, writings and tutorials as well as subscribe to Alain’s Free Monthly Newsletter on his <a href="http://www.beautiful-landscape.com/">website</a>. You will receive over 40 essays in PDF format, including chapters from Alain’s books, when you subscribe.
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