HELP: Connecting a Digital SLR to PC/Mac for Instant View/Editing (As Seen on TV)

tarheel#1

Can anyone please tell me what of type cameras, editing software and set-up are used by the professional photographers on shows such as America's Next Top Model? Their digital cameras are connected to a PC/MAC and when pictures are taken the images are immediately viewable in some type of editing software.

1. What type of cameras offer this capability? Are the cameras connected via an HDMI cable?
2. What type of software and/or additional equipment is needed (specific manufacturers)?
3. Is the learning curve for this set-up difficult?

Thanks in advance for your help!!!

David_S85

tarheel#1 wrote:

Can anyone please tell me what of type cameras, editing software and set-up are used by the professional photographers on shows such as America's Next Top Model? Their digital cameras are connected to a PC/MAC and when pictures are taken the images are immediately viewable in some type of editing software.

1. What type of cameras offer this capability? Are the cameras connected via an HDMI cable?
2. What type of software and/or additional equipment is needed (specific manufacturers)?
3. Is the learning curve for this set-up difficult?

Thanks in advance for your help!!!

It is called tethering. Digital SLR's (at least Canon and Nikon) come with the software. One usually has the option to save the files in the camera, on the computer's hard drive, or both. It can be useful in studio situations to help dial in the focus (among other things), but now that cameras come with live view, immediate focus feedback and live histograms, the usefulness of tethering is beginning to fade just a little bit. Still, it is a great option for the studio photographer. Think of tethering as a very advanced remote control.

Another use might be remote wildlife shooting where you can control the camera from a laptop seeing what is happening in front of the lens. Example might be waiting for a varmit to stick his head out of a hole and then hit a control key taking a series of shots.

aaronbrown

tarheel#1 wrote:

Can anyone please tell me what of type cameras, editing software and set-up are used by the professional photographers on shows such as America's Next Top Model? Their digital cameras are connected to a PC/MAC and when pictures are taken the images are immediately viewable in some type of editing software.

1. What type of cameras offer this capability? Are the cameras connected via an HDMI cable?
2. What type of software and/or additional equipment is needed (specific manufacturers)?
3. Is the learning curve for this set-up difficult?

Thanks in advance for your help!!!

1. I'm pretty sure you're referring to digital medium-format cameras like Hasselblads [ http://www.hasselbladusa.com/ ] that you're seeing on that show. They're COSTLY (30 grand for the H3DII-MS39) and need the tethered setup to manage photos coming out at 39+ megapixels each. I think there's a 50mp model out now. Yikes!

2. I'd imagine there's some proprietarty software communicating between the camera and the computer, but I'm honestly not sure that it's not just a direct connection to Lightroom or some other program. You'd want some speedy hardware here.

3. Learning curve-wise, I'm not sure. Wrap your mind around the fact that your equipment costs more than an average college education, and you might approach set-ups with more caution.

Hope that helps a bit and points you in the right direction.

Art Scott

last episode of ATM the photog was using what looked like a Mamiya RZ67 with ZD back tethered as described above.....

Many of the past episodes have had Nikon / Canon DSLR's tethered also..............

Nikolai has a whole thread on here about his experimenting with tethering....................Nikolai's remote live view thread...........

tarheel#1

Thanks!

tarheel#1 wrote:

Can anyone please tell me what of type cameras, editing software and set-up are used by the professional photographers on shows such as America's Next Top Model? Their digital cameras are connected to a PC/MAC and when pictures are taken the images are immediately viewable in some type of editing software.

1. What type of cameras offer this capability? Are the cameras connected via an HDMI cable?
2. What type of software and/or additional equipment is needed (specific manufacturers)?
3. Is the learning curve for this set-up difficult?

Thanks in advance for your help!!!

Thank you for all your answers!

colourbox

I haven't watched the show lately, but on a show like that they might be using something more powerful than the bundled utility. The last studio I visited had Capture One running SLRs tethered to a Mac tower with a widescreen display rotated vertically because they were doing vertical shots.

At home I just use the Canon utility with the USB cable that came with the camera. Lightroom has no direct tethering capability, but it does have a watched folder feature, so if you have your camera utility dump images into a specific folder and then have Lightroom watch the folder, you can be in edit mode right away.

And let's not forget that you can now use an iPhone to preview and shoot your SLR remotely...