Why and How to Shoot Tethered

Have you tried tethered yet?

An important part of photographing products is to have an effective workflow — one that allows you to work quickly as well as accurately. One of the best ways to do this is to shoot tethered.

In this class, Karl explains the basics of tethered shooting, including what tethered shooting is, what is needed to shoot tethered, as well as the numerous advantages of shooting tethered.

You’ll also learn exactly how to shoot tethered as he demonstrates how to use some of the most popular tethering software, including Lightroom, Capture One, and Phocus.

Comments

  1. Aidas

    Hello Karl,
    Capture One really caught my attention, but it’s a bit expensive. May I ask which plan would be enough for a starting out product shoot business?

    1. Hi, I didn’t realise they had gone to the monthly subscription model – i’ve got the purchased one which I see they are still offering for £317 as a one time purchase. I guess you’d have to weigh up if a one time purchase is better for you than a monthly subscription. Looing at the comparison chart even the cheapest subscription will give you all the tools you need.

  3. Hi Carl, please tell me, when you are using studio flashes with X2D camera tethered, and for example f16 ant T1/250 is the right exposure for the scene, how you are viewing the scene on the screen in live video, as the light from the pilots is inadequate and the image is black ? Is there a way to solve this problem. Thanks a lot for your attention Carl.

    George Kitsios (from Greece)

    1. Hi George, no problem here to help but lets look at your situation step by step. First of all tethering with the X2D and using ambient light or flash is no problem at all, I do it all the time. The next thing is that the Live Video feature will not necessarily give you the correct exposure, it’s just a rough guide so you can see your composition it is not designed to be an exposure guide. To check the exposure you simply take a picture and look at the result and assess and then take another picture. You give an example of f16 at 1/250th which the f16 would depend on the power settings of your flash and the 1/250th should be cutting out your ambient exposure so that you are only seeing the results of the flash and not any daylight, modelling lights or room/house lights. In the Live View preview if you are not able to see an image because everything is too dark try the ‘Auto’ exposure button at the bottom right corner of the preview image, there is an ‘A’ button. Let me know if that works.

      1. Karl, thanks a lot for your help, i hadn’t noticed this “A” button in the right bottom corner in Focus. Your insight was valuable again. Thank you.

  4. Hi Karl,

    I’ve got a question about shooting tethered in Lightroom.

    The problem I’m struggling with is:
    When I’m shooting tethered in Ligtroom, I have no back up at my SD card in my camera (My camera skips saving images on my sd card), only on my computer. Of Course, without tethering, my camera saves the images on the SD card. Normally It is plug and play. I use original cables from Tethertools

    I’ll hope you can help me.

    thanks in advanced,

    Eric de Jonge (Netherlands)

    1. Hi, for most tethered software the images are only recorded to the computer which is normal, you just need to make a back up of the images to a separate external drive just as you would for your normal work. Previously my understanding was that in LR tethered it actually only went to the camera memory card and the computer read them from there which is why it was rather slow. I wouldn’t be too concerned about the computer method as a memory card is just as fallible.

    1. Hi, it was made by Tether Tools but they discontinued it because of it not being reliable. Hopefully someone else will create a solution that works in the future. I think Capture One have something for Sony and Nikon cameras.

  6. Hi Karl. I have a technical issue with tethering and I was wondering if you might have an idea how to solve this? I bought a brandnew ThetherPro USB-C cable from „Tether Tools“ to connect my Canon 5D MarkIV to the MacBookPro. I then used the tethering function in Lightroom Classic and it works well. However, after about max 4-5 shots with a lot of time between the single shots, my camera „freezes“ during the transfer => it does not stop saving, red light keeps on and LrC is jus showing a gray placeholder for the taken pic. I can only proceed if I take out the battery. After restarting, the picture will be correctly saved on the SD, but will not be available on the Mac. I have already updated my camera SW and the LRC to the latest version. I am using the latest generation of batteries available for my camera and I use a 256GB SanDisk Extreme Pro (160MB/s) UDMA7. Have you ever heard of such an issue and may I ask you to give me any tips in case you have more ideas how to get this to work?

    1. Hi Moni, I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that problem. My recommendation would be to use a dedicated tethering software such as Capture One.

    1. Hi, sorry we haven’t deliberately avoided Pentax or Mamiya or Sinar etc it’s just that we don’t have a Pentax camera to show.

      1. I understand, I’m sorry about that, I just say generally, not about your course. Everywhere I try to get information there is talking about Canon, Nikkon, Sony, and very rare about Pentax. It looks like this brand is not popular but it is one of the biggest brands making cameras and there are also a lot of users of these cameras.

  8. Hi Karl, I found this video I asked for in a different video. Duh! should have looked for a search engine provided. However, I LOVE that tripod. Can you please tell which model it is? It looks magnetic. Camera goes on so fast.

    Thank You

  9. I have tried everything to connect a tethering software to my Panasonic FZ 10002, Phocus, CapturOne , I failed.
    The official Panasonic software does not support this camera.
    All I have is the little Android app on my phone. This works. But it is basically a remote control with a small live picture, that’s it.

    Does this mean the end for my journey in product photography for now, or can I continue like this?
    At the moment I can not afford a new camera.

    1. Hi Bambule, Phocus certainly won’t work as that is for Hasselblad. Capture ONE should have been your best bet but you will need to check their list of compatible cameras. After that then it would be using Lightroom or the Panasonic software.

  10. When using tethering using my Canon and LR, the camera frequently shows “Busy” and freezes on me.
    Unplugging the lead allows me to continue shooting. How do I overcome this issue?

    1. Hi Colin, it’s difficult to ascertain your individual problem as much of it can be to do with the computer speed and version of LR etc etc. Generally speaking though it may be that you are shooting too quickly for your computer. Try a test shooting slower just one photo every few seconds to begin with and then take note on when it clogs up.

  11. When tethering and adjusting the image in the tethering software does this adjust the raw files captured on the memory card?

    1. Hi Colin, no not on the memory card but it would adjust them on the computer hard drive if you had copied them to the computer. When making adjustments RAW software creates a reference file that links to the RAW file so the settings are saved but the RAW file always remains the same and can be reset back to its default status.

  12. thanks for the tutorial…Find it difficult to to find out infos about using Nikon D800 tethered with latest Hasselblad Phocus software….so far not detected …wonder if it needs a plug in and if it exist ….sny tip? appreciated…Best, Antonio

    1. Hi Antonio, unfortunately Phocus software only offers tethered operation to Hasselblad cameras. However your best choice would be the very similar Capture One software. Another alternative is to use Nikon’s own camera software of Lightroom.

  13. Hi Karl! Nice video, very explicative.
    For example I work in Ecommerce photography for clothing always on models, I shoot 80-100 items per day , so very fast enviroment and the team is at the screen selecting the images on Capture One with different colors depending on the need. like purple means check again, red is maximum priority(online in 24hours), yellow is less priority and so on, so when the export is done the retouching team already knows what to do. I find this system so basic and easy but so practical and time saving.

  14. Hi karl,

    Thank you for this video again…As Im starting , do I need to have both Lightroom and Capture one ?

    Louna

    1. Hi Louna, no I think you will be fine just testing with LR first and then later you can move up to capture one.

  15. Capture One certainly got a lot pricier since I last looked at it!

    I shoot with Micro Four Thirds (both Olympus and Panasonic) and their software is a bit clunky too, although Olympus less so than Panasonic. Unfortunately those cameras aren’t supported to tether with Lightroom, so what I do to get around that is use the Lr Auto Import feature.

    I specify a global landing folder for all shoots I do on my desktop, then I tell Lr to look in that folder and automatically add the images to a new folder for the current shoot.

    1. I love Fuji, but I don’t have one. I don’t generally talk about any particular brand on our classes as they are all just tools to get a job done. It’s how you get the job done that I talk about.

  17. Hi Karl.
    Thank you for this information.
    I tried to tether with my Sony 7Rii camera, but it doesn’t work.
    I tried the Sony software and Lightroom, but for some reason, it’s just not possible to make a connection even I follow the steps.
    I didn’t buy the capture one yet, because I’m afraid it will not work as well.
    Can you give me advice, what I should do?
    Thank you in advance for your answer.

    1. Hi, If the software says that the A7rii is compatible then I can’t understand why it wouldn’t work. Also Sony Image Edge should definitely work, maybe you have faulty cable?

  18. I was glad to see you included Capture One as an option (it is what I am using with my Canon 5D Mk IV). I still use Lightroom for final image cataloging as it seems more intuitive for that function. I still have trouble getting my head around C1 cataloging implementation.

    Since I work alone, I have the camera tethered to my MacBook Pro running Capture One. I also have a 27″ calibrated NEC monitor connected to the laptop to get better feedback on “color” and detail. Recently, I also added a wall-mounted 65″ Samsung QLED TV which when I am in Live View really helps me set lights and composition to check shadows, etc. wirelessly via Apple AirPlay. The 65″ is not color accurate, but really helps when setting up a scene until I can rent an Ashleigh!

    1. Thanks for the info John, I also can’t get my head around the C1 cataloguing I wish there was an option to switch it off. Great idea with the TV and live view!

  19. Hi Karl, Thanks muchly for this lesson.
    Tethering for me fell into the ‘know about tethering’ category rather than the ‘Know tethering’.
    It is now much clearer. I will ‘Know tethering’ when I practice it..
    I was slightly taken aback by your mild denigration of the workable alternative free software and the perfectly logical ‘promotion’ of Capture One without mentioning that though the first two were free, Capture One would cost, at today’s prices, either £180 annual subscription or £300 to own outright.
    Free Clunky v Costly Smooth.
    As ever your tutorials are of the highest standard available on the internet. Keep it up.

    1. Thanks Ted, I’ve just got to grips with C1 – unfortunately as a competitor to Phocus they don’t allow you to shoot Hasselblad RAW files into C1, but I use it for the Sony or Canon now. I went for the outright purchase as it seemed like better value after a couple of years.

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