The variable most photographers overlook is composition. The only variable in a photograph is the subject. Set the correct exposure, then choose the focal length. Make sure the aperture gives the right amount of depth of field. Set the shutter to stop motion or add blur. Oh. One more thing: put your camera on a tripod.

Composition is a variable

Shooting handheld is the epitome of every photographer in movies or television. From Thomas, the fashion photographer in “Blow Up,” to an uncountable number of creators on YouTube, it is common to see them taking pictures while waving the camera all around the subject. Massive variable, that!

In the 1966 movie, Thomas shoots handheld. When he works as a professional, he uses a tripod. The photo above is wrong in so many ways. The lens is too long a focal length to focus that close. The film had much slower ISOs than today’s digital cameras. Shutter speed was limited. The lenses had smaller maximum apertures. And squatting like that to get a sharp image? Please!

“Blow Up” is still one of my all-time favorite movies. I recommend it.

Downsides to hand-holding cameras

“I want to be spontaneous, fluid and move when I shoot,” says practically every photographer living. It’s not surprising, but no human being can handhold a camera in precisely the same point in space ever. Camera movement can throw off the composition, focus and even miss or cut off what the subject is doing. Holding a camera in your hands makes directing a person very difficult.

Lock down everything else so it’s only you and the subject.

How? Use a tripod

Mount your camera on a tripod and the composition is locked down. Your subject moves within the frame. Nothing else moves. This is perfection itself for working a composite in Photoshop. With the background frozen, closed eyes can be replaced with eyes from another shot.

Deliberate composition

A tripod slows down the process of making a photograph. This helps you be more deliberate about the important other variables. Camera shake goes away. Now, the shutter speed is set to stop the subject’s movements. Holding focus on the eyes is easier with wide-open apertures needed to create charming and alluring bokeh.

Step back from the viewfinder or monitor screen. Look at the subject with just your eyes. Check out what the camera sees again. Is it exactly what you want? If not, change the position until the composition looks right. Tripods are easy to move. Even heavy ones.

Give your tripod a shot

It takes practice to get used to using your tripod. When you work with it often, it becomes more natural. Photographs of your envisioned work are the payoff for the extra work needed to use your tripod.

Given the choice, I always opt to use a tripod. I pack one in my suitcase when I travel. Will you give your tripod a shot or two?

In 2016, legendary New York street photographer Bill Cunningham died, aged 87. The fashion industry, and everyone who was lucky enough to be photographed by him, collectively remembered how he captured the best fashion show there ever was: the one on the street.

Cunningham began taking photos in the 1960s, after shutting up shop as a milliner and a brief stint in the army. Rising to prominence in the 80s with his On the Street column for the New York Times, it is clear just how expertly Cunningham sees pavement and pedestrian crossings as a catwalk of their own.

The 2010 documentary Bill Cunningham New York reveals the man behind the camera. Filmed in his 80th year, the documentary follows him around on his bicycle – easy to spot in his signature blue worker’s jacket – as he darts between yellow taxis, nimble and quick, and ready to do anything for the shot.

Cunningham’s no-fuss personality played a huge role in his ability to spot the best leopard print, or the coat with the nicest collar. He was famously not interested in the status of stars, and mentions early clients in his hat shop – Ginger Rogers, Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe – offhandedly. While attuned to the who’s who at society events, he is described as a true egalitarian: for him, it was only about the clothes.

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Of his many high-profile subjects that are interviewed in the documentary – including former magazine editors Iris Apfel (always eccentrically dressed, even now at 102) and Annette De La Renta – it is Anna Wintour who says it best: “We all get dressed for Bill.”

When he was not on the street, he was in a cubicle in the New York Times offices, where we see the painstaking process of composing Cunningham’s pages. Perhaps this week is all about graphic print T-shirts or “shoes and legs”, but Cunningham’s eye demands the layout be perfect and best serve the reader. For them, he is identifying trends (after all, he saw them first) – the denim dresses and leggings of the 80s, the fanny packs and baggy pants of the 90s.

While he often photographed extravagance, Cunningham’s life was simple and private. His flat is crammed with fashion books and filing cabinets full of negatives of every photo he has ever taken. His clothes hangers hang off cabinet handles; his bed is on slats in between shelves. He has never owned a television, and has no kitchen.

By the time the documentary is being filmed, Cunningham is hard of hearing, but his joy lays in what he sees. His energy is infectious: it is more than enough to make you never look down when you’re walking again, in case you miss a fashionable passer-by.

Dispersed throughout are stories from those Cunningham photographed most, like one man who made his pants from the fabric of an old ottoman, and the matching suit jacket out of a sofa. There are also pivotal moments from the fashion world: sitting in the front row of shows at fashion week in Paris – a city that he says “educates the eye” – Cunningham takes photos with rapturous energy even though he is old enough to remember Yves Saint Laurent’s first ready-to-wear show in the 60s, where he was also taking photos. How times changed.

Bill Cunningham New York is about fashion, but it is also about a man’s devotion to his self-taught craft. What would New York have done without Bill Cunningham? He showed the city that on every street corner there can be something to see. In his own words: he who seeks beauty will find it.

• Bill Cunningham New York is streaming on Prime Video and Apple TV+. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here