How Tethered Photography Simplifies Your Workflow

Posted by: on Jan 13, 2014

How Tethered Photography Simplifies Your Workflow

When you reach the next level in photography, life can get a bit complicated. Adding new cameras, lighting, lenses, models – these are all things that will change how you work in the studio or on location. But, what if you could add one thing to your photography setup that could actually simplify your life? That’s what a tethered workflow can do.

Tethered photography is not just a service you can provide to a client – it’s also something you can do for yourself. You can immediately see changes in your work, pay attention to the smaller details on a larger screen, and so much more. So let’s quickly review how a tethered photography workflow can help you improve your photography and your client experience.

Bigger Images

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Photo courtesy of ©Moshe Zusman

If your client is on set with you during a photoshoot, working with them to proof images on a 3″ screen can be extremely difficult.

With tethered photography, you can set up your computer to show images on a larger screen as they are being photographed. Both you and your client can proof, tag and select images as the shoot moves forward. This will simplify your life and provide your client with a more professional experience, which in turn offers a great deal of value to what you offer as a working photographer.

Transfer & Backup

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Finishing a photoshoot and then realizing your card has failed, leaving you with no images, is quite possibly the worst fear of any photographer. To minimize stress during a photoshoot, you can use a tethered setup to automatically backup your shots. In this scenario, you will be capturing to your card and simultaneously dumping files through a USB/FireWire cable to your computer. You’ll also have the ability to backup those images to an external hard drive. This transfer and backup process provides the following benefits:

  • No need to transfer files from your card to computer later.
  • The backup of images is immediate and automatic.
  • Clients who provided the external hard drive can leave with images right after the shoot.

Edit As You Go

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Photo courtesy of ©Eric Eggly

Simplifying your life can mean saving time along the way. During a tethered photoshoot, your images are being viewed in some type of tethering software (Capture One, Lightroom, etc). By adding presets/filters within these programs, you are able to immediately see layout concepts before post processing has even taken place. This is great for commercial, advertising, portrait, beauty and fashion photographers (just to name a few).

Having a tethered setup means you can make digital adjustments as well as changes to product placement and models’ positioning as the shoot takes place. These simple ‘staged’ edits will simplify your post-production process so you can focus on capturing your best shot.