  ...and cost me nothing ! nada ! zero ! ....
The most difficult part of taking pictures (especially food pictures) for me is getting the POI dead-on sharp ! So sharp, even when you zoom in into the image, it retains the distinguished lines and color, the overall sharpness. 2" LCD at the back of my camera is definitely not adequate. Even with the addition of cable releaser (to prevent slight movement while pressing the shutter button), tripod and such, my quest for getting the sharpness that I expect for every single picture still such a hassle. Yeah, you can call me sharpness nazi !  
Transferring the memory card from camera to the reader, uploading to the computer, getting them viewed for overall focusing, color, lighting etc take too many steps. Then, it's time for me to shoot tethered, so I can view images coming from my camera (semi) real-time. Armed with a USB cable and Canon's own picture editing software that came with my camera, I started playing with the combination. Check for setup to shoot remotely in Canon software manual. It was not as difficult as I expected previously. Finally after couple of hours, I can directly control my camera setting before each shot through my computer. Too bad, it doesn't show the relative position of each setting to the normal exposure just like on the camera itself.
The grid within the image editing software is helpful in aligning straight lines and checking the composition (rule of-third). But the best part is, I can check the focusing and sharpness of each image after each shot immediately. Plus, with the help of cable releaser, I don't have to be behind the camera while pressing the shutter button. I can always be in the left or right of the frame holding extra reflection when I need to  . Multitasking !
 Still not happy with where the focus point and overall sharpness for the macaroons
Why wouldn't I do this earlier ? My gosh ...
The down side of this arrangement is, I have to move my setup to different places if I want to shoot at different location. Sometimes, I have to drag extra small table just for my laptop. The USB cable that comes with the camera is less than 3 ft long, I might have to get longer cable for extra flexibility.
Shooting tethered changes everything ! This and custom white balance (described earlier on this post) will make the mechanical process of taking better food pictures a little bit easier. Now, I just need to work on the aesthetic part  . PS:
All pictures above were taken while shooting tethered. And the pandan roll cookies photo (above) is my submission for May 2009 Click! food photography event PSS:
The pandan roll cookies was Host's Pick Click! Winner for May 2009 edition. Thank you for all the votes.
 | good posting there ! useful banget..emang soal ketajaman ini kadang bikin senewen..apalagi yang matanya minus kyk aku...thanks yah shinta dah belain bikin postingan ini. :) |
 | you're more than welcome, Shan :) Iya, susah nyari fokus kalau udah semuanya pake manual. Bolak balik kamera-komputer pake ngeluarin memory card segala makan waktu banyak banget. lagian kalau udah beberapa kali gagal, aku suka nyerah aja |
 | estudia14 wrote on May 18, '09, edited on May 18, '09 shin, thanks for sharing. Gw lagi pengen yg spt ini nih tp gak tahu apakah kamera gw bisa atau kagak dan gw pakai Canon 400D. Soalnya sama dgn kamu, aku suka yg sharp bagian POI-nya dan setelah dilihat di kompi... alamak ternyata out of focus.
Softwarenya pakai Canon DPP? Utk upload pics sih, aku tinggal pakai USB cablenya tanpa keluar masukin memory card. Tp kalau tiap gambar mesti upload satu2, bisa2 mataharinya keburu kabur.
eh iya, kamu ngefotonya pakai JPEG atau RAW? kalau RAW perlu download plugin lagi gak ya? |
| hmmm kayaknya bisa angin segar nih... baru nyari2 inpoh di internet dan kayaknya bisa tuh. kebetulan gw punya si DPP dari G10. moga2 bisa... moga2 bisa... |
| Regina,
bisa pake yg 400D, tinggal pake Canon DPP & EOS utilities plus USB kabel yg dari paketnya juga, cari di manual yg buat shooting remotely. trus bisa di-setting begitu tiap kali shutter button-nya dipencet, langsung imagenya keluar di kompi. Canon DPP bisa langsung proses RAW kok, jadi nggak perlu pake plug-in lagi.
Good luck :) |
| asik.. asik... :)
gw udah ngiler aja deh ngelihat di tipi2 kalau ada yg sesi potret memotret. bisa langsung lihat di layar kompi. ah jadi angin segar buat siang2 gini :D |
 | aidyl wrote on May 19, '09 Shin..blom bs baca lengkapnya malam ini..bsk aku mampir lagi ya..
Anakku lg sakit nih...jd ini mlm begadang nungguin dia.. |
 | duh Shin... nanti bunda baca2 lagi...:-) Musti diseriusin nih...TFS... |
| kasih tahu hasilnya yah Reg :) Glad I can help :) |
| Lydia, mudah-mudahan anaknya cepet sembuh yah. Postingannya nggak kemana-mana kok ...:) |
| Iya Bunda, cuma modal software yg dari kameranya (Nikon/Canon/dll), USB cable bisa langsung disambungin kamera ke kompi, jadi begitu moto, langsung keluar di kompi |
 | thx mba shinta ... iactually have an eyes for this kind of hobby ...cuman I know deh kalo asih tinggal disini bakalan belum punya waktu ...so thx for sharing and I know who to ask kalo soal Potome moto yach ...thx mba |
| No porblem, Rachel :) loe-nya aja udah kaya ibu pejabat, banyak acara ....hahahahaha just kidding :) See you in July yah ! |
| aidyl wrote on May 19, '09 Nah itu Shin...masalah terbesarku mati gaya alias blajar kompo n aesthetic...ajarinnnnn... |
| lah, nanya kompo ama styling jangan ke aku :) hehehe ...sama nih, masih belajar. kadang kalau udah mati gaya, udah males banget moto lagi. Biasanya kalau udah jenuh, aku malah nggak megang kamera sama sekali. Aku suka liatin flickr ama google, nyari ide kalau buat styling ama komposisi, Lyd *hihihi ...nggak modal* |
| shin, kemarin gw udah ngetethered kamera ke kompi. cuma ada satu masalah nih, file numberingnya mulai dari nomer 1 lagi dan pas gw matiin kameranya buat ganti lensa, file numbernya restart dari satu lagi. settingan di kamera sih continuous, cuma gak tahu nih pas ditethered jadinya gak continuous. kamu ada masalah gini jg gak? |
| Reg, gue nggak ada masalah soal file numbering. Malah gue save langsung ke folder yg gue mau di kompi. Waduh ...gue malah nggak ngerti |
 | Postingan yg menarik Shint. TFS.
Aku harus belajar byk dari kamu :). Aku gak pernah sekalipun pake tripod, modal nahan napas doang. Baru mo nyoba nyambungin kabel ke laptop. Thank you Shinta.
*ahh betapa jauhnya aku ketinggalan kereta ya :( |
| hua hua... kayaknya mesti memperdalam si software punya settingan nih. utk recordingan si filenya sih, langsung masuk ke picture directory tp gak bikin folder baru sesuai tgl download spt biasanya ngedownload dari memory card. |
 | iniaku wrote on May 27, '09, edited on May 27, '09 hmmm, gue gak pernah shooting tethered dan udah lama banget gak pernah nambahin sharpness pas editing, alhamdulillah modal tripod murahan (20Euro) foto-foto gue lumayan tajem ;)
pernah nyoba sekali tethered, cuma pengen ngeliat aja bisa gak pake kabel USB yg dari Canon, ternyata bisa...
tapi utk motret tethered, gak deh... ribet, tau deh nanti kalo gue motret on location ditempat client, so far sih semua foto pesanan orang motretnya dirumah :D
foto yg macaroon, BG-nya distract banget Shin |
| yipiii shin, udah beres skg. tadi gw ke bagian preferencenya terus ngeklikcopy to memory card (kalo gak salah), skg beres deh urusan filing numbernya dan utk destination foldernya jg. tadi ngeklik bagian folder settingnya di bagian preferencenya jg. :D :D
sip banget bertethered ria gini, bisa lihat settingannya jg dgn lebih jelas dan sesuai yg terekam di kamera. |
| Van, jadi ikutan seneng kalau postingannya bisa bantu orang lain :) |
| Fa,
berbahagialah loe yang masih punya mata sehat, mata gue tambah uzur aja ...hahahaha, jadinya LCD kecil di belakang kamera bener-bener nggak ngebantu. Your pictures are outstanding. If ain't broken, don;t fix it :) |
| iya nih Reg, mesti liat-liat manual yang buat Canon DPP & EOS utility-nya. Aku suka eksperimen dg Picture Style yg di EOS utility :)
|
|  Fa,
berbahagialah loe yang masih punya mata sehat, mata gue tambah uzur aja ...hahahaha, jadinya LCD kecil di belakang kamera bener-bener nggak ngebantu. Your pictures are outstanding. If ain't broken, don;t fix it :)  gue minus kok Shin, tapi emang gue ini orangnya pemalas, gak kayak elo yg rajin eksperimen ini itu.. lagian kamar tamu (dimana studio gue berada) kecil bener, buat gerak aja susah apalagi kalo ada kabel utk shooting tethered :))
LCD 400D emang imut, gue gak tau kalo 30D.. belum pernah megang soalnya :D
akalin aja pake zoom yg ada dikamera, kan keliatan POI yg elo mau itu udah tajam atau belum...
ini sih trik gue yg pemales, hehehehehe |
| heheh sama dgn gw shin. asli ni mata kemarinnya ngefoto pasta, ampe serasa udah kagak bisa diajak fokus lagi. gw ngandelin warnanya aja, kalau warnanya paling saturated berarti fokus heheh |
| kadang kalau lagi jalan-jalan, gue pake focus point lock tuh, Reg, sama automatic focusing aja. Kelamaan nyetel manual focusing, moment-nya udah ngilang :) |
 | mba, fotonya cantik banget..
soal teknik canggih2an gini mah belom kekejar.. hehehe, tapi TFS yaa.. buat bekel ilmu :) |
 | there's something for you at jugalbandi. congrats!! |
| shin, dikau suka bermasalah dgn si tethered ini gak? udah 2 kali ini sejak ngetethered, setiap abis 30 shots-an... si kamera dan si kompi kagak mau komunikasi aka si foto kagak ke upload ke kompi. mesti on off, on off melulu. |
| enggak pernah punya problem kaya gitu, Reg. Selama ini lancar-lancar aja |
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