Actually, the most stable (in terms of resistance to flexure and/or wind-induced vibrations) orientation of your tripod is to have one of the legs not upwind but directly *down*stream of the wind. (This is simple physics.)

Hi Scott, I really enjoy your video's, great technical details given, thanks very much. I'm not a pro photographer, in fact i'm hardly an amateur, occasional at best, but I am an engineer and the 'one leg into the wind' isnt right. The critical thing is the distance from the central axis, i.e. where a central pole would extend to the floor. The greater the distance, the more stable. Please keep the video's coming, and I love your photo's. I'm just going to watch your Red Grouse shoot as I live in the Peak District and walk past them all the time.

Some great tips Scott, thank you very much! And that F2.8 shot of the Barn Swallow in the barn was absolutely stunning and ethereal!

Another great instructive video mate with so much useful info & tips!

Hi Scott. I discovered your videos only recently, despite having browsed youtube photography channels for over 3 years now. The youtube algorithm certainly needs tweaking. Great content and very practical. Thank you :)

Very well explained points here Scott and you have broadened my understanding of using them - thank you! On the downside, I am now going to look at swapping my older Manfrotto for one of the models you show here, so more flexible. in that you can fully remove the column all together. Keep up the good work!

Good video! I’d not really thought about how to setup my tripod before. I also love the gulls in flight phots. They are lovely!

Some great handy tips here in this great video of yours Scott about using a tripod that I never thought about till now, many thanks 😊

Great advice, beautiful images.

Interesting video Scott, love the images of the plover. All the best, Steve.

Thank you for your valuable information.

Enjoyed this . some great tips!

Another great video. I’ve always used a tripod for landscapes and never for wildlife. You’ve made so many good points in this video but using a gimbal w tripod has me rethinking my position on this. Off to view your gimbal video. Many thanks!

Great video Scott and really right tripods considerations. Usually I forget to leveling well my tripod, until it tends to move somewhere 😅

another top video, I like that you don't dumb things down and are not afraid to tell how it is according to your experience, not just follow the rest of the sheep

Thanks - learned a lot!👌

Great video, thanks for sharing

Your photographs of birds are exquisite.

17:45 Oh hey, my wife has some of those! Different sizes and colors too!

Hi Scott. I‘m here in hospital. Just got implanted a new mitral valve. I realdenkend fell in love with your Channel. Great videos and loads of tips!! And absolutely brilliant photos. Hope you go on!! Greetings from Germany! Tom

I have an aluminum Three Legged Thing “Corey” tripod and I absolutely LOVE it.

Thanks Scott for another great video with some beautiful photos and good ideas. I was surprised to see that you recommended having two legs down hill or down wind to give greater stability to the camera. I have always thought it better to do the opposite as that means the one leg has greater reach on the side of the camera that needs the greater support (down hill or down wind). I hope you understand what I mean!! I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on that. I fully agree, a removeable center column is so useful, because like you say, if you need the extra height and don't have the column, there is nothing more that you can do! Many thanks and keep up the good work!

Good video with good tips. I have a 3lt Albert and Although it was great when I was doing more landscapes, now doing wildlife I actually find it frustrating as once extended to standing height, I just don't feel it is as stable as one with less joins. May purchase one with longer legs just for wildlife.

Great tutorial on tripods.

Good video, Scott - as usual a lot of common sense here. I have a tall Calumet tripod with just three carbon fibre sections and centre column - which isn't removable. Didn't think about that one..... I do keep a bungee cord so I can put the bag on the ground and stretch it over the hook. A tripod encourages me to slow down and think about settings etc but also takes the weight of a big lens combo off my shoulder strap if I'm taking a break from shooting hand held and don't want to put the combo on the ground.. I bought a gimbal after watching your earlier video but the tripod does need to be level as the gimbal is less flexible side to side versus a ball head. But most cameras now have a built in artificial horizon.

The youtube algorithm had you in my feed. Enjoy your rather than popular beliefs content, subscribed & rang the bell. One example is using the histogram to do the initial basic adjustments to an image. Give Hudson Henrys channel a view when it comes to tripods & head options. Cant say I agree with everything you say, but we all pick up a thing or two keeping an open mind.

Thanks for this and your other videos Scott, no nonsense, valuable info. If you were to rate (as you did with the centre pole vs no centre pole on a tripod) How would you rate stability and associated sharpness of shots comparing a monopod and gimbal head set up, with shots taken off the tripod? Thank you

Some very good advice, and WOTWS did not mention which rand gear to get as most of the top photographer influencers are sponsored.

16:20 that happened to me! It happened 3 times before I realized the bag was counterproductive.

Very good advice and the tips are excellent! DG New Forest

I don’t enjoy a center column, but if I were to do a bunch of portraits or something I could buy one as an add on

Wind... u should put 2 legs towards the wind and 1 leg on the other end to be more stable, i.e. the wind to push the 2 legs against the single one opposing it, its way more stable than 1 leg towards the wind.

I don't use a tripod myself as it's too much for me to lug around but I still found this a very interesting video to watch and learn from! And I thoroughly enjoyed your images too. I'm definitely not an expert but I feel that your dunnock might be a meadow pipit. I'm probably wrong though!

​ @Walks On The Wild Side I have a 3 legged things Leo 2.0 and i would not recommend it until they find a fix for their dangerous leg collar mount (it could be because the leo 2.0 is quite short when collapsed fully)(seems to be the same design for most their tripods except for their legends range), and it is very easily affected by wind, vibrations, and such (the Winston may not have as much sturdiness issues as the leo, since the leos base legs are quite skinny and the lighter and skinnier the leg the less stable they are but are easier to carry) (i now use a Manfrotto 635 C-fast tripod and a FotoPro Global Elite TL85C tripods, the Manfrotto and FPGE are much more sturdy and resistant to the wind and the Manfrotto is 5x quicker to setup than the Leo and about 3x quicker than the TPGE as there is only 1 lock per leg for entire range of extension vs 4 per leg vs 2 per leg, though both FPGE and Manfrotto do not get as short as the Leo and are heavier, and more expensive, but the sturdiness, quickness, and less painful operation made them great tripods for me however make sure you don't lose the screws on the manfrotto locking assembly as they are near impossible to replace without returning to Manfrotto and what they will do is probably just swap out the leg, which happened to me but i was able to find only one screw that fit online and at one location) but if the Winston is more stable than the Leo and doesn't kill your hands then it would be a decent tripod, also how are your fingers when you setup the tripod as the tripod joints look the same to me as the Leo and it pinches me a lot when folding up the tripod and has caused me several stone bruises as the joints are not very fluid on mine even with adjusting (its either way too tight or gets way too loose and if its tight it squeals lol and if its loose it just wobbles even worse) the only solution i have found to make it a bit more stable and less likely to pinch my hands is to tighten the top joint (the joint where the legs meet the collar/center column) a bit too tight so that its stiff to fold and unfold. Not trying to push any of my tripods or anything just saying what has worked well for me, and what has not so far, but for your tripod buying needs, yours may vary, and what works well for me may not be for you or your budget. The 3LT tripods have different models and are somewhat customizable and probably much easier to repair, and if you want to take pictures where the camera is really close to the ground the 3LT is excellent for that. really enjoy your videos by the way.

Good like it video

2 legs not simply opposing gravity, but also working with the gravity to keep it steady, because your centre of mass is lower as well as there is more weight that needs lifting before it gets anywhere near the tipping point. Also, how many people misattribute the shake to the centre column instead of not pointing one leg towards the wind and 2 against?

Curious as if you utilize the blur options in PS when editing ? Just due to the shot at F9 I would asume more depth of field

I think one leg forward is more stable as it is forther away from the senter of graverty and you have the weight of two legs at the back to hol it down

Have you ever tried FlexShooter? What do you think about?

Thats what he said!!!

I moved to OM M4/3 two years ago and haven't needed a tripod since.

15:49 🤣

The thing which lets your tripod fall is called momentum. The way you describe as right way to position the tripod towards the wind or on the hill needs least amount of momentum to nock it down. This is also why you let your camera drop backwards because you did what you said was right. Very consistent mistake but all totally wrong ...🤔😱

Not trying to nitpick, just trying to open a good discussion/debate. I have to take issue with a couple of things in the video. The first of which is your view of center collumn stability. The physics don't support your arguement. The higher the center collumn the more you sacrifice as you are creating a fulcrum where the collumn meets the tripod spider. I do agree with your idea of using the center collumn to fine tune the hight but only to the tune of about 4 to 6 inches max raise before stability is sacrificed. I use a removable 4 inch center collum on one of my tripod instead of full length as I can go to ground level with it attached. I understand the arguement you are making of newer tripods to older ones but again, I don't see the physics of leverage and fulcrums supporting your point. I also question your scale of 1 to 10 on stability. You are basing your 9.6 rating on nothing but opinion and have not provided any measurable data to support your argument. If you had something measureable to show I'd likely be convinced. The problem is also compounded as you add weight to the collumn. You will lose less stability with a light weight set up than with something heavy such as an exotic tele with a gimbal which is what many wildlife / birders use. As a Canadian, we always aplolgize, sorry to not agree but feel free to convince me otherwise if you have more info to share. I tend to use my tripod when working slower but if I need to be mobile I will generally go to a monopod.

funny video

More wrong advice there than correct. Ball heads are The Worst, after sticky heads. I use video heads, though they must be levelled beneath the head. If you want to shoot panoramas, then a ball head just doesn't cut it, with a small handful of exceptions. Airheds are not amongst the exceptions. Video heads with a levelling base are designed for panning. That gimbal looks pretty inflexible too. You cannot get a standard tripod level enough for landscape photography, when you pan, the plane where panning takes place must be level, and ypur tripods do not achieve this. To get the best use of the triangle your tripod sits on, you must have a leg directly opposing the wind. On the hill, and if I could manage panning if I wanted to do that, might have angled the tripod slightly up the hill, and had one directly down the hill (without ignoring any wind), to give the greatest support possible. A great way to increase stability is to shoot lower, you rarely really need the camera at the maximum height. It also simplifies attaching your camera bag safely if you need.

Why you call it barn swallow catering for the American market, it’s a swallow