Did you know that you can connect your digital SLR to your computer to control your camera? Better yet, you can do complete photo shoots, like they do it on American Idol or other fashion shoots, where the model is photographed and the shot previewed on a massive screen!
Reposted from: http://www.scottkelby.com
What is Tethered Shooting?
Tethered shooting involves capturing an image with your digital camera attached to your computer. That’s correct; you can shoot images with your camera connected to your computer, using the monitor or screen on your computer to compose the shot. Most of the modern digital SLRs support this feature.
Step One: To connect your camera to your laptop (or desktop machine), you need to use that little USB connector cable that came with your camera (the same cable that some people use to connect their camera to their computer to download photos as slowly as humanly possible). So, connect one end to your DSLR’s USB input, and then the other end into your laptop’s USB port.
Step Two: You will need a piece of software that goes between your camera, and Lightroom. If you’re a Canon shooter, you already have that software—it’s called “Canon EOS Viewer” and it comes free with your Canon digital camera. If you’re a Nikon shooter, you need Camera Control Pro 2, which sells for $160 at B&H, but you can download a fully working trial-version for 30-days from Nikons’ site (here’s the link).
Step Three: Make a folder somewhere on your computer (I put mine on my desktop), and name it “Watched.” Note: Since I’m shooting Nikon, I’m going to show how to set up Camera Control Pro 2 for Nikon shooters.
Step Four: Make sure your camera and laptop are connected, your camera is turned on, then launch Camera Control Pro 2. When the software launches, go under the Tools menu and choose Download options. When the dialog appears (shown above), click the Choose button (as shown here), and then find the “Watched Folder” you created in Step Three and choose it. That’s all you do in Camera Control Pro 2. On to Lightroom.
Step Five: Now you’re going to go to Lightroom, and set it up Go under Lightroom’s File menu, under Auto Import, and first choose “Enable Auto Import” (to turn it on) and then choose Auto Import Settings. When the dialog appears (shown above), at the top where it says “Watched Folder” click on the Choose button, find your watched folder, and choose it (now, any photo that goes into that Watched folder will get automatically imported into Lightroom, and that’s exactly where Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 is putting them). The rest of the dialog is pretty much like Lightroom’s normal import dialog, where you choose where the files are saved, what they’re named, and you add keywords.
That’s it—when you shoot now, the images go seamlessly through Nikon Camera Control Pro 2, and right into that folder in Lightroom. I select that folder in Lightroom, switch to the Grid view, double-click on the first photo so it zooms up to Loupe view size, and I start-a-shooin’. Hope that helps.
Filed under: How do you do that?, Photography, Technology Tagged: | Shooting Tethered, Shooting Tethered From Your Camera, Shooting Tethered From Your Camera Into Lightroom, Tethered
