I was experimenting with tethered shooting in the studio and struggled with a few problems concerning my workflow. What I wanted to create was a situation in which I could shoot images in the studio, with my Nikon directly into the laptop, and automatically import these images on the fly into the desktop computer (iMac 24 inch) in the office as well. This would save me a lot of time importing and exporting images from camera to computer and it would allow me, and my costumers, to directly observe the images taken in the studio. Once finished with the photo shoot the images would be immediately available on the desktop computer in the office. How professional would that be!! No more dragging around with memory cards or trying to import images over the network and unnecessary waiting for the images to finally load in Lightroom!
But I encountered two major problems:
- To shoot tethered with a Nikon you need the expensive capture software from Nikon. Lightroom is not able to import directly from the camera (Like Aperture does). And I think that Nikon should be ashamed not to deliver this software with the camera without extra costs like Canon does!
- How to get the images automatically over the LAN or WiFi network to the desktop computer after every image is taken? Lightroom does not import images over the network.
This is how I set things up:
First I downloaded the fantastic “Sofortbild”. Installed it and set it up to shoot tethered on the laptop. Now it’s possible to shoot tethered with my Nikons. I set up a folder called “tethered import” on the laptop and point Sofortbild to import the images to this folder.
Now all I have to do is: Import the images directly to the desktop computer as soon as they are recorded. It took me some time to figure this one out. I couldn’t find a folder synchronising program for the Mac that would do this. Then lightning struck me as I suddenly thought to give Automator a try. With Automator on the Mac you can make a folder action that copies files over the network.
Start up Automator on the desktop Mac and choose folder action from the popupmenu.
Click on “Choose folder” on the right side and point it over the network to the laptop folder called “tethered import” (Of course logging into the laptop with a password is necessary, Guest login will not work off course). After this drag the “Get folder content” from the Finder items on the left to the right of the Automator window and point it to the folder on the desktop computer where you want the images to appear. In my case that’s “Tethered import for Lightroom”. Save the Automator sript as “tethered import” and the folder action is ready.
One more step to make it all work. Start up Lightroom on the desktop Mac and under “File” choose Auto import – Auto import Settings. Point it to the “Tethered import for Lightroom” folder and after setting up other options (Like pointing it to where the images should be stored) click “OK”. Next go to: File – Auto Import – Enable Auto Import.
Go to the studio and start shooting!
Remarks: After the photo-shoot the labtop will be shut down or closed and connection to the desktop fails. This is not a problem. But if you want to re-establish the connection right click on the “Tethered import for Lightroom” folder on the desktop Mac and choose “Folder Action configuration”. Here you can start and shut down the folder action. You can also try to first shut down the action and then switching it on again in case the folder action doesn’t start automatically.
My workflow and Everything I do after taking images and before sending to my clients.
I import my RAW or JPG images with a fire-wire card-reader to the computer by dragging the folder from the camera to the folder “Photo-import” on my hard-drive. I rename the folder with it’s date and subject. This looks like: “2009-03-29 subject name”. After this I start up Lightroom and import the entire folder into Adobe Lightroom. The import settings in Lightroom are: Convert the RAW images to DNG and copy the images to my external drive called Photo’s. Place the folder in it’s original name into the folder of the recording year. This looks like this: “Ext.HD” – “Images” – “2009″ – “2009-03-29 subject name”. Now I already have a backup of the original images on the computer hard-drive and this allows me to safely erase the memory-card if speed is necessary.
I batch rename all images by replacing DSC (Placed there by the camera) with the subjects name, while leaving the continuos number intact (Something like “Landscape 1254.DNG”. I ad the captions and image titles.
Now I boot up my backup drive and backup the external drive called Photo’s. I disconnect the backup drive and continue working in Lightroom.
I continue with making selections by giving the images red labels. I switch on the filter for the colour label red and only see the selected images. Now I start a second and final selection by removing the red lables from the rejects. The images in the final selection are awarded with three stars (To make sure that I can select them easily with a filtersetting with 3 stars after removing the colour label).
The selected images are being edited in Lightroom and/ or exported to Photoshop and edited. The settings for exporting to Photoshop are: 8 bits TIFF with LZW compression to save space on my drives. After editing the image I remove the red label. When finished editing all the selected images I turn off the Red filter setting and choose all images with 3 stars (Click on 3 stars in the filter settings). These are the finished images and ready to export and sending to my costumers.
I make another backup to the backup drive and after a month or whenever I’m sure that everything has gone well (Satisfied costumer) I remove the folder with the original NEF files from the computers hard-drive.
The reason I use one external drive to store all images and another one as a backup is that after the drive is almost full I buy a new and bigger one (well two actually because the backup is of the same size) and replace the older one. There are two advantages on this system:
- The drive that contains the images is being used and therefore I’m always aware of the fact that it’s functioning as it should. A drive that is being stored has a chance of being broken without you even noticing it and then it’s probably too late.
- Should my computer brake down I can take my drives to another computer and start working again.
Notes:
- In the past I used iView Media Pro in the workflow. But since they where taken over by Microsoft I couldn’t bring myself to upgrade. I don’t trust anything that Microsoft makes and therefore I had no choice other than to choose for a different Database system.
- I didn’t choose Aperture for the simple fact that I don’t believe that Apple will continue this software in the future (Making software is not their core business). Adobe is specialised in photo software and therefore can be trusted to continue and support this software for a very long period of time. I don’t want to even think about exporting all images from one database to another (You lose all RAW settings).
- I import the images as DNG instead of the original Nikon NEF files to avoid incompatibility in the future.
22 september, 2008 (13:47)
Time wasn’t too long ago when the term “photographer’s portfolio” referred to a leather case filled with prints of your very best work.
Those cases are still around, and they’re a worthwhile investment if you’re planning to show your work to local art directors and editors. But, like any other creative field, photography has gone global. You may be based in Houston while you work with clients in Dusseldorf or Singapore.
So, some sort of Internet presence is essential. This article will survey three options for displaying your photography.
Essential Websites and Resources for Photographers – FreelanceSwitch – The Freelance Blog.
21 augustus, 2008 (14:36)
I can see great possibilities for Microsoft’s Photosynth. Not the way it is being presented at this moment. I haven’t been testing it because the coolest OS in the world is not supported yet;-), but from what I have been reading it only works for one user’s images. All the on-line program does is stitch all images that have overlapping together into one flow of images, like a film. Cool…
But wouldn’t it be really cool if there was a database in wich everyone uploads their images that get stitched together so we could photomap the entire world? And then we connect it to Google Earth! Think of the possibilities!
The DNG alternative RAW file format from Adobe has been submitted to the ISO standards. This means that in the future the DNG format will become the standard for RAW file formats, like TIFF, JPG etc. I believe that this is a good development if you consider al the different RAW formats that are already out there and are still being developed in the future. Especially Canon and Nikon think that for every camera they develop they should also develop a new RAW format which demands from every software developer to update their software. It would be a lot easier if they would embrace this DNG format. Also to make sure that in the future every image is “Compatible” with the software you are using at that time. Imagine trying to open RAW images you made 20 or 50 years ago and not being able to do so because these specific RAW files are outdated and not supported any more! If DNG becomes ISO standard this could never happen.
Yesterday (Dec 4, 2007) the famous Magnum photographer Carl de Keyzer delivered a lecture at the arts Academy in Maastricht (The Netherlands). Since I’m a big fan of his work I had to be present. The slide-presentation (Done on a Macbook Pro with iView Media Pro) took about two and a half hour including a small break. He presented his older work first (India, Homo Sovieticus, Evropa, East of Eden and God inc.), in order to continue with his more recent project. Tableaux Politique, Tableaux de Guerre and Tableaux D’Histoire are to be joined into one big 15 years absorbing project. These three “Tableaux” (Paintings) are to be presented in a new book next month, called “Trivial”. Carl de Keyzer talked in a relaxed, open and informative way about his pictures and project. Since I’ve been following his story on the internet for some time now, most information and anecdotes where already known to me.
The really interesting and (at least to me) new anecdotes came from the “Zona” (Russian for Prison) project about how the camp commanders tried to stage everything he was photographing. How to find a way of getting the story right even though you know that you are being manipulated.
News worthy little facts: Answers to some questions by the audiance:
A colleague photographer who was sitting next to me told me this little anecdote about the editors at his newspaper. He suggested to visit this lecture and do a story about this Magnum photographer. The editor replied: “Magnum? We already did a story about an ice-cream vendor!”
Note: I didn’t take notes (Stupid me). Therefore some names of the new projects and book could be wrong or spelled badly. So correct me please by commenting.
Just a poll to see what photo database you are using in your workflow.
Poll: What Photo Database are you using?
Tussenstand:
Ook een poll maken? Klik hier
20 september, 2007 (13:12)
My workflow (Everything I do after taking images and before sending to client)
I import my RAW images through a card-reader in my printer to the computer by dragging the folder from the camera to my external hard-drive. This folder is stored in a folder called “Raw material” and there placed inside a folder called (for example) 2007. I rename the folder with it’s date and subject. This looks like: “2007-09-18 subject c”. After renaming I import the entire folder into a separate iView MediaPro 
catalog and batch rename all images by replacing DSC (Placed there by the camera) with the subjects name,
while leaving the continuos number intact (Something like “Landscape 1254.NEF” I save the database inside this image folder and continue making selections by giving the images color labels. After selections I save the database again and select only the ones with color labels. These images are being imported into Photoshop
and edited. After editing I save these TIFF images into a folder on the same external hard drive called “2007” in which there is a folder with exactly the same name as in the above “Raw material” folder. So it’s like a mirror folder. The structure on this drive looks like this:
This separates the edited images from non edited.
After this I import the edited images into one big iView database in which only my best images can be found. This system also makes it very easy to find the originals in case I need them. Al I have to do is click on the image in the database and look at where it’s stored and then change this path to Raw Material.
Next step is to make backups. I duplicate the external hard-drive to another external hard-drive which is unmounted afterwards for security reasons. Mostly this step of making backups is already taken after renaming all the images.
Only after the backup is complete I erase the cards in the camera’s.
With my Photo-database in iView I export the images to a folder called “To Send” on the internal hard-drive to send to my clients. Size and format differ depending the need of the client. After they received the images I remove them (I always have the original edited and unedited ones).
My workflow may not be perfect but it works for me. I also tried Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
instead of iView MediaPro but I didn’t like it for several reasons (more on that subject).
The reason I use one external drive to store all images and another one as a backup is that after the drive is almost full I buy a new and bigger one (well two actually because the backup is of the same size) and replace the older one. There are two advantages on this system:
- The drive, the images are on, is being used and therefore I’m always aware of the fact that it’s functioning as it should. A drive that is being stored has a chance of being broken without you even noticing it and then it’s probably too late.
- Should my computer brake down I can take my drives to another computer and start working again.
This is an outdated article: read the new one here.
Start up Automator on the desktop Mac and choose folder action from the popupmenu.
Click on “Choose folder” on the right side and point it over the network to the laptop folder called “tethered import” (Of course logging into the laptop with a password is necessary, Guest login will not work off course). After this drag the “Get folder content” from the Finder items on the left to the right of the Automator window and point it to the folder on the desktop computer where you want the images to appear. In my case that’s “Tethered import for Lightroom”. Save the Automator sript as “tethered import” and the folder action is ready.
