New LR3 Beta 2 Feature: Tethered Shooting

 Posted by Brian Reyman  Add comments
Mar 242010
 

A few weeks ago I posted my top list of items I’d like to see in Lightroom 4.

The recent release of Lightroom 3′s second public beta made one of those  items – tethering – a reality! Read on for more on this exciting new feature.

About Tethering

Tethered shooting allows you to connect a USB cable from your camera to your laptop and, while shooting, have the images show up instantly on the computer. More advanced tethered programs add features like seeing the camera settings (f stop, shutter speed, etc.) in the software, see a live view on the screen of what the camera is seeing and the ability to trigger the camera from the software.


How it Works in Lightroom

In the past, Lightroom was able to tether. Sort of. You needed additional software to import the photos from the camera. Lightroom had a feature called Watched Folders that would then automatically display the images imported in. The feature worked, but was a bit difficult to setup – especially for beginners – and it required installing the additional software to import the pictures.

Lightroom 3, Beta 2 now integrates the entire process right into a nice, easy to use interface.

Open Lightroom, connect your supported camera and click File, Tethered Capture, Start Tethered Capture.

You’ll then have an opportunity to set up how the photos are imported, including folder names, if you want a develop preset applied to each imported photo, etc. Set each item as needed, click OK.

The primary dialog is then replaced by a tethered shooting bar. The bar displays the connected camera, along with the camera’s current settings. As you take a picture with the camera, the photo will automatically transfer to the folder you specified and display in Lightroom. You can also click the button on the right-side of the bar to take the picture.

That’s it. One of the things I like most about this new feature is its simplicity. Plug in the camera, click a few buttons and start shooting!

What it Doesn’t Do

Unfortunately for some, tethering isn’t all roses. Depending on what camera and specific features you use, tethering may not work for you quite yet.

Camera Support

As of this writing, only newer Canon and Nikon cameras are supported. See the following release notes for the full list. Hopefully, like RAW support, tethered camera support will grow in future releases.

Advanced Features

While the existing set of features do the trick for me, some more advanced features are missing. For example, it doesn’t currently display a live view of what the camera sees and doesn’t let you change the camera’s settings from within Lightroom.

Conclusion

This isn’t just one of my favorite new features in the second beta, but one of my favorite features overall in Lightroom 3. If you do any type of studio work, integrated tethering is a great productivity help.

As long as you are using a supported camera, this new, easy to use feature works great!

No related posts.

 beta, Lightroom 3  Tagged with: ,
Line Break

About the Author:
Contact Brian


Brian lives and breathes Adobe products and loves using pretty much all of them. He is an Adobe Certified Expert in Lightroom. Brian is also Manager for the Denver Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop User Group.

When not shooting and using Lightroom (or other Adobe products), Brian is an IT professional living in Denver, Colorado.

  • Pingback: Tweets that mention New LR3 Beta 2 Feature: Tethered Shooting | Lightroom Secrets -- Topsy.com

  • http://eat5hams.com/ Eric

    It would be great if you could have lightroom do an image sequence (ie act as an intervalometer), allowing you to use Lightroom to control your camera when taking time-lapse videos. It should be a matter of some relatively simple code, as there is already a way for the software to trigger the camera…

  • http://www.brianreyman.com/ Brian

    That would be a great added feature – maybe LR 4!

  • Pingback: Where’d All the Noise Go? | Lightroom Secrets

  • Bill

    A little, LOL, work needs to be done to speed up the adjustment brush's rendering in Lightroom 3 beta 2. I've been doing some work of an old shot I have of the Tracy Arm glacier in Alaska and have been super frustrated by the amount of time the spinning wheel on my Mac occupies the screen for even simple adjustments. FYI I have an entire firewire 800 HDD dedicated to various Abobe caches and 8 GBs of RAM on a 3.06 Intel processor so I doubt the problem is with resources for the software. Just some friendly feedback and didn't know where else to post such issues, thanks

  • http://lightroomsecrets.com Gene McCullagh

    Hi Bill!

    Yes there is work to be done and the LR team is always looking for feedback from the beta. I suggest you let them know (and they do read the comments) either at the LR3 Beta forums http://forums.adobe.com/community/labs/lightroom3 or using the feedback/wishlist form at http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?n…. Those are the two best places to get the message to them.

  • cmonberg

    It sure would be great if Lightroom would copy all the features C1 Pro 5 has…….They could take the whole market. I think it's great that you can teather to lightroom but its not ready for a real world fast working pro invironment…..

    slow studio shoot where your not switching a lot of capture folders and doing a lot of renaming…..”Yes”…… I work on fast paced teathered shoots with thousands of files per day and its a tricky thing staying up and running all day and having a hard drive ready for the client at the end of the shoot…..which they all want and expect!!!…… C1 pro 5 has it figured out…. but I would love to see lightroom come up with an even better soultion to teathered shooting…..A few things i notice right off the bat and correct me if im wrong plz?

    1. Teather speed is slower than c1 pro… maybe it has to do with preview size?

    2. You need to be able to set up new capture folders fast and be able to capture to those folders right away.

    3. The renaming system dosent have near the flexibility of C1 Pro

    4.It would be nice to be able to see more rows of thumbnails and more flexability in that area….

    Good start LR!!!! I hope someday I can make the switch and be happy with just one software……Cant we all just get along!!!! hahah
    Chris

  • Pingback: Studiofotografering – del 1

  • PeteG

    I use the Pentax K20D, which comes with a basic tethered capture system. Useful as I do more studio work than anything else commercially. I’m wondering if it might be possible to have the images also come up in lightroom at the same time? Would give me camera control from the computer then. This assuming the beta will eventually work with Pentax. I VOTE IT DOES SOON! Like I get an opinion of course. And by the way the K20D may not have some of the feature set of some Nikon/Canon bodies, but it’s RAW files whether in PEF or DNG are second to none, check it out.

  • PeteG

    I use the Pentax K20D, which comes with a basic tethered capture system. Useful as I do more studio work than anything else commercially. I'm wondering if it might be possible to have the images also come up in lightroom at the same time? Would give me camera control from the computer then. This assuming the beta will eventually work with Pentax. I VOTE IT DOES SOON! Like I get an opinion of course. And by the way the K20D may not have some of the feature set of some Nikon/Canon bodies, but it's RAW files whether in PEF or DNG are second to none, check it out.

  • Eskimo

    they should do tethering for the nikon d80! x

  • Augustin

    How long do we have to wait for tethering for d80!!!!!

  • http://www.best-registrycleaner.net registrycleaner

    This assuming the beta will eventually work with Pentax.

  • kate

    >For example, it doesn’t currently display a live view of what the camera sees and doesn’t let you change the camera’s settings from within Lightroom.

    Yea, well that’s too bad, because that is exactly what i was looking for. I guess i’ll stick with the Canon Utility then …

  • John

    Great feature and just hoping the way forward will include the Canon G12. More ideas like these will overcome perhaps the extortionate cost also of wireless shooting to computer.

    Regards

    John Goodwin

  • John

    Try OnOne app for remote control tethering. Can remote set aperture, shutter speed, WB etc…all viewable from computer screen. If you have an iPhone or iTouch there’s an app too for them.

  • http://www.cegonsoft.com/ cegonsoft foundation

    I gave a test chamber attached to my Canon 40D. The results were disappointing. Besides the difficulty of knowing how to actually use the feature, once you have the current process, offered anything useful. Of course, using a USB cable distance you can press the camera shutter, but beyond that there were no controls to speak. The only option available is the application of Lightroom presets for the pictures I took. But I can do it anyway without having to worry about the connection. The system did not provide a preview image or the settings of the camera.

   

Archives

Tags

Adobe automate backup B and W beta book brush catalog collections Colortrails copyright creativity Develop Dropbox Featured Site features folders grid HDR help iPad iTunes keyword keywords Lightroom Lightroom 3 News OS Photoshop plugin Presets Publish Services Release Candidate resources review Site snapshots snow leopard software Stacking Tip Tutorial update watermark website

Twitter

Copyright © 2012 Lightroom Secrets
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Adobe® and Lightroom® are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Lightroom Secrets is independently published and not endorsed or sponsored by Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Lightroom Secrets is proudly powered by WordPress
Entries (RSS) | Comments (RSS)
 
 
 Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha