One way to go is with what is called a lateral arm. It is a horizontal arm that mounts on top of a tripod, and allows your camera to be extended out over a subject. You normally would put your current ball head on the end of the arm. You may at times need to add a counterweight to make things work out. Here is an example:
There are also tripods that have a column built in that is designed to tilt over to the horizontal postion. These are made mostly for macro use, and will work for shooting straight down. Again stabilty may be an issue, and some form of counter weight may be needed. The Gitzo Explorer series of tripods is one example of this kind of tripod, but they have discontinued their aluminum version, and the carbon fiber version is very expensive. You may be able to find a used Gitzo aluminum Explorer at a more reasonable cost.
Another way to go is if you have a tripod with a center column that can be reversed or that you can mount a head on the bottom of the column. That can allow you to put the whole tripod over your subject and shoot down on it. This kind of setup can sometimes be awkward to use, but if you have the right tripod, you may be all set with no cost.
May 22, 2012 at 08:32 AM
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