Panning and tilting

Dan Mold shows you how to set up and use a pan-and-tilt tripod head for more creative photographic applications

- Dan Mold

A tripod is essential when taking landscape photos, allowing you to take your time to fine-tune your composition, as well as enabling long exposures that blur moving elements while simultaneously keeping the static parts pin-sharp. But the head attached to the tripod is often overlooked.

Many budget tripods come with a pan-and-tilt head, so you may be familiar with the basic two-axis control and long panning handle that makes it easy to create a smooth panning motion.

However, these budget models are often made for video and not ideal for photography. You can tell they’re geared to videography if the legs are braced together – on a photographic tripod, you want these to be unbound, with the ability to change the leg angles freely, so you can get lower to the ground if needed for your shot.

THE MISSION

To take fantastic abstract panning blur photos with a pan-and-tilt tripod head

Time needed

One hour

Skill level

Beginner

Kit needed

Canon EOS DSLR or EOS mirrorless

Kit lens

Tripod

A pan-and-tilt tripod head

Professional tripods, starting at around £100, usually have the option to switch the head, from say a three-way to a ball head, pan-and-tilt or even a more specialized head, such as a panoramic or gimbal head.