How to Shoot Tethered

What is tethered Shooting?

Tethered shooting is a digital photography term, simply meaning taking photographs with the camera connected to the computer by a cable, allowing the photographs to be loaded into the computer.

Why Tether?

A lot fo the reason for tethering is to be able to see the photos large as you work being able to spot any problems as you go along.

Pros:

• Monitoring of photos as shoot progresses
• backing up of photos on harddrive in case of memory card failure
• apply post production effects instantly

Cons:

• Cables can be restrictive and get in the way and tangled
• Clients can see everything as it happens and may interupt shooting with too many comments
• uses more battery power on the camera
• can slow shooting down

Equipment Needed

• A Digital Camera
• USB or Firewire cable (check your user manual)  For most cameras use a USB Type A to Mini B
• Computer
• Software for capture (grabbing photos from camera)
• Software for live viewing / editing ( Adobe lightrooms or Bridge for example)

Software for Capture

Canon users are the well catered for in this department. When you buy a Canon EOS in comes bundled with Canon’s EOS Utility software which has the option for Remote Shooting. It is this that you will need to use for tethering.

Nikon users can buy Nikon Capture NX2 to connect their cameras to the computer.

Free tethering software is available for Canon, Fuji and Nikon users using an Apple Mac via a Adobe Lightrooms V2 plugin in the name of StudioTether. Please visit www.mountainstorm.co.uk to see if your camera model is supported.

Windows PC users who want free software for tethering should try DiyPhotoBits Camera Control.

If anyone knows of any more capture software please post the details below in the comments area.

Software for Viewing and Editing

There are many options for viewing the images from the capture software. In this how to we will talk about the software that we here at Studio Time use, which is Adobe Lightrooms V2.

Getting Started

• Connecting the cable

Plug the USB cable in the computer load up EOS Utility, then plug the other end into the camera and switch it on.

• Setting up Canon EOS Utility

Go into EOS Utility menu > Prefrences. Select Destination Folder from the drop down menu, create or select a folder to where your downloaded photos will go.

Then using the drop down menu again select Remote Shooting. Check both check boxes, it is always safer to have the photos saved to the memory card aswell as the hardrive, incase the cable becomes disconnected, lossing any photos that were downloading at the time.

• Setting up Adobe Lightrooms

Launch Lightrooms, then go in the File > Auto Import > Enable Auto Import. Make sure there is an tick placed against this option after selecting it.

Next go in to File > Auto Import > Auto Import Settings. The watched folder should be the same as the folder you created previously to store the downloaded photos. Next select and create a new folder to where the photos will be moved to, this cannot be the same as the watched folder.

The other settings can be forgotten about for the time being, more advanced Lightrooms user may want to change these.  Select OK to apply your changes.

• Taking a photo

Make sure the camera hasnt turned itself off, if it has you may need to quit and restart the EOS Utility. The camera may say BUSY in its display whilst conecting with software.

Take your first photo

• Viewing the photo

In the library view select Previous Import, this way it will show the latest photos as they come in. You should see your photo appear on the screen. Download speed depends on file size, type and computer speed.

Disconnecting the Camera

Turn the camera off making sure the last photo has been sent down the cable and finished downloading. Once the camera is off unplug the cable from both ends.