Your Camera and Mac, Tethered Together

Control your camera from your Mac by connecting to your DSLR, point-and-shoot or iPhone BY DERRICK STORY
Many DSLRs, and a handful of compacts, can shoot tethered, meaning that you connect your camera to your Mac via a USB cable and then control the camera remotely. With this setup you can save files directly to your hard drive, preview the images on the computer screen, and control your camera from afar.
When to Tether
Tethered shooting is useful for situations when handheld photography isn't ideal. If you want to shoot birds (macworld.comj 5986) visiting a feeder, for example, but don't want to scare them off, put the camera on a tripod and snap the pictures from your Mac a safe distance away.
Tethering is also handy when you need to position a camera in an awkward location, such as up high. Some studio photographers use tethering to show clients large image previews on the monitor as they shoot images. Finally, tethering is helpful when your shots create large files and you want to save them directly to your hard drive instead of constantly swapping memory cards.
Tethering is primarily used with DSLRs, though a handful of compact cameras, such as the Casio EX-FI (macworld.comj 5987) can also do it. Read your camera's specs carefully before purchasing to make sure that the necessary Mac software is included with the hardware.
Use the Right Software
With the right software, tethering is very easy. Canon includes EOS Utility, its application for remote-control photogra­ phy, with its new DSLRs. Connect your
70 Macworld June 2010

Powerful Connection Your digital camera and Mac can work together to capture images as well as display them.
Canon DSLR via its USB cable, launch EOS Utility, and choose Camera Settings/ Remote Shooting. Click the Remote Live View Shooting button, and you'll see the world through your camera's lens on your Mac's display. Here you can change the camera settings, such as exposure compensation, white balance, and ISO.
You can tether Nikons. but those DSLRs don't come with the necessary software. You can buy Nikon Camera Control Pro 2 for remote shooting, or try a third-party application such as Sofortbild (payment requested; sofortbildapp.com). You can also use Photoshop Lightroom ( •••• t $299; macworld.comj3873) with two free plug-ins from Mountainstorm: Lightroom­ Tether and StudioTether (macworld.comj 5989). You can also use Aperture 3 (macworld.comj6025) to tether certain Nikon and Canon cameras to your Mac.
Other camera brands also support
tethering with proprietary software, such as Olympus Studio . Jfyou're shopping for a new
OS LR you want to tether, be sure to investigate the software options available to you before making your purchase.
iPhones Get In on the Action
DSLRs don't get to have all the fun. You can also tether your iPhone to your Mac with the help of Aperture. You don't get the remote-shooting function, but the images you take with the iPhone's camera will download directly to the Aperture library of your choosing for instant viewing and storage. If you don't want to manually fire the camera on your tethered iPhone, you can use software such as [oby's free Gorillacam app to set up interval shooting.
You can also use an iPhone or iPod touch as a remote control for tethered Canon and Nikon DSLRs, using DSLR