Tethered Shoot in Lightroom Part 1

What You’ll Need - you probably already have it.

Camera: We’ll use Nikon and Canon for examples in this article.

USB cable connecting your camera to your computer: You should have received one in the box when you bought your camera. Chances are that it’s still in the box.

Some type of tethered shooting software: Your camera needs to be connected to the computer, and your computer needs some software on it to pull off the photos from the camera. (Lightroom doesn’t do this part.) Nikon users can download Camera Control Pro while Canon users can download EOS Viewer (you can use Capture also)

Computer with Lightroom installed and an unused USB port. The computer should be booted and ready to go.

Below is a explaination of the USB modes you have on your camera and which option you need to select in camera.

In the mass-storage class mode, the camera simply appears to the computer as a simple card reader. You can move files back and forth from the camera as desired, but it can't do anything beyond this. Since the MSC was part of the original USB spec, pretty much every OS that supports USB will be able to natively access the camera in this mode without any drivers.

When the camera is in the PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) mode, it appears to the computer as a camera. As such, asside from basic file transfer tasks it allows you to remotely control the camera (fire the shutter, change exposure, etc.) as well as use various advanced features (custom curves, additional settings, etc.). Generally speaking most PTP drivers will also mount the camera's memory card, so you'll have all the functionality of MSC as well.

With that said, PTP is a newer protocol than MSC so it is not quite as well supported at the OS level. With OSes prior to Windows XP, for instance, you will need to install a driver to access the camera when used in this mode. This isn't generally a huge deal as the cameras usually come with a driver disk, however if you're at a client's office and don't have them on hand the MSC mode can come in handy.

Basically speaking, the MSC mode is simply there for compatibility purposes. If your machine has support for PTP, then that's the protocol that you want to use ;)

That's Part 1 complete.

Job Done.

Tethered Shooting in Lightroom

Firstly, what's this tethered business? It's when you connect your camera to your laptop. This can be done via a physical connection; USB or ethernet... or wirelessly, but that will depend on the camera you use. You can then shoot via the laptop or camera.

You have control using Nikon/Canon or third party software to operate your camera from your laptop. You can change most of the settings you would normally use on your camera without touching the camera, or you can operate your camera normally but...

The big advantage is that you can view your images in Lightroom as they are shot on your camera!

During these posts I'll show the settings you need for a standard DSLR camera and then I'll ramp it up to show you what can be done with the Nikon D3 with live view! This is all very exciting so follow the posts as I unravel a technology that we aren't taking full advantage of.

Just wanted to wet your appetite!

Appetite wet? Job Done.

Lightroom Day Course Feedback

The Lightroom Day Courses were a success and I received alot of positive comments. Here are a few.

"A thoroughly professional and thorough course, well presented and relevant." Bob Boas

"I found this course to be very helpful and Bret went out of his way to assist those of us whose knowledge of Lightroom is elementary. A lot of ground was covered and this should assist greatly in coping much better with image manipulation in the future." Kind regards, Gillian Clover.

"I am ever grateful for your assistance with the Mac.
Being a total beginner I found yesterday very rewarding, it has opened my eyes to what is achievable with LR and what I have to do to make full use of it.
Put me down for the CS3 course please.
Will keep in touch and thanks again for sharing your experience and knowledge.
Regards
Dean"

"Hello Bret!

Cant think of anything negative no matter how hard I try.....................and I can be picky!!!!!!!!.............................Perhaps the coffee! LOL!

1. Money well spent - definitely.
2. Clear and concise.
3. No sign of impatience when you had to help or repeat - that is just so important as it can put a person right off!
4. And taking a side road occassionaly was good, as I picked up some facts I did not know.
5. Good choice of venue - not too big = no straining to see or hear. I hate microphones!
6. Neil's comments also helped a lot. I liked it. Two people working together.
7. The one day (or even w/end if necessary) course, is definitely a winner. Do nt change that.
8. I was nt for one moment bored and I have sat through many a course/lecture.

All in all a great day. I am much more confident and wont be feeling lost when I open Lightroom!!!!!!! I certainly will recommend any of your lectures/courses. You certainly are a very good lecturer!
Yes of course you can put my comments anywhere u want too!

Thanks again to both of you."

We will be running another course very soon. So pop over to my site to express interest in the next course.

Job Done.