Photographer Tutorial

Shooting Directly into Adobe Lightroom with a Nikon D300

I use Adobe Lightroom religiously in my wedding photography workflow. The more tasks I can keep to one program, the faster I can work – and the faster I can make global edits to files – the more time I have to work on some of the more custom processing. It’s a “win-win” situation.

If there are two features that are missing from Lightroom, its the ability to run Adobe Photoshop filters inside the application itself and the ability to shoot straight from your camera to your photo database.

Why would you want to tether your camera to a computer? I’m glad you asked.

In a studio setting, the ability to view your photos on a large display while you are shooting offers immediate advantages: you can ensure your exposure is dead on, sharpness and focal point are very evident, and your client can approve images directly onsite.

Canon shooters are provided with tethering software with their camera purchase, while Nikon trys to sell you a separate solution called Nikon Camera Control Pro. Both have distinct advantages, but since this is about a camera to lightroom workflow – I needed something that didn’t involve commercial or extra applications.

Enter “LightroomTether” (Update – New Version, Februrary 2009), from Mountain Storm software in the UK. A freely available (donationware) plugin developed for Mac platforms for Lightroom 2. LightroomTether installs with the plugin manager in Lightroom, and acts as a conduit between your camera and your photo database.

In this video I discuss the installation for LightroomTether, some potential pitfalls, and some tips to ensure it works for you “out of the box”. The software could use more polish, and can be flakey in Mac OS 10.5.6, but its a great start for location shooters who have the ability to bring a laptop along, or for studio and tabletop shooters to get the best previews possible.

I hope you enjoy the video, you can watch it in high definition right on Vimeo.

I’ve created this “shaped bokeh” video tutorial that explains some of the ins and outs of doing this “in-camera”. Take a look and try it out for yourself!

[video:http://vimeo.com/2672375]

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What? Where’s the Wedding Photography?

I’m taking a break today from blogging about weddings, portraits, packages and pricing. Today I decided to grab a few items I had lying around the house and create some abstract images using smoke from incense sticks.

I grabbed some cheap incense from the local dollar store here in Lethbridge, and repurposed some of the items I had on hand for shooting newborn photographs (black velvet backdrops, reflectors, etc.) Triggering the flash remotely, I was able to light the smoke without spilling light on the backdrop. The snoot, speedstrap, and flag seen in the video can be sourced from honlphoto.com.

[video:http://www.vimeo.com/2647219]

Updated with Photo!

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As you already know, Google Maps has satellite views of most every corner of the globe. This view is able to climb over fences, dive through back alleyways, and show street-level views of most any place – from the convenience of your desk. I’m heading to Las Vegas in February and have been intrigued by the neon sign graveyard I’ve seen in photos on Flickr. A quick scan in Google Maps showed me the yard, the detail of the inventory, and a pathway to plan my shoot there – all for free.

 Flickr, an online photo community has a similar tool available called “Places”. Users are able to sort through photos via a map interface, viewing the resulting photo sets AND the locations they were generated from. The act of “geotagging” your photos places them in context of where you shot them. Searching through photos by content, in a map interface offers many different viewpoints for the same location.

Try it out, see what hidden gems are available for your next destination.