How do you capture and process 3,000 to 5,000 shots and hand your client the image disk in a single day? Is a workflow that shoots tethered into Lightroom robust enough for professional work? How do you transport studio-quality gear to shoots across the country? These were many of the questions covered recently at the Image Mechanics workshop “Making the Transition to Digital Tech Part 1“.

I’ve long been a fan of the workshop’s instructor, Michael Britt – the managing partner at Image Mechanics. Michael wrote the original manual for Lightroom. He’s consulted for Apple on Aperture. His company has been responsible for managing literally millions of captures on professional shoots around the globe. The Image Mechanics client list reads like a Who’s Who of high-end editorial and advertising photographers.

For a guy, like me, who does not work in that realm, I could say that’s a lot of rah-rah. What’s made me a fan is that Michael does not hesitate to share what he knows about digital capture. This was the second time that I’d spent a day with Michael. (The first time was two years ago at the nearby Julia Dean Workshops.) Any industry leader who is willing to share the details of his entire workflow with anyone who is interested, gets my sincere appreciation and respect.

An Image Mechanics digital capture studio ready to roll.

Taking The Digital Capture Studio Wherever It Needs To Go

There are many benefits to shooting tethered. The first and foremost reason to shoot tethered is that you can make precise decisions about exposure. Another is that if your client is on-set, he or she can see large-scale images to confirm that you’re delivering what’s needed from the shoot. (For a detailed discussion of these and other benefits, read this Px article.)

An Image Mechanics field kit for digital capture includes an Apple 30″ Cinema Display, a G5 Tower, a MacBook Pro laptop, external drives (with multiple ways to connect to a computer), UPS battery backup and several sets of USB and Firewire cables for tethering a wide range of cameras to the computer. All of this is moved around on a special cart that converts into a computer stand.

Redundancy is the key to surviving the challenges that will inevitably pop-up in the field. Michael discussed redundancy in ways that I had never considered before (such as carrying a copy of your software and other essential files on a thumb drive in case your computer gear disappears – rent a computer in that distant city and you’re back in business).

Michael Britt talks about getting a 30" Apple Cinema Display and G5 Tower out to location shoots.

The Image Mechanics digital tech studio in action.

Using Lightroom As The Backbone Of A Digital Capture Workflow

I was surprised to learn that Lightroom is the backbone of the digital capture workflow at Image Mechanics. I figured they would use a proprietary capture system or one of the programs that costs twice the price of Lightroom. As digital capture technicians, they have to be ready to handle literally any gear that their professional clients throw at them – Canon, Nikon, Phase, Leaf, Hassy… Aside from using the manufacturer’s camera control software (like EOS Utility) to get the image from the camera to the computer, the rest of the Image Mechanic’s workflow is handled entirely in Lightroom.

One of the favorite debates among Lightroom users is whether to manage your images in one catalog or several. Given the volume of captures they manage and their need to efficiently archive their clients’ shoots, Image Mechanics creates a unique catalog for each shoot and stores that catalog with the captures. Michael shared the exact details of their folder structure for a shoot. I followed along on my laptop and headed home with a new workflow to deploy.

Demonstrating how to shoot tethered into Lightroom

Managing The Digital Archive

I shot 40,000 or so images last year. The Image Mechanics have to manage more than that every month. I’m one guy. They have to manage images for a long list of clients. Their average shoot generates more than 50 gigs of data. So, when Michael talked about their archiving system, I really paid attention. You can read the details about their approach here.

Image Mechanics stores one copy of their archive disks in custom-made, anti-static file cabinet inserts. A set of matching disks are kept off-site for data redundancy.

More From Image Mechanics

To get a sense of what professional digital capture is about, check out the Image Mechanics site.

Death To Film, their original blog, as been retired. Fortunately it remains online as it has a ton of great info.

Counter Intelligence is their new blog. It continues the IM tradition of sharing valuable insights.

Shoot Stories is where you can read the details of Image Mechanics in action on pro shoots.

Organizing External Drives with Adobe Lightroom is a great value. You can buy the PDF download for only $5.95.

The challenge of shooting any event is to organize, process and distribute the photos with the least amount of effort possible. Lightroom makes easy work of organizing event photos through its keywording and file renaming options. Lightroom also handles RAW processing and image distribution through web and print media with ease.

I had the good fortune to be the event photographer recently for the 2009 Wheels of Wellness in Phoenix. The event is an important fundraiser for the Arizona chapter of the Wellness Community – which is part of the national non-profit organization that provides support, education and hope to people with cancer and their loved ones. [If you have cancer or know of someone who does, be sure to click through on the Wellness Community link.]

My assignment was to create a library of images to serve multiple masters: magazine and newspaper coverage of the event, prints for the car owners, online publicity, etc. Given that the Wheels of Wellness featured 24 vintage race cars, a dozen or so racing celebrities and loads of interested supporters, preparing the files and prints for hand-off to my client could have put me in the pits for some time. Fortunately, as a long-time fan of Lightroom, I implemented new keyword strategies that got me to the finish line much sooner than I anticipated. If you shoot events, I’m sure that you can adapt the following ideas to fit your needs.

Event Photography Workflow In Lightroom Starts With Keywords, Keywords, Keywords

The first challenge, after importing the files into a new Lightroom catalog, was to sort the photos. I  made nearly a thousand pix and wanted to sort them as quickly as possible. The nature of event photography is that you shoot when there’s an interesting meet-up between people or a moment of great light. The cars and people were not photographed in any specific sequence. Some cars were photographed six or seven times throughout the day. Owners and celebrities were in one frame, but not the next. So, I had come up with a way to gather photos spread throughout the shoot and organize them in a way to facilitate searches in the future.

My post-import Lightroom workflow for events starts with the following steps:

1. Keyword each photo with a single keyword
2. Filter the photos by keyword to pull up a specific group
3. Give a descriptive file name to each image in the keyword group
4. Regroup all the photos in the catalog by sorting on their file names
5. Add detailed keywords to facilitate other searches
6. Use color labels to mark individual frames that have a specific person
7. Add keywords to these special selections

Step 1: Managing event photos in Lightroom starts with a simple keyword. Fortunately, the vast majority of the Wheels of Wellness photos had at least one car with a number. So the first thing I did was open the Library module in grid view and keyword the cars by their number. For the handful of cars without a number, I keyworded the photos by their color or another unique attribute (one per car). For people shots without cars, I keyworded by the most famous (or infamous) person in the shot. The whole point was to get each photo tied to a single keyword.

Step 2 - filter by keyword

Step 2: In the Library module, I then filtered by each keyword. [Shown above - Library Module / Library Filter bar: Text > Keywords > Contains Words > keyword]. This enabled me to pull up the photos of each car / person as a group. I filtered by the keyword “42″ and came up with the 18 photos of the 1969 Eagle Indy car exhibited by the Riverside International Auto Museum. I filtered on “24″ and came up with all the photos of the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO. [I did find that #28 is a popular car number as I had three #28s. As I detail below, an extra quick step was needed to sort these shots out.]

Step 3: I then renamed all of the photos pulled up by each keyword. [Library  > Rename Photo] or [hit F2] then [Custom Settings > Edit]. My file naming sequence was MyName_Event_Car-Description-Year_####. As a standard practice, I now rename all my files with MyName at the beginning. This helps me track web usage of my images. (Yes, pirates will change the file name, but my clients generally don’t.) I included the Car-Description-Year to help others find my images when they are searching for images on the web by car name. I always leave the original #### in so that I can search for images by their “Original number suffix” created at the time of capture. Every once in a blue moon this has helped me locate a file that I otherwise misnamed. (I think there were four or five blue moons during the past year.)

Step 4 - sort by filename

Step 4: Sort the photos by their new file names. [View > Sort > File Name] This is the easiest step as you’ve already done the hard part. Gathering the photos by file name will help facilitate detailed keywording as you now can select any number of photos at the same time and give them all the same keyword with just a couple of clicks.

Step 5 & 7 - add detailed keywords

Step 5: Add detailed keywords based on the file name. Down the road, I’m likely to be asked for photos that have a specific person or car in it. Or maybe I’ll be asked for photos of cars entered into the show by a specific owner. So, I first add keywords that apply to all the images in a file name group. I add detailed keywords for the car and year (in case the file name is changed), the event name, the car’s owner, etc. Again, these are keywords that apply to all the images within that file name group.

Step 6: Use color labels to mark individual frames that have a specific person or group. I then reviewed the catalog again and used color labels in the Library module to mark individual images with a certain person or group in them. For instance, after applying the keywords based on file name, I labeled all the images that had car owners in them with red labels by hitting 6 after each image was selected. This allowed me to instantly gather all the images with red labels by filtering via the Attribute option on the Library Filter bar.

Step 7: Add keywords to these special selections. A quick select all move and I added the keyword “Owners-Friends” to the whole group. I hit the 6 again (while the whole group was still selected) and the red labels were removed and ready to be used for another group – such as all the frames that have a certain celebrity in them. So, when the editor of Vintage Motorsport calls to say “we need that photo of the ‘32 Maserati,” I’ll be able to quickly pull the images up and say “the ones with or without Clive Cussler?”

Talk with your client about how they (and others) are likely to use the images. This will give you ideas about the types of keywords that you will want to include. The word “Trend” in the keywords above is for Trends – a society magazine that wanted celebrity photos right after the event. If I had not queried my client about possible usage, I would have had to burn time by going through the images again to find the celebrity pix.

BONUS TIP: Sorting Cars With The Same Number – As I mentioned above, 28 must be a popular car number as I had three cars (out of 24) that I keyworded initially as 28. I could have created three separate keywords, such as 28a, 28b and 28c. But then I would have had to remember which was 28a…. Rather I chose to keep moving very quickly and keyword just by the number on the car. After Step 2: Sort by Keyword, I then selected individual shots of a specific car while holding down the Command (aka: Apple or 4-leaf clover on Mac, Ctrl on PC) and went on to Library > Rename Photo (following Steps 3 – 5 above). I repeated this selection process for the other two #28s. Easy.

Lightroom Makes Quick Work Of Other Event Photography Tasks

Once the files were renamed and given detailed keywords, I used many other Lightroom modules and features.

• rated the photos in the Library module (1-star meant it was a keeper, 2-stars meant candidate for publication)
• optimized the RAW captures in the Develop module (color balance, black, fill light, brightness, contrast, clarity – are my most common adjustments)
• created a contact sheet with 4 photos per page and the file name underneath each in the Print module (this was then saved as a PDF, which you find in the lower left corner under the File > Print Settings > PDF > Save As PDF). I include the PDF on my client delivery disk so that they can have a quick index to the individual files.
• printed portraits of the car owners in the Print module – each 8.5×11 print included my logo in the corner (I want them to remember who I am!).
• uploaded an event web gallery in the Web module — which you can see by clicking here.
• exported the client selects as publication-ready JPEGs (quality = 100%, Adobe RGB) in the Library module. Then burned to DVD (along with the index PDF) for delivery.

Lightroom Resources

Great Lightroom Tutorials by Julieanne Kost

Adobe Lightroom 2 Learning Center at NAPP

Adobe Lightroom 2 Learning Center at Photoshop Cafe

Lightroom Journal – tips straight from the Lightroom Development team

Lightroom Killer Tips by Matt Kloskowski

Lightroom-News by the gang at Pixel Genius

Inside Lightroom by O’Rielly Media

Lightroom Help & Support at Adobe

Buy Lightroom 2 – Full Version about $266

Buy Lightroom 2 – Upgrade Version about $90

When You Want To Take Your Keywording To The Next Level…

The strategies for keywording are about as diverse as the stars in the sky. My guru for all topics uber-keyword is David Riecks. If fact, David takes the dialogue about keywords to such a height that occasionally I get dizzy. But I try to keep up. Actually, he talks and writes about the world of ‘Controlled Vocabularies’ – sets of keywords organized into systematic hierarchies. Advanced keywording is essential to those who license their images as stock photography. Keywords are typically how photo editors search for images. David runs the site ControlledVocabulary.com where you’ll find great resources on learning about the topic as well as a Controlled Vocabulary catalog that you can use in Lightroom and many other digital asset managment programs. David also moderates the Controlled Vocabulary forum on Yahoo.

John Paul Caponigro will release three new training DVDs through Acme Educational next week. Orders placed before the release date will save $10.00 off the $59.95 list price. Having spent a week with JP in the Fine Art of Digital Printing workshop that he teaches with Mac Holbert, I can personally recommend the tools and techniques that you’ll find on these three disks. JP’s earlier disks, ‘Drawing With Light: 21st Century Dodging & Burning‘, ‘Color Management in Six Simple Steps‘ and ‘The Art of Proofing‘ are also favorites in my studio.

Details on each disk are listed below. To get the pre-order pricing at Acme Educational, click here. To see the many other great resources on JP’s site, click here.

Black & White Mastery

Black & White Mastery will unlock the amazing power of digital color for you and your images.

You’ll discover what’s unique about black and white images, identifying a number of unique black and white palettes that will give you a wide range of options for crafting a black and white style that’s best for you and your images.

You’ll learn how to convert color to black and white with ultimate precision and flexibility. You’ll know which methods give you the best result and when to choose a simple or a complex solution. You’ll find out how to adjust the resulting tonal relationships with unprecedented precision. You’ll understand how to adjust your images selectively to further enhance your images. You be able to add color back into your black and white images (subtly or dramatically, uniformly or selectively) to add unique expressive dimensions.

In addition to processing Raw digital files, you’ll also learn how to scan analog originals (film and print). Finally, you’ll learn easy ways to make prints of your black and white digital files either with the latest inkjet technologies or by making digital contact negatives for printing with historic processes.

Most importantly, you’ll learn to see and think about black and white images in new ways which will open up a vast world of visual possibilities for you. Put this new perspective to work for you and your images today.

introduction:

• b&w is unique
• how gray is gray
• b&w expanding definition
• unlimited palette
• b&w signature style
• b&w seeing in
• color is b&w – trichromatic separation
• b&w strategic overview
• b&w scanning
• b&w prep for conversion
• b&w many ways
• raw
• b&w adjustment layer
• dual adjustment layer
• triple adjustment layer
• channels as layers
• simulated infrared
• b&w global contrast
• b&w local contrast
• b&w adding color – multi-tone
• b&w adding color – curves and overlays
• b&w adding color – restoring original color
• b&w adding color – handcoloring
• b&w inkjet printing – 2 ways
• b&w film

Photoshop Color Strategies

Photoshop Color Strategies will help you take your color skills to the next level. True mastery of color requires not only knowing how to use the various color tools available to you, but also knowing how to choose between them, when to apply them, and why to apply them to achieve specific color effects. You’ll learn to isolate the three essential components of color (luminosity, hue, and saturation) and control them with unprecedented precision. You’ll learn about important optical effects that affect the way you and your viewers see color and learn to put them to work for you. You’ll learn new ways of thinking about color that will help you see and produce a wide variety of color effects. You’ll discover strategies for identifying and creating successful color palettes. You can combine all of this new knowledge to craft your own unique artistic signature style. Put the unprecedented power and precision of digital color to work for you and your images now.

introduction:

• color r/evolution
• color is black and white
• memory
• optical effects
• color types
• successful palettes
• association
• side-by-side
• infinite variations
• color tool survey
• editing strategy
• blend modes
• selectivity
• light filled
• increase and decrease luminosity
• reduce hue contrast
• increase hue contrast
• reduce saturation
• increase saturation
• neutrals
• atmospheric perspective
• night
• inversion
• transpose color natural match color
• transpose color synthetic gradient map

Photoshop Color Tools

Learn how to use the color adjustment tools in Adobe Photoshop CS4 to achieve unprecedented control of your images.

Find out which tools are the go to tools (the ones you¹ll use everyday), which are exotic (the ones for exceptional images), and which are redundant and/or too limited (the ones you can forget about).

Make every adjustment tool more precisely target specific components of color (hue, saturation, and luminosity) using blend modes and easy to use selections / masks that allow you to target specific hues or luminosity values.

introduction:

• hsl
• color management – 6 simple steps
• monitor histograms
• editing strategy
• color tool survey
• blend modes
• raw conversion
• shadows / highlights
• channel blending
• levels- b&w points
• curves
• high pass contrast
• selective color
• saturation & vibrance
• photofilter & overlays
• match color
• b & w adjustment layer
• select by color range

The cat’s out of the bag. “CS-Next” is now officially CS4. I woke up a bit earlier than normal this morning so that I could watch Adobe’s premiere webcast on East Coast time. If you attended the keynote at Photoshop World in Vegas earlier this month, you saw the entire Photoshop presentation that was made on this morning’s webcast. It was exactly the same. Kudos to NAPP for talking Adobe into giving the NAPP-Hardcore a sneak peak.

The bottom line with the official launch webcast is that it’s impossible to go into any depth on a family of 13 different programs and wrap things up in 60 minutes. If you really want to learn about what’s coming in CS4, check out these sites.

Photoshop CS4 Feature Tour (watch hi-res on Adobe TV)

Photoshop CS4 Extended Feature Tour (watch hi-res on Adobe TV)

Adobe CS4 Learning Center at NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) – great online videos that explore specific features in good detail.

The Photographer Channel at Adobe TV.

The Photoshop Channel at Adobe TV.

The Lightroom Channel at Adobe TV.

The Adobe Creative Suite website.

The CS4 University at Lynda.com

Pre-Order CS4 Applications Today

The CS4 family will start shipping at the end of October. It will be the middle of November before all of the programs are shipping. So, if you’re looking to upgrade your creative suite, you’ll have to wait about 6 weeks. You can pre-order through the Adobe store – typically at full retail prices. My favorite source is Amazon. Click here to see the availability of CS4 items at Amazon.

As a professional shooter, I use Lightroom as a standard part of my workflow. Over the weekend, I turned Lightroom loose on a long-overdue, personal project. I’m now more fond of Lightroom than ever. The reason? Lightroom found photos of my kids that I haven’t seen in years.

Do you know the old saying about “the cobbler’s kids having no shoes?” Like a lot of photographers, over the past decade, I’ve stuffed photographs and scans onto many drives. As one drive would fill up, I’d add a new, larger drive to the system and keep going. Then Amy will ask a simple question like “did you find those photos from Tom’s graduation yet?” My reply before today was “They’re here somewhere… in triplicate, I’ll find them soon.”

It’s not that I’ve actually lost data. I run all my drives as mirrored RAID pairs in separate enclosures (using SoftRAID). I also have a rigorous backup system that copies all of that data onto external drives for long-term storage. [Check out Peter Krogh's DAM Book site and Image Mechanics' blog Death To Film for ideas and resources.]

My problem was the logic behind my file structure changed over the years and I never stopped to re-organize the legacy folders. I can easily locate images that I’ve shot within the past three years. Finding pix from five, seven or nine years ago… there’s the challenge.

Consolidating the old photos was always one of those non-critical (aka “non-money making”) tasks that I never got back around to dealing with. Eventually, I lost track of where I’d stuffed our earliest digital snapshots and scans. Now that I’ve found a new use for Lightroom, I’ve shed my Catholic-guilt about all of this.

How did I use Lightroom to find all of these old photos? Simple. I created a new catalog “All Pix”. Then I pointed LR to one of the six master drive pairs on my system. I did not point to specific folders on the drive – just to the drive. I then told Lightroom to “Import From Disk”. Lightroom surveyed the drive and imported all the images that it could. As the import from one disk was completed, I did the same for the next drive on the system. By the way, the importing can take hours for a large drive (like the one shown above). So it’s best to do this when you won’t need to do any other work in Lightroom.

Do I care that Lightroom is cataloging tens of thousands of images that I already have in other Lightroom catalogs? Not at all. I can edit the catalog later. What I do care about is that I can now quickly sort images by specific date ranges. Tom’s graduation? Early June, 2003. Bingo. Here’s the pix, love.

As you can see in the photo above, the catalog has more than 107,000 images in it. The current import has brought in over 28,000 images. That little 1998 family portrait has been MIA for years.

I know that when Lightroom completes it’s task of creating the master catalog, I’ll have many hours of work ahead in keywording, sort

Just a reminder that tomorrow (September 23, 2008) is the day that Adobe will reveal the newest generation of their Creative Suite software. If you’d like to be the first on your block to watch the Adobe CS4 webcast, there’s still time to sign up for the free show. Click here before you get distracted (again).

The breadth of topics presented in the Tech Expo rivaled the Photoshop World curriculum. When I closed my eyes, the number of voices booming from all directions was surreal. In my opinion, the Tech Expo took Photoshop World to a whole new level. [Tip for locals, if you can't afford a ticket to Photoshop World, definitely attend the Tech Expo.] Here’s a peek at a few of the Expo highlights.

Peter Reed Miller, legendary Sports Illustrated photographer, gave daily presentations in the Microsoft Expo Theater. I was fascinated with his stories from the Beijing Olympics.

Scott Kelby, Mr. How-To-Do-Anything-In-Photoshop, demo’d the Westcott Spider Lights with a live model. The Spider Lights are so easy to use that I decided the crowd was actually there to see the lights in action and not to ogle the model.

Joe McNally, Mr. Moment-It-Clicks, has more stories to tell than a bartender in Dublin. Joe gave several presentations in the Nikon Expo Theater and freely demo’d the Nikon SB900 speedlight on innocent audience members.

Julianne Kost and many other Adobe luminaries gave non-stop classes at the Adobe pavilion. [For a peek at CS4, check out JP Caponigro's post.]

Epson set up an impressive gallery of digitally-printed photographs along with a complete arsenal of their photo printers.

Samy’s Camera offered a steady stream of courses. Their booth featured a computer at every seat so that the “students” could follow along.

Scott Kelby signed books at the Peachpit Pavilion. I was impressed to see that Scott took the time to chat with every person in line.

And finally… in the midst of his many appearances, Mr. Photoshop took the time to stand next to Mr. PixSylated. Scott was an incredibly good sport when I tried to gave him my signature rabbit ears. [Next time, Scott, I'll be prepared with a pair of elevator shoes so that you don't have the height advantage.]

Adobe has announced that they will announce the newest generation of their Creative Suite software on September 23rd. If you’d like to be the first on your block to watch the Adobe CS4 webcast, click here to sign up.

JP Caponigro attended the recent Photoshop World keynote and provides a sneak preview about the future of Photoshop CS4 here.

The dates for the upcoming 2008/09 tour of the Epson Print Academy are now online. The 16-city tour starts in Atlanta on November 8. No specifics about pricing or curriculum have been released. Click here for the event calendar. I expect that more details will be released by the end of the month.

The last tour, held in 2006, offered two tracks at each venue –- one for amateurs and one for professionals. I attended the pro track in San Francisco and met Bruce Fraser, JP Caponigro, Greg Gorman, Jeff Schewe and Mac Holbert. I expect that the instructors on the new tour will be equally stellar.

I always look forward to the Epson Print Academy as a way to catch up the latest techniques. Even though I drive my Epson 3800 with a high-degree of confidence, I’m looking forward to attending the pro track in San Francisco next February. With the recent release of Lightroom 2 and the upcoming announcement of Photoshop CS4, I highly recommend the event regardless of your printer make and skill level.

Hardware & Software For Tethered Shooting

Like many shooters, you might be surprised to learn that you already have all (or most) of the gear needed for tethered shooting. [In a future post, I'll give you the details on how to set it up.]

• Digital SLR – Virtually any DSLR with a data port and external control software can be used for tethered shooting.
• Lightroom – Built by Adobe from the ground up for digital photography. In the past six months, it has become the backbone of my digital workflow.
• Data Transfer Cable – Most DSLRs come with a data transfer cable (although I’ve since purchased longer and more robust cables).
• Software for Camera Control (“Capture”) – This is the software by which your computer can actually control the camera’s settings. Canon provides Canon EOS Utility with their DSLRs. If you’re a Nikon shooter, you’ll have to get Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 [30-day trial here]. If you’re an Olympus shooter, you have to get Olympus Studio [30-day trial here].

How You’ll Benefit By Shooting Tethered Into Lightroom

• Precise Evaluation Of The Exposure – Even if you’re shooting RAW, the histogram on your camera’s LCD is still derived from JPEG data (think “close but not perfect info”). If you’re exposing so that the histogram is as far as you can to the right without clipping highlights, the LCD on your camera still might be too conservative. The histogram in Lightroom is built on the RAW data and is far more accurate. It’s also a heck of a lot easier to see. Further, you can use the exposure slider in Lightroom to determine the correct exposure setting for your camera. When evaluating a test image in Lightroom, if you slide the Exposure setting up .66 so that the histogram hovers just below the threshold of highlight clipping, you should open your aperture by 2/3 of a stop (as in open from f/8 to f/6.3) for your next test shot. Shoot again and evaluate the new histogram.
• Seeing The Exact Point Of Focus – If you’re shooting for minimum or selective depth-of-field, such as with macro or food photography, it’s far easier to immediately view the image on a large monitor rather than the camera’s LCD. Being able to zoom in to 100% moments after the image is made is a great help. I’ve joked that shooting tethered is like strapping a huge magnifying glass to the back of my camera.

Power-Chimping (above) or Tethered Into Lightroom (below)

• Evaluate The Gamut of  Color-Critical Subjects – If you’re creating color-critical images that have to fit into a reduced color space (like CMYK for the printing of catalogs and magazines), tethered shooting enables real-time, soft-proofing during the shoot. That’s a fancy way of saying that if it’s really important to get the exact shade of your client’s red dress to print, during a tethered shoot you can determine if its vibrant colors fall within the printable range of CMYK colors. [For more info on color management, read this post.]
• Create Job Specific File Names – Forget about names like “_MG_0319.CR2″. It’s easy to configure Lightroom to automatically rename your files as they come in. “Client_Date_Subject_0319.CR2″ is far easier to understand in the days and weeks after the shoot. Renaming the files at the time of capture assures consistency throughout the shoot.
• Add Detailed Copyright Data – Lightroom will embed complete copyright and contact information as your images are imported. Yes, you can do this later… but, having it done automatically as the images come in is more efficient.
• Append Job Specific Keywords On The Fly – Lightroom will append specific keywords as the images come in. This is very helpful on long shoots where you’ll likely want to view groups of images by subject, set number or another criterion for a quick evaluation.
• Immediate Data Redundancy – Most DLSRs will record the image to the camera’s card and simultaneously send the data down the cable. So, even on a field shoot, with nothing more than your camera, a cable and a laptop, you can have immediate data redundancy.
• With Tabletop Work, Tethered Is Far More Comfortable – If you’re shooting tabletop or some other static set where the camera is bolted to a tripod, you can save your back by driving the camera from your desktop rather than from behind the tripod. Once the frame is composed, you can change the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, metering pattern, etc. from your keyboard.

How Shooting Tethered Into Lightroom Benefits Your Clients

• Client Confidence – If your art director and client are on set, you can keep them at a distance by tethering into a long cable and configuring Lightroom to show each capture as a single, high-resolution image on screen as they come in. That way, they can see the images without standing over your shoulder.
• Closed Workflow – When shooting tethered on location or in your studio, your clients will view the images on your calibrated monitor rather than on their (often lousy) office monitor. This is invaluable when matching colors to products is critical.
• X/Y Comparisons – You can ease your client’s frustrations with sensory overload by presenting only two image candidates at a time and have her choose one of the two. Then bring up another image for comparison and have her choose the best of those two. For clients who are not professional photo editors, this is a very easy way to select the hero images.
• Keep Track of Client Selects – Get your client’s approval and flag her selects before the set is struck. Being able to quickly pull up a gallery of client selects will help you and your client maintain image consistency over a long shoot.
• Create Web Galleries… Quickly – With Lightroom, it’s easy to create and upload web galleries. Your client’s associates (or her clients) can review progress of? the shoot via web galleries – while the shoot is still underway.

Tethered Shooting Is Not So Great When…

• The Subject Is Running - There are maximum lengths for cables (USB = 80′ with active extensions, Firewire = 120′ with powered hub). If your subject is moving beyond the range of the cable, you’ll have to make your computer rig mobile or you’ll have to limit your range of shooting.
• You’re Shooting Faster Than The Camera Can Transfer Data – If you’re shooting like a machine gun, it’s probable that the camera won’t be able to transfer the data fast enough. In this situation, it’s possible to do your test shots (for exposure etc.) while tethered, uncable and then shoot to the camera’s card.