Shooting Tethered with Lightroom 3 Beta-2

You might have heard that one of the really big upgrades to the latest beta version of Lightroom is the ability to shoot tethered.  This is a huge development for anyone that likes to shoot directly into Lightroom.  Previously if someone wanted to perform the same function they would have to use a separate piece of software to communicate with the camera.  Most pleased will be Windows users who’s only option before now was to use Nikon’s Camera Control Pro.  A pricey product to be sure.

( WARNING: This feature does not work with every camera.  Most newer, mid-level and up, model DSLRs (Canon and Nikon) will work but I’m not sure about other manufacturers.)

So here’s the basics of using the new tethered feature.  First, attach your camera to the computer via USB and turn it on and then go to the File menu and select Tethered Capture > Start Tethered Capture.

The next thing you will see is the Setup dialog box.  Inside the box, you can set things like the shooting session name, a naming template including a number scheme, a destination, and keywords and metadata.

Once you press the OK button the camera control bar will pop up. The camera control bar won’t let you modify any of the camera settings, but it does give you a full readout of your shutter speed, aperture, ISO and white balance.  There is however a large button on the right side of the bar that will let you trip the camera directly from Lightroom.

Once you start shooting, your images will start appearing in your library.  You could just leave it at that, but here’s a little trick that my buddy Scott Kelby showed off last week in his Lightroom Killer Tips class.  when you shoot your first image, put a white balance card in the image.  When it shows up in the Library, switch over the the Develop module and then grab the white balance eyedropper in the Basic panel and click on the white balance card in the image.

Now before you shoot your next image, click the Develop Settings drop-down on the Camera Control bar and select Same as Previous.

Now every time you take a picture, the white balance will be automatically adjusted to the previously adjusted white balance settings.  Just make sure that you re-adjust your white balance if your lighting changes.

Here’s a shot right out of the camera after adjusting white balance using the image above.

That’s right baby, DirectTv and Coke Zero.  That’s just how I roll!

Related posts:

1. Gearing Up for Tethered Shooting
2. Taming the Sun When Shooting Tethered
3. Lightroom Beta 3′s New Publish Feature
4. Anatomy of a Lightroom Beta 2 Image Correction
5. Double Processing with the New Lightroom 2.0 Beta