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My Thoughts on Shooting Tethered
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I don’t often shoot tethered. It’s mostly because it doesn’t do what I need when I’m shooting. As I mostly work with people I need to be quick and mobile which tethered greatly constricts. That said, there are times I do shoot tethered and I wanted to talk about those times in particular.
First and I’m not really sure why, shooting through USB on a Mac is slower than shooting through USB on a PC. It’s quite noticeable but running Windows on a Mac can solve that problem. Second, every camera has a limited buffer and when it’s full the camera isn’t going to take any more photos until it has downloaded them. This allows for a burst shooting but quickly ends there. I’ve personally run into buffering issue more than I care to think about and it can be frustrating as the camera tries to download the files to the computer at an agonizing slow speed.
For product photography, or shooters that prefer a slower pace, tethering can be a great option. It allows the images to be downloaded and processed as they’re shot for instant feedback. This is particularly helpful in products shoots where everything needs to be micro adjustmented. Here’s my thoughts and conclusions for shooting tethered with Canon and a Mac.
Software
The only viable option for shooting tethered I’ve found is Canon’s EOS Capture Utility available free from their website. There’s other options if you’re camera is supported like Capture One but I’ve had the best luck with Canon’s tool.
Hardware
A camera with a USB port. Most new cameras have moved to USB and ditched firewire but a firewire connection will work as well. A long USB cable is important. I always need two feet more than my cable provides. It’s some sort of weird law. Lastly, a computer is needed. Laptops work great here as well. Back up hard drives are important too. It’s always easy to backup as you go rather than having to remember to do it later.
Setup
Start with connecting the camera to the computer. That should be self explanatory. Next start up Canon’s software and select Remote Shooting. A new window should open that displays the camera’s settings. Once everything is connected and running there’s two important settings to consider. First, take a look at where you want to download the images to and set that appropriately. This setting can be found in Preferences, under Destination Folder option. The other option is found also in the Preferences under Remote Shooting. I like backups. So, I always turn on the option to save the images on the cameras memory card as well. This is a personal preference but I always have it on.
Shooting
There’s two ways to shoot while tethered. The usual way which involves pressing the shutter button and then tethered way which involves pressing the camera button in the Remote Capture window. So, depending if you’re at the camera or in front of the computer it’s possible to trigger the camera at both locations. Settings such as shutter speed, aperture and ISO can also be adjust from the computer with Canon’s EOS Utility. I normally have bridge opened to the folder I’m shooting into so I can quickly preview and edit shots. If I’m making the same adjustments to my raw files each time I’ll also set my raw settings to the Camera Raw Defaults to save some time.
Lightroom
While Lightroom doesn’t currently support shooting directly into it’s library it does provide an alternative. Lightroom can watch a folder and automatically import any images that appear into that folder. This only works one at time though which is perfect for tethered shooting. This feature can be found in Lightroom under the File > Auto Import > Auto Import Settings option. Just set the Watched folder to the Destination Folder in the EOS Utility options. One of the disadvantages to this, at least for me, is that it slows things down even more. I convert all of my raw files to DNG for archival purposes. This means that I have to wait for the camera to download the images to the computer and then have Lightroom convert them to DNGs. It can be a hassle at times but if you don’t convert the RAWs to DNGs it shouldn’t be an issue.
Troubleshooting Thoughts
- Camera won’t take any more photos. If everything is properly set up and working but the camera refuses to take more photos check your cameras activity light. There’s a good chance the buffer is full and you’ll have to wait until downloads some more.
- Computer doesn’t recognize the camera. First make sure that you’re using the proper cable. Then try restarting the software and the camera. Sometimes restarting the computer can help as well. Check for loose connections as well. My cable falls out of my camera’s port all of the time, even with gaffer’s tape.
- Images are not showing up. First, are the images being downloaded to the folder you think they are? Check the destination folder. It’s also possible the camera is taking a long time to download and it just hasn’t finished yet. Check the camera activity light to see if it’s still downloading.