What are the benefits of connecting a camera to a laptop while shooting?
Asked 4/6/2012
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I saw a photographer say they had the camera on a tripod and connected to a laptop while they poured milk and triggered the shutter. How does connecting the camera to a laptop help in a setup like this? What can you do with a tethered camera that you can’t easily do from the camera alone?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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By feeding the output of the camera to the laptop you can see what the camera is seeing in real time if you can't be behind the camera. You can position the laptop where you can see it's screen, then you can press the remote shutter release at exactly the right moment to capture the shot you are after.
Most useful, if, like the photographer in this case, you are working alone.
NOTE: You don't have to have software on the laptop to actually control the camera as you can use a remote for the camera.
How you view the image will depend on your camera. The term you need to search for is "tethering".
Originally by user441. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user441
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Connecting a camera to a laptop is usually called tethered shooting. It helps most when you can’t stand behind the camera, such as self-operated splash or product shots.
Main benefits:
- Live view on a much larger screen, so you can compose and time the shot while away from the camera.
- Easier focusing, since checking focus on a laptop is more precise than on the camera LCD.
- Immediate review of images at full size, which helps spot mistakes, reflections, blur, or framing issues right away.
- Files can be transferred directly to the laptop as you shoot.
- Some software can remotely trigger the shutter and control focus or other settings.
- It can also be useful for automated shooting such as time-lapses.
In the milk-pour example, the photographer likely used the laptop to monitor the scene and review results while standing where they could pour the milk, then triggered the shutter with a remote or from the computer.
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