Tag Archive for: tethering

Some cool offers and discounts

/in , /by

Holidays are approaching very rapidly and as you guys we are looking forward to some time off and spending it with our family and loved ones.

 

However we also know that sometimes these days can be a bit…. boring or quite for some people so we wanted to give you all a very cool discount to enjoy all our instructional videos. So till christmas you can get a great 25% discount on ALL our videos with the coupon code “holiday15”.

 

So surf to https://frankdoorhof.com/web/shop-videos-etc/direct-video-downloads/ and start downloading your menu of videos for the holidays, and it’s of course allowed to download them now and watch later 😀

MTM video 2

But there is more :
As you know I love the plugins from MacPhun.
Over the year we have worked together with them on quite some occasions and we decided it was time to take this cooperation one step further in the form of a cool discount for their WHOLE creative suite 2016 PLUS some other goodies which will save you guys a lot of money. For this offer surf to the special page and you can take advantage of the discount there.

 

And we are not done yet :
One of the most asked questions on workflow is probably “How do you tether?” and “how do you keep it stable?”
Well the answer is quite simple, on the hardware site I use the Tethertools products which are amazing and very sturdy, and I just love the orange cables (Hey I’m Dutch). On the software side I use Capture One.

 

Capture One is one heck of a piece of software for all your tethering needs, you can not only shoot tethered but you can also use the “focus overlay mask” which will show everything green (or any other color you wish) that is in focus, so you can see from the other side of your studio if you are hitting the focus right. I always say that if my tethering stops I will always check my hardware because Capture One will never ever stop tethering, it’s rock solid.
But it’s not only for tethering btw, try zooming in on an image and you literally will think your computer just got a MAJOR upgrade, it’s blazingly fast, add to this the great RAW conversion and many other tools and you will without a doubt fall in love with Capture One (I did and I’m very picky). So surf to Phase One/Capture One and get a test version of their new Capture One 9 and start enjoying it. Now if you like it…. use the coupon code AMBDOORHOF for a cool discount on the product, and I’m sure you’re gonna keep it.

 

And finally we have another cool discount on software.
Both Alien Skin and Topaz have been long time supporters of my work and I use their plugins a lot.
Both companies gave me some nice coupons for you guys to enjoy.

Nadine 178 - August 28, 2015

Topaz labs always has nice plugins for a very very friendly price.
I always advise people to use their Clarity plugin if they are using a PC and are not able to use Macphuns Intensify, and it ROCKS, without any doubt, a plugin you really can’t afford to miss, it’s like tonal contrast on steroids, but also check out ReStyle which is an awesome tinting plugin and Clean3 which I use for the more difficult skin or to remove goosebumps. Order them via http://www.topazlabs.com/716.html . Use Doorhof99 as coupon code for a really cool 10% discount

 

Now Alien skin is one of the market leaders when it comes to tinting, I always switch between DxO filmpack and Alien Skin. DxO I use when I want very subtle lovely tonings and Exposure X when I want to go towards the more “extreme” side, although it can also do all the subtle tones of course. Visit their site via : the alien skin site  and use the code FrankDoorhof for a cool 10% discount.

 

I hope you guys can benefit from these offers, and always remember that I do promote only the gear/software that I use myself even if it means I don’t earn any money/or less from it, it’s all about advising the right stuff to you guys.

 

 

Digital classroom live Q&A 2

/in /by

Next to the 2 hour monthly broadcasts from “Digital classroom” we also broadcast several smaller episodes at random dates, often containing tips, Q&A etc. See it as a boosted version of Periscope 😀

 

In this episode tips on :
Finding and working with models
The X-rite ColorChecker passport
The iPad pro and the always going war between xxxx vs Apple
And a solution to shoot tethered wireless with the A7RII
Please feel free to comment, subscribe and share the link.
Digital classroom is made possible by BenQ and Rogue/Expoimaging.

tethering without wires

/in /by

I love Sony cameras, but sometimes I feel a little bit left out in the cold by manufacturers, I even sometimes feel they don’t care or don’t realize that Sony is really very fast becoming a major (if not THE major) player. For example I’ve been bugging CamRanger since day 1 for Sony support, their response is very basic… it won’t work and it will never work because Sony doesn’t support it…. well it’s weird that Capture One for example shows live view (which according to CamRanger is not possible…. don’t get me wrong I LOVE Camranger, heck I would buy one if they would support Sony in a heartbeat.

 

What do we/I really need?
Something a lot of manufacturers seem to miss.
For me personally I don’t need to see my live view, I don’t need to do settings or anything else fancy, I just want my images to come in, preferable the JPGs in small sizes, show the images and that’s it.

 

Now where do I want it?
The new iPad pro has me all excited, and yeah I know it’s “just” an iPad but the screen size is very handy for us on location and I strongly believe that (because it’s Apple) Adobe and other app makers will start making apps especially for the iPad pro and to be honest I see myself working on an iPad Pro much more than on my MBP when flying or traveling. So my initial thoughts was to use the Sony Remote control software to shoot tethered to my iPad Pro during workshops (which we now already sometimes do during location workshops with small groups) and that works flawless, however…. we can’t get the files to my MBP, so I was actually looking into that and while searching for solutions I found a company called DSLRdashboard

 

You might know their software for iPad, iPhone and Android, but you might not know they also have a desktop version, well at least I didn’t, and it works flawlessly just connect the Sony via their smart remote app to the wifi network and start the software, search for Sony and within seconds you’re up and running. And it’s fast, plus we tried it out throughout the whole studio area and we have pretty good coverage everywhere, so I’m very happy with this. Now the only thing Sony needs to fix is that the EVF doesn’t work in smart remote (which it did in the past).

 

But is that all?
No.
While doing my research online I more and more became convinced that although CamRanger might not support Sony there must be another solution, the CamRanger is in essence a rebranded and customized TP-Link router so what did they do, well very quickly you will find out that there is a firmware flash option that will run a modified firmware on the router and that will actually transmit your files, as long as the camera has a PC-Remote option, which the Sony has. So I thought “why doesn’t it work”… and the more I looked online the more it puzzled me, according to all the programers it would work with any camera that has PC-Remote and according to the app makers it wouldn’t work…. but what doesn’t work. If you read closely they all talk about the fact that Sony doesn’t allow to change settings etc. but I don’t care about that, I just want the files to come in and I couldn’t care less about time-lapse etc.

 

So I decided to just order the TP-Link somewhere and as soon as it’s in I’m gonna try to make it work to transmit just the JPGs, so keep looking at my blog and social media for this, I could be totally wrong but in my opinion it should be possible to do it, if the Sony smart Remote can make a connection and transfer RAW or JPGs why not via a router, what’s the difference if you only need JPGs…. I’m not a programmer but it doesn’t seem like much to just show images to students right?  we will see 😀

 

Anyway, long story short.
Here is a video in the digital classroom series on wireless tethering, and I also included a tip to shoot tethered with your iPhone without the need for internet 😀
Make sure to subscribe to my channel and share the link 😀

Tethering… what if all goes wrong…

/in , /by

We get a lot of questions about this so I thought it would be handy to do a small blogpost about it.

 

So you want to shoot tethered right?
Well I don’t blame you, it’s the best thing ever, it’s fast, you can check your images, you can beam them to smart devices (or worldwide) etc. etc. the options are limitless at the moment and it keeps getting better. My personal favorite way to shoot tethered in the studio is by cable, and if you talk about tethering tools there is of course one brand that stands out… yep Tethertools 😀

 

But what if your brand new cable doesn’t work?

 

Most people buy an extension cable and a camera cable (and of course a jerkstopper, which is a must buy if you want to keep your port working), and in most cases it’s plug and play, and it should be that way, it’s not rocket science. But in some cases…. well it just doesn’t work, so here is a small list you can follow to find the problem.

 

1. Check your camera
Make sure your camera is on the right setting.
In most cameras you can set the USB protocol, some are called PC remote, some are called PC etc. but make sure it’s not on storage mode (if you don’t have that setting… it’s probably setup right).

 

2. Check your software
Believe it or not but if Lightroom 6 (cc) supports your camera, it doesn’t mean that Lightroom 4 also supports your camera.
Also, with for example Capture One, RAW support doesn’t mean Tethering support, so make sure you also check this.
You can check it very easily on the websites from the supplier of your software. We have best results for tethering with Capture One followed by Lightroom, both should work pretty flawless (although Lightroom sometimes looses connection, but a simple “stop tether” and “start tether” should solve that problem.

 

If your software is supporting your camera, make sure you are running the latest version of your software and OS.

 

3. Check your software 2
Some cameras will tether without any drivers from their manufacturer, but sometimes you need to install the drivers, just use the CD that was delivered with your camera and to make sure just install everything, and later start deleting stuff and see when tethering stops.

 

4. Check the cable
If it’s not the software the quickest test is to check the cable, just connect the supplied cable from the camera and see if that works, then start with the extension cable between the original cable and the PC/ Mac and see if that works, and then change the camera cable.

 

5. Switch USB ports
Believe it or not but not all USB ports are created equal, just switch the ports.
If you use a hub, make sure to first test a DIRECT connection to your PC/Mac.

 

6. Reset your PRAM/NVRAM or SCM on Mac.
On rare occasions the Macs can have a problem with USB (and other things), it’s rather easily solved, find online the term PRAM/NVRAM or SCM and reset and you’ll be set in seconds.

 

On most macs it’s as follows:

 

NVRAM (PRAM)

  1. Shut down your Mac.
  2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. 
  3. Turn on your Mac.
  4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you hear the startup sound.
  5. Hold these keys until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for a second time.
  6. Release the keys.

After resetting NVRAM, you may need to reconfigure settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information.

 

To reset the SMC:

  1. Shut down the computer.
  2. Plug in the MagSafe or USB-C power adapter to a power source and to your computer.
  3. On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
  4. Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
  5. Press the power button to turn on the computer.

On MagSafe power adapters, the LED might change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.

 

To reset the SMC on Intel-based Mac Pro, iMac, and Mac mini computers, as well as Xserve:

  1. Shut down the computer.
  2. Unplug the power cord.
  3. Wait fifteen seconds.
  4. Attach the power cord.
  5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

 

If nothing works…. it could very well be that you already damaged the port in your camera (it’s very easy to do).
You can check if you can put the camera on storage mode and if the camera can be seen by your computer, if that works at least the port works, now bring it to another computer and try the tethering there, as mentioned before it’s not rocket science and in 99.9% of the cases it should flawless and at once. If it doesn’t it’s often one of the above, if not… well it gets a lot more complicated because it could be something in your machine, but that’s way to diverse to discuss here. However in almost all cases it’s one of the above.

 

Now one more thing…
If you need reliable tethertools make sure to visit the site from Tethertools or the international site.
And if you are using USB3 and experience problems, or you simply want to cover more distance, check out their USB3 booster.