It seems like more and more these days, people are touting the benefits of the L-bracket for their landscape photography. If you've ever used them, do you think they are all they're cracked up to be?
In this video from Benjamin Jaworskyj, he breaks down the advantages of using an L-bracket for shooting landscape imagery. From an equipment point of view, it is definitely an attractive concept. Simple and straight to the point, the bracket allows you to shift where the camera body attaches to the tripod head (by essentially adding another plate location) instead of shifting the entire weight of your setup via the ball head for portrait orientation shots.
While this simple piece of equipment isn't exactly new, for some reason or another, they seem to be trending back to the limelight with a number of different prominent landscape photographers touting the simple benefits of using the bracket setup. Obviously, your main concern should be whether you can get one specifically made for your camera body or if you go with a universal L-bracket, which may or may not perfectly fit the camera body. Furthermore, if you keep a battery grip on your camera, know that many universal brackets are designed for the base camera body and may not accommodate the grip as well.
Overall, it's a pretty cool and inexpensive piece of gear that you can try out if you find yourself shooting portrait style landscape shots. If you've used one before, for better or worse, leave a comment below with your impressions. Do you find that an L-bracket makes the shooting experience a tad better or does it seem to be just an extra accessory?
I've been using them for about 10 years along with my spyder holster and arca swiss adapter. I didn't know they were unknown. IMO its the best way to carry a camera. I hate straps and dangling anything.
Wow, yet another video of the most annoying youtube ....
Yes. If you have any intention of using a tripod at all, a good L-Bracket will change your life and you'll wonder how the hell you ever lived without one. I say this from experience.
I am one of these people that's life was recently changed. I got just a cheap one off of amazon, the ONLY issue I have with it is having to remove it to take out the battery or memory card. Other than that. It's great.
I don't personally know many other folks that use them, but I've considered an L bracket a necessity, just like having more than one battery, for my primary camera for the past 11 or 12 years.
Wow I didn't know this was some new popular thing. I just bought a D800 and in the recommended products (which I usually never buy) that pops up after you add an item to your cart was an arcatype L bracket. it looked super convenient and like it would prevent my camera from creeping down from the weight so i bought it. can't wait to try it out!
Doesn't require a battery grip to be useful. It's useful in any situation where you might want to be able to compose in both landscape and portrait orientation on a tripod. It's particularly useful in landscapes where you can create panoramic stitches in portrait orientation easily by centering your camera on the head.
It also helps further protect your camera from bumps on the sides that it covers so it adds a bit of physical protection, too.
I've never shot in a studio, I don't use a battery grip, and I frequently use an L bracket. Very handy piece of kit, and so it's on the camera all the time.
I always buy a custom L bracket when I get a new camera and sell it with the camera when the time comes.
Me too. Custom is the way to go.
I don't get it. Is a tripod wobbly without one of these? It's far easier to tilt my head, then remove and reattach the camera to change orientation.
If you've already got your head aligned and level, why would you want to screw that up to switch to portrait mode and then go through the work of leveling it again if you want to switch it back to landscape?
Also, if you're looking to do a portrait orientation panoramic stitch, then it doesn't work with the ball head turned to the side since your camera won't be rotating on a centered point.
And yes, a lot of ballheads are not particularly stable turned to the side—particularly if you have a heavier body and lens.
None of those make sense to me.
I just use the level gauge on the screen. It is far quicker.
As far as pivot points, I'd have to see the difference between two stitched images. I'm having a hard time believing it would make a noticable difference.
Buy a better tripod. ;)
It has nothing to do with quality of tripod (in this case, it's actually the ballhead that matters). It's just a function of how all ballheads are designed. In order to flip to portrait orientation, ballheads flip onto the side and take the camera off-center.
As far as it making a noticeable difference, give it a shot with your tripod. Put it on portrait orientation and stitch together a panoramic landscape and see what happens.
I guess I don't know why being on center is so critical to a photo. I rarely use a tripod unless I'm doing studio work and where the camera is in relation to the tripod doesn't seem to matter. Maybe he should have done a proper job of explaining why he uses it.
Whatever helps get the job done I guess. For me, I see no benefit of these L brackets. I did learn something, even if I still don't understand exactly why. Thanks for trying to help me.
If you're only taking a single photo, it's not really critical so the L-bracket becomes more of a convenience that prevents you from having to constantly go back and forth adjusting your ballhead. If you're stitching a panoramic photo together with multiple portrait orientation photos, however, it's pretty critical in order to get a good stitch that you're pivoting from a central position.
I guess imagine if you wanted to take multiple panoramic shots of the Manhattan skyline and stitch them together for a giant image. Your two options would either be to travel parallel to the skyline being sure to maintain the same exact distance and height. The other option would be to find a location somewhat central and turn around in a semi-circle to take the photos. Being able to center yourself accurately on a tripod using a ballhead that has a pano feature pretty much helps you do the latter more accurately.
Personally, however, I use it far more for the convenience of not constantly having to fiddle with my ballhead. :P Particularly if you do real estate photography where you constantly have to change it up from room to room, but the tripod is also positioned closer to your waist than eye level, that's a lot of bending down and getting up for a single job and it gets real old real quickly. Getting an L-bracket essentially saved my knees and my back a lot of aches.
It’s a bit of an exaggeration to say that it’s “pretty critical” to pivot from a central location to get a good panorama stitch. If you have elements in the near foreground it can be an issue, but if that’s the case you should be using a true panorama head, not a ball head, so you pivot around the optical center of the lens. Pano heads are much more difficult to set up than a typical ball head. For landscape panos of distant subjects, modern stitching software can easily handle the small amount of parallax that comes from a flipped over ball head or even from hand-held shots.
That being said, I use an L-bracket whenever I shoot with a tripod, just because it’s so much easier to switch orientation.
I didn't know many people didn't know L-brackets? I've always had one, they're really useful, especially in preventing the camera rotating on the tripod plate when using a heavier/longer lens with no tripod collar in portrait orientation. Isn't it just a given?
It's a convenience thing.
I don't need it considering I only use 3-way heads.
The L bracket is just pure genius if you ask me, I have only just had them introduced into my life so I purchased one. Absolutely love it and will never look back. Only slight issue is when you use the shutter remote, but a slight bracket adjustment and a little finger fiddling and it all comes right 👍
"All the rage" is a pretty strong word for L plates. I only recently saw a photog with one on his camera- which makes it the first time i've seen one on a camera in 10 years. There are a few times where i would like to use one in the studio, but i dont want the extra bulk of the plate, and my subjects never stand in the same place on the shoot, which makes it moot for me.
Aside from providing some protection from the occasional bump, I would say that it's not really that useful unless you're really doing a good amount of tripod work. People doing photography is genres like landscape, architecture, etc. that are constantly using tripods would benefit much more than someone only using a tripod in a studio.
I love my RRS plate. It gives me a couple functional advantages. I use a strap that attaches to the bottom and left side of the camera (peak design) and normally it would use a small arca plate on the bottom to attach to. However it feels much better to me to have the strap attach further towards the bottom right of the camera and the RRS L bracket makes that possible. Also shooting portraits in the studio are much more comfortable and less wonky when the camera is centered over the ball head. Additionally it has proven to be a nice addition for protection of the body when I recently tripped while scrambling over rocks in Joshua Tree NP and used my camera to break my fall. Couple scratches on the bracket and nothing on the body itself. *Whew* but yeah they aren't really a new thing and I'd hardly call them "all the rage"
Dead useful.
When I am shooting I am constantly switching from horizontal to vertical and switching bodies.
Not using a bracket wastes a huge amount of time not to mention the fact of the enraging twisting of the camera when the head is flopped for a vertical.
That hole in the bottom of the camera is mis-named. It should’ve called threaded accesory socket because as a point of tripod attachment it is enormously compromised.
It remains attached to my camera at all times. If not only for convenience of shooting portrait mode on a tripod, it also prevents wear and tear when the left side of my camera (which I hold in my right hand) occasionally finds itself bumping into things.
After recently switching to video heads, L brackets became a necessity. I now wish I'd known about the vid head / L bracket combo 20 years ago. Two ball heads and a geared head for sale if anyone's interested?
I almost never used any L bracket for a decade or so, as I had other ways to switch between landscape and portrait. For landscape/cityscape I was using large format camera, which had a revolving back. For wildlife the telelens' collar provides the functionality. For macro I used also a collar instead.
Nowadays it is a bit different. I shoot landscape with digital system which doesn't let me rotate the back, and as I use 3D head, it is a necessity to use L bracket.
Hard to believe anyone needs a YT video on L plates
Or.. just tilt the camera to a different orientation and adjust the head? It's a neat tool but hardly a ground breaking innovation.
Time, effort, stability, and for some purposes, it's just not the same.
Tilting the head means that have to re-level, realign and recompose the shot - which you don't have to do when you simply flip the camera's x and y axis via an L-bracket.
Yup. I've used them for about 12 years. For landscape work it's a no-brainer.
Want to know why they're trending? Social Media on mobile devices especially Instagram. More and more people are photographing in portrait mode just for social media.
I've used L-Plates for as long as I've had DSLRs. They speed up tripod use, especially if you have a quick release on your tripod head.
Mine also recently saved me from a very expensive repair bill. I tripped and face-planted on a sidewalk with my camera on a strap. as I hit I heard my brand new D850 bouncing on the concrete. As I laid there bleeding (my hands) , I didn't even want to look at what was left of the camera. The Kirk L-plate (and lens hood) took nearly all of the hit, saving the camera. In the photos, look at both bottom and the top right corner of the L-plate. The scuff in the second photo is the only damage that the body sustained.
Honestly, I want an L-bracket so I can shoot more vertical video.
If you've ever used them... DUH. If you haven't then you're missing out. That's really all that needs to be said.
I know they're a big hit with guys with beards and flannel shirts.
But I have to say, the people actually working in the streets and sidelines, media rooms? Yea, not so much.