Shooting Tethered From Your Camera Into Lightroom (Canon Version)
Posted on 09. Aug, 2008 by Terry Reinert in Featured
On March 26th Scott Kelby posted a blog entry detailing how to shoot tethered and have the images automatically show up in Lightroom. His post shows screen shots of the Nikon Camera Control 2 software since he is a Nikon user (we won’t hold that against him) but doesn’t show any screen shots from Canon’s EOS Utility software. Jibble posted a step-by-step tutorial for shooting tethered with a Canon but they just barely touch on the features that can be used and have some extra fluff for Windows XP. So, I am going to fill in the gaps and give a good overview on shooting tethered with a Canon camera.
To avoid violating his copyright I am not going to copy / paste the relevant information from his blog. Instead, go to his blog post HERE and read what he has. Then use my Step Four below instead of his.
Step Four: Make sure your camera and laptop are connected, your camera turned on, then launch Canon EOS Utility. From the main screen (see image above), select “Camera Settings / Remote Shooting” and the camera control dialog for your camera (see image below) will appear.
From the EOS Utility menu select Preferences. You can go through all the pages in the drop down menu but the only real important ones are the Destination Folder page and the Linked Software page.
On the Destination Folder page, select the “watched” folder that you set up in Scott Kelby’s Step Three. Then uncheck the three boxes for creating subfolders. This will make sure that each image from the camera is saved in the specific directory that Lightroom will be importing from.
On the Linked Software page, select “None” from the drop down menu. Since Lightroom will be your software of choice you do not want the Canon software to open any other program to handle the images. Also, Lightroom is going to be importing the images automatically so you DO NOT want to set the linked software to Lightroom. Set it to None and you’re done!
Now go on to Scott Kelby’s Step Five and configure Lightroom to auto import your images. After that is done, start shooting!
Now to explore Canon EOS Utility a little bit…
The control dialog has all the settings that are accessed from the top window on the camera; camera mode, shutter speed, aperture value, white balance, ISO, metering mode, file type, and so on. It is important to note that you cannot change the camera mode from the software. You have to turn the dial on the camera to change the mode. Also, the dialog will display slightly different settings depending on the mode you are in. To change any of the values, simply click on the value to highlight it and then use the arrow buttons below the display to change them.
On the bottom right hand corner of the camera control dialog are two icons; a camera icon and a tool (wrench and hammer) icon. Whenever you click on either of these icons the control dialog will expand downward and expose some other control features that can be used to set up the camera. The things contained in this area will be different for each Canon camera. I will not go into this in more detail simply due to the fact that if you’ve read your camera’s user manual you can easily figure out what all the features in this area are.
One other feature that I want to talk about is the timer shooting feature. This allows you to set up your camera to capture any number of images at a specific interval or a single image at a specific delay. This makes it much easier to take those self portraits or family photos! Simply set the delay and hit the capture button. It will count down and when it reaches 0 it will focus the scene and then take the shot. If you want to take multiple images with a specific delay between them, simply check the Interval Timer box, set the interval in seconds and the number of images you want it to take and then hit the capture button. Just think… now you can take photos of the grass growing once each hour for as long as your camera battery will last!
The last thing to note is that your camera WILL NOT go to sleep when it is tethered unless you check the Auto Power Off box on the basic page of the Preferences dialog. So if you plan to take a lot of photos on a long interval under battery power, make sure you check that box so the camera will “sleep” between images.
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25 Responses to “Shooting Tethered From Your Camera Into Lightroom (Canon Version)”
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Photoshop Insider » Tuesday News Quickies
12. Aug, 2008
[...] to shoot tethered for Canon users using the Canon EOS Utility, and he did a great job of it, too! Here’s the link (My thanks to Terry for adding this important info. Way to [...]
Photo News Today » Blog Archive » Shooting Tethered From Your Camera Into Lightroom (Canon Version)
12. Aug, 2008
[...] Source and Read More: tkrphoto.com [...]
Andy Clement
13. Aug, 2008
Thanks for doing this for Canon. I’ve always wanted to try this but just never got around to it.
Steve L Wells
14. Aug, 2008
Thanks for adopting this for Canon! I’m planning to do some event photography in the near future and want to give the parents instant gratification as to how the pictures look.
AlexM
16. Aug, 2008
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
Tehilah
18. Aug, 2008
I have a curious question for you prompted by my attempts to take a photo of a lunar eclipse two nights ago. I want to take a time-lapse photo of the stars. Since the longest exposure on my XTi is 30 seconds, I thought to set it for “BULB” and shoot tethered. Do you know if the EOS software allows me to set exposure time for the shot? I really don’t want to hold the button down on the camera for 3-5 hours…
Charlie
18. Aug, 2008
Have you found a way to shoot the Canon 1D Mark II while just using the batteries? I have tried this and the software says that the batteries are drained in minutes. So I end up having to use the line power adapter.
Also I have to use the firewire cable to connect to my Intel Mac.
Terry
18. Aug, 2008
Hi Tehilah,
I do not believe it is possible to use EOS Utility to take an exposure beyond 30 seconds. According to the manual, BULB mode is not available in the software. I tried to force it into this mode using my Canon 5D and could not. So I doubt a software solution is available.
I think the only way that you are going to be able to accomplish what you want is to set the camera to BULB mode and use a remote shutter release that has a locking feature. There are quite a few available for the XTi (for example: http://www.amazon.com/Opteka-Remote-Release-Digital-Cameras/dp/B001CMEXSK/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1219091523&sr=8-3). You won’t be able to shoot tethered while in BULB mode but at least you won’t have to sit there holding the shutter release button down for a few hours!
Hope this helps!
Terry
Terry
18. Aug, 2008
Hi Charlie,
According to the manual the 1D Mk II N, 1Ds Mk II, and 1D Mk II all use the FireWire instead of USB. I am sure this is due to the increased amount of data that those cameras produce over the lower line Canon cameras and the higher speed of the FireWire protocol is needed.
It is interesting that the software immediately says that the battery is dead and you have to use the AC adapter. I haven’t seen that problem with the 5D, 20D, or the original Rebel (yes, I actually still have it). Well, I did see it once with the 20D but that is because some dumby (i.e. me) forgot to charge the battery before hand. I do have a battery that the 5D shows as being “almost dead” at all times but the 20D shows it as being full. Why there is a difference between the two cameras I do not know… my guess is that the 5D requires more juice and the battery is at a point in its life cycle that it registers correctly when under a smaller current draw. Shrug.
Does the battery that you are having this problem with show the same thing or does it show full on the camera window? Have you tried using a different battery or maybe the battery grip with multiple batteries?
I am just trying to come up with some kind of explanation or things to try since the manual says nothing about those cameras requiring the AC adapter instead of batteries when shooting tethered. Of course if Canon wants to ship me one of the fancy high end cameras I would be happy to test my batteries with it!!
Terry
John Lashua
22. Aug, 2008
Terry;
What length tether do you use, where can we get the longer thether without having to rig up several mismatch extensions.
I appreciate the Canon explanation as I have a 5D.
John
Chad
31. Aug, 2008
Thanks for the tutorial. When I open the EOS Utility the remote shooting button is grayed out. The only option I have is Monitor Folder. Do you know why it’s disabled for me? Thanks.
Deniz
15. Oct, 2009
Dont know if this is too late, but anyways.
I had the mirror lock up enabled, and when i disabled it the button is available again
//
Deniz
Terry Lee
11. Sep, 2008
I had tried several times to use my Canon 5D tethered to my iMac without success. When I tried to select “Camera setting/Remote shooting” on the EOS Utility window, I got the error message:
___________________________________________________________
Error
Camera is busy and cannot communicate. Clear if camera’s LCD monitor is displayed.
___________________________________________________________
Searching the web for info on tethered shooting, I came across Fred Miranda’s input to his forum (http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/603466/0) that provided the information I needed. Below is the steps I followed:
• Connect camera with cable to computer, turn camera on
• Set up Canon “EOS Utility” for watch folder (per Terry’s article).
• Setup “Lightroom” for watch folder (per Scott Kelby’s article Step Five).
• Disconnect camera from computer.
• Turn camera “Menu” on.
• Reconnect camera to computer.
• Select “EOS Utility” on menu bar, window is displayed
• Select “Camera setting/Remote shooting”
• On error message, turn camera “menu” off.
• “EOS Utility” opens camera shooting window
Now tethered shooting works with my 5D & iMac.
Terry
Jonathan Chick
20. Jul, 2009
Terry…you are a saint!!! I would not have figured that out in million years! Thanks for your post! You rock and you roll!
naomi
03. Dec, 2008
Dear Terry,
I spent all day trying to shoot tethered with my Canon 5D to my MacBook Pro. I finally had to leave my studio and out of frustration was pretty much ready to trash my digital lab. Anyways, I came back an hour later and found your blog with the “step four” instructions, thought I’d give it one last try, and lo and behold it worked!!
Thank you, thank you so much.
Naomi Gardner
» Blog Archive » Canon 5D + Lightroom
16. Dec, 2008
[...] Setup Canon Setup (with a strong reference to the above link to get Lightroom set [...]
Christopher Wren
15. Jan, 2009
I did have to figure this out (and get the CD with the canon software on it from my dad), and I used the tethered shooting to make a cool $2000 at a corporate holiday party shooting greenscreen tethered, and then comping in a number of different backgrounds using actions I wrote. The partygoers were able to come back in about 30 minutes and get a printout (yeah, more stress). Could not have been done without lightroom and the tethering option. I did it with a 5D and the results were great.
cindi
17. Jan, 2009
I tried fooling the EOS Utility by using the trick listed above by Terry Lee, but the EOS Utility still stubbornly does not see my camera. I’m using version 2.5.2 of the utility and Mac OS X 10.5.6.
I’ve downloaded a 30-day trial of CaptureOne Pro, which works beautifully, but I’m not ready to pay the $400 for a license.
So frustrating! If CaptureOne can do it, so can Canon’s free software. What’s going wrong, here?
cindi
17. Jan, 2009
I noticed that my battery was low, so swapped it out. I tried the Terrys’ instructions one last time, and voila! Free tethered shooting! w00t, w00t!
Citegeist » Shooting Tethered With the Canon 5D and Mac OS X Leopard
17. Jan, 2009
[...] Step 2. If you shoot Canon, first download the most recent version of the Canon EOS Utility, then check out Terry Reinert’s instructions for Canon shooters on how to shoot into Lightroom. [...]
Michael Warf
27. Jan, 2009
I created a quick video tutorial for Nikon users and Mac Lightroom 2 to get that darn ‘ol tether function working.
I hope it helps the users of that “other” camp:
http://www.michaelwarf.com/blog/adobe-lightroom-tethering-tutorial
Thanks,
M
Matt Branscombe
24. Feb, 2009
Your blog brings up a possibility that might help me in my quest to figure out how to shoot my 1Ds II to my iMac or Power MAc running OSX 10.5.6
All I want is live view but it looks like thats not going to happen. WhY is the good stuff so expensive.
Thanks for the tutorial
pipinhot
13. May, 2009
has any tried lightroom 20d and vista 64 for tethered shooting? if you have it working please let me know.
louie
15. Feb, 2010
ok all good info but i open canon utility , plug my rig on to my laptop and now it wont recognize my camera — does anyone now what to do next or get my MAC computer to read my camera ?
Terry Reinert
15. Feb, 2010
What Canon camera do you have, OSX version, and version of the drivers and Canon Utility? I have a Canon 5D and shoot tethered on my Mac all the time and have no problems at all.