The Top 4 Benefits: Shooting Tethered for Volume Photography

A day in the life of a volume photographer can be hectic and a bit stressful at times because shuffling hundreds to thousands of subjects one by one before your camera frame to capture an important memory requires a fast, strategic workflow.  

Volume photography is growing more and more competitive not only because of its gratifying rewards of creating those lifetime mementos for subjects and their families but also because it can be a lucrative business if the right practices are implemented. The key to a successful volume photography business is to have an efficient workflow that will produce consistent, high-quality work. Tethered shooting is designed to help you reach your business goals. 

Key Benefits of Shooting Tethered for Volume Photography

1. Better-quality captures in fewer frames

A high-quality image is the goal of every photographer; however, for volume photographers, image quality can often times make or break a sales opportunity. For example, holiday photography, such as Santa or Easter Bunny photography, and cruise ship photography rely on the customer’s decision to purchase a photo after viewing it first.  

If anything is amiss in the photo, the customer may not purchase the print. This is where tethering can help you make sure everything is at least technically correct about your image. 

Tethering provides a way for you to view the focus, exposure, composition, color, and details about your subject in high resolution on a larger display as you shoot. You are then able to make any necessary adjustments before your subject leaves your set, and you can rest assured that you captured the necessary shots in fewer frames. 

2. A Faster Workflow

When you tether, images are transferred directly to your computer, which instantly speeds up your workflow by bypassing the step of having to transfer your images from a memory card. This also ensures that your images are safe from a potentially corrupted memory card. In addition, you can simultaneously back up your images to an external hard drive as you capture them, an added safety measure. 

Tethering also speeds up your workflow when you set up your shooting into a watch folder, because your images can then be automatically imported onto a volume platform such as GotPhoto, Flow by PhotoLynx, Darkroom, or Next Generation Photography Solutions for editing before being sent to a lab for processing. 

3. Better Organization

Federal privacy laws under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) generally only allows a school to provide information such as the classroom, teacher, grade, and student ID of each student to photographers ahead of time, which could make data management difficult. Tethering, however, provides an easy, accurate, and organized way of complying with FERPA laws. 

Once a photographer receives the student ID information, they can then import it into Flow by PhotoLynx or GotPhoto and the software will generate barcodes or QR codes on sheets that correspond to student IDs, which can be distributed to teachers. The teachers can then give them to each respective student for the photoshoot.  

On photoshoot day, the photographer then uses a software such as Smart Shooter  to capture and read a student’s barcode or QR code. The software will then associate that code with all subsequent images shot until a new barcode or QR code is captured. When the photographer is shooting to a watch folder, the images can then be automatically imported into Flow by PhotoLynx or GotPhoto and matched up to the student information previously imported into the platform. 

4. A Tight, Flexible Setup

With volume photography, it’s important to plan ahead so you’re prepared for any potential scenarios or changes that may arise on the day of your shoot, such as having to shoot in a locker room, library, or gym where a nearby power outlet may not be available. Powering a laptop or charging batteries could be a problem; however, there are mobile power solutions available to you, such as the ONsite Relay C Camera Power System which can continuously power your camera.

When it comes to tethering workstation setups for volume photography, you have a variety of options to choose from; however, one of the most popular options volume photographers work with is the High Volume Tethering Kit.  

The High Volume Tethering Kit is perfect for the volume photographer who has more shooting space and wants to tether to a laptop and back up images simultaneously to an external hard drive. 

Grow Your Volume Photography Business with a Custom Tethering Solution 

From better-quality images with less shooting and a faster workflow to better organization and data management using a variety of flexible tethering setup options, tethering was made for the volume photographer. Learn more about how to grow your volume photography business by downloading The Ultimate Sports, School, and Headshot Portrait Photography Guide

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