White balance is best taken off a gray card although I sometimes specify a custom white balance if I’m going for a cooler look or working with gels. Often, once the white balance is adjusted – particularly drastic adjustments – I’ll find myself going back to the exposure section to make some further refinements. If you need to push these values greatly one way or the other, then odds are some lighting adjustments should instead be made.Īs expected, along with exposure comes the adjustment of the white balance as this can have a profound effect on the look of the image and our perception of the image. I may also play with the shadow and highlight sliders although, for portrait work, they should be used sparingly or it can result in a look that’s not overly natural. One of the advantages of shooting tethered is that it allows you to experiment a bit with such scenarios and ensure that you have the detail in the highlights and shadows you require. For example, if I’m shooting something that has deep shadows, I may over expose by 1/3 of a stop and reign in the highlights with Capture One Pro to retain more shadow detail if I need it. Most of this will be done in camera, but I’ll make small adjustments where needed.
Exposure and High Dynamic RangeĪs a first step, I generally want to dial in my exposure to give the desired baseline luminosity level that sets the mood of the image. At the tethered stage, I tend to use a rather wide gamut of tools, so a strong familiarity with Capture One Pro is quite important here – and one of the reasons why a digital tech on set is beneficial – so I’ll focus on just the most common ones I use.
Naturally, since we’re working with a series of images, the adjustments you make can’t be overly localized, as subject position or composition will vary from frame to frame, so the adjustments we make need to work off of reference colors or luminosities. It’s also a great check for image cohesion if you’re shooting an editorial as it allows you to place images from different looks side by side and ensure that the look is consistent across the shoot. are reading in camera the way the team wants them to. The idea at this stage is allowing the team to see your vision for the final image and also get a sense that your lighting, the styling, makeup, etc.
For tethered shooting, my adjustments are geared towards achieving a look that as closely resembles the final output as is possible – excluding of course the actual skin retouching portion of the work.
For model tests or quick portrait sessions I usually shoot to the card and import and backup at the end of the shoot, while for commercial, e-commerce, or editorial work I almost always shoot tethered. There are cases where I shoot tethered and cases where I don’t.
Download a free 30-day trial of Capture One if you don’t already own it. You might want to follow along in Capture One as you read through. The overall workflow will vary depending on the nature of the images being shot, but we’ll note those differences as we work through each of these steps.