Why Tethering?
Tethered shooting allows you to connect your camera to your computer and that creates great benefits for you and your client. Some of the benefits are:
Being able to review the images on a large screen, thus reducing the risk of missing something.
Allowing your client to more comfortably review the images with you (or by themselves through an app).
Applying adjustments to the images and offer your client a better feel for what to expect as the final product.
Being able to control your camera remotely to a very large extent.
I used to do tethering through Lightroom because that program was the tool I used for importing, adjusting and archiving images and it was very convenient to have to deal with one single tool only. However, as soon as my food photography started to grow and I was facing bigger and bigger projects, I realized I was pretty unhappy with the overall Lightroom tethering experience. I gave Capture One Pro a try and was totally impressed by its tethering functionality. I still use both Lightroom and Capture One because they are good at different things, but when it comes to tethering, Lightroom doesn’t even get close to Capture One Pro.
Here are 5 reasons why I think you should use Capture One for tethering and not Adobe Lightroom.
1 Stability and Speed
Lightroom (up to version 6 at least) is simply not as stable and fast as Capture One Pro when it comes to tethering. It was really frustrating having your workflow get stuck because of software issues (mostly cameras disconnecting and Lightroom crashing) and it didn’t look good in front of the client, which was my main concern. It just didn’t make me look professional.
I’ve been using Capture One Pro for over three years now and not once did the camera lose connection with the program nor did I have a crash while tethering. Simply perfect. You don’t even need to start a tethering session. It automatically starts when a camera is detected and it recovers very easily when you happen to unplug your cable and plug it back in. It is both faster and more stable than Lightroom's tethering.
2 Immediate and Automatic Post-Processing
Capture One has this functionality that allows you to make adjustments to one image and those adjustments are automatically carried over to the next photo. This is a huge help when you want to show the client immediately how the final image will feel like with no effort at all. Extremely useful!
3 Live View
This functionality is incredibly valuable, especially when shooting food or products. When shooting with a very wide aperture (very shallow depth of field), nailing the focus is key and there’s no better way to do that through your computer screen (especially when using manual focus lenses).
Also, very often in food photography you find yourself shooting straight down with your camera mounted pretty high up on a stand. Being able to compose and focus correctly is a game changer. That also allows you to show the composition to your client even before shooting.
4 Overlay Feature
Capture One Pro has an option for displaying an overlay when you shoot images that need to fit a specific layout where you might need to leave room for copy or graphics. Applying an overlay image will guarantee your composition to be spot on and will make your client’s life (and yours) a lot easier.
5 Capture Pilot
This incredible functionality allows to access images remotely either on an iOS device using the Capture Pilot app or through any web browser connected to your WiFi. Your client can easily browse the images as they are shot and even rate them straight from their iPhone, iPad or laptop. This is a game changer and it allows the client to monitor your work from a distance while you can do your job without having anybody breathing down your neck.
If you are interested in learning more about tethering with Capture One Pro, you should check out their extensive tutorials (https://learn.captureone.com) and you’ll also find a ton of very good free resources online from both amateur and pro photographers.
Thoughts? Please share your experience with the community by commenting down below. If you enjoyed this information, please share it on your own channels.
Thank You and Happy Shooting!