Since Lightroom cannot tether directly to the camera, I used Canon EOS Utility to connect the camera. I chose to not rename the images from the camera and to have the images download to a folder called ‘Canon Import’ on the Mac Pro’s shoot drive.

Then I go to Lightroom set up the import settings by choosing FILE > AUTO IMPORT > AUTO IMPORT SETTINGS… I choose the ‘Canon Import’ folder as the watched folder so Lightroom will import images to the correct shot folder, rename the files and apply the right curve and metadata settings. Once I have the right settings, I make sure that ‘ENABLE AUTO IMPORT’ is checked.



Lightroom only begins importing images once they stop appearing in the watched folder. So if the photographer fires off 30 shots in a row, they won’t appear in Lightroom until there is a pause in shooting. In order to make sure that the photographer and art director can see the images as they come in, I have the Canon EOS Utility preview window sitting on top of the Lightroom preview so they can be seen immediately. As soon as the photographer is done shooting and the images appear in Lightroom, I switch back to Lightroom using the COMMAND TAB key combo.

I usually upgrade the firmware in a camera ONLY if there is a specific reason to do so. For example, the newest firmware for the Hasselblad H2 camera allows the user to reprogram the AEL button to function as the shutter release. So if the shutter release button fails, you can still use the camera. The newest firmware for the H2 is 9.5.0.

Here are the steps to upgrade firmware on an H2:
1. First, check the current firmware on the H2 by pushing the menu button, then SETTINGS, then SYSTEM STATUS. The firmware version will now be visible.

2. Login to the Hasselblad web site and download the firmware file called 081222.hbf There is a read me file included which has specific details and instructions for the firmware upgrade. It is a good idea to read this first.

3. Attach an H3D digital back to the H2 camera then turn on the camera.

4. You will receive an error message on the digital back and on the camera LCD stating that the back is not compatible with the camera.

5. Connect your computer to the digital back with a firewire cable and open the Phocus program. On a Mac, you will need to use Phocus version 1.1.3 or higher.

6. Go to FILE > UPDATE FIRMWARE and locate the firmware file on your computer. Then click UPDATE.

7. Then follow the remaining directions on screen. Remove the lens and prism finder from the camera.



8. Click OK when presented with this firmware these confirmation messages:

9. The firmware package includes 3 components. After these have loaded, you will receive a confirmation message.





11. When you check the firmware in the camera again, you will see the new version 9.5.0

Thanks to Hasselblad technical specialist, Paul Claesson, for the assistance.

I was excited to see that ACR 5.4 beta could process Hasselblad RAW files. But my excitement was quickly followed by disappointment that only the compressed .3fr format was supported, not the .fff format. .3fr files are created while shooting to card and .fff files are created when importing from card/hard drive/etc. This is certainly better than no support at all but if you are shooting tethered with an H3D, processing in Lightroom or Photoshop is not an option. But only Hasselblad’s Phocus software offers the full array of DAC digital lens corrections so it is still probably the best choice for dealing with their RAW files.

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php?title=Camera_Raw_5.4#Download

The problem with OS 10.5.6 is that when you connect a Canon camera tethered by USB such as 5D MarkII, the images will stop coming in after about 100 to 150 shots. This is due to a memory leak with the ‘Image Capture Extension’. If you use the Activity Monitor application, you can see that the ‘Image Capture Extension’ virtual memory usage begins at around 292 MB and then slowly increases to 3.16GB at which point the remaining images fill up the camera’s buffer and will not download. The only fix I found was to turn off the camera, close the software (Capture One Pro 4.7 in this case) and then start them both up again. The virtual memory usage would start over at 292MB and the process would begin again.

Using OS 10.5.5 is an option but it is slower. I could only shoot around 27 shots per minute but the images take 2 minutes to download from the camera. With OS 10.5.6, I could shoot around 37 shots per minute and the images take a minute and a half to download.

Fortunately, the ‘Image Capture Extension’ memory leak is fixed with OS 10.5.7. I fired off 300 frames at 37 shots per minute with a 1DS MarkIII with no problems. The Image Capture Extension virtual memory usage stayed stable at 292MB.

I was on a photo shoot last week and the photographer needed a special effect added to selected images.  It was an effect that I could not get directly with Capture One Pro 4.  I could have done the color balance, curves and hue/saturation adjustments there but I needed to add heavy custom grain in overlay mode so Photoshop was necessary.

1. Create an action in Photoshop which achieves the desired effect

2. Go to FILE > AUTOMATE > CREATE DROPLET



3. Choose the action to be run with the droplet

4. Save the droplet application to the desktop or session folder. I put a shortcut on the dock to make it more accessible.

5. When you need it, just drop a processed image on the droplet and the action is automatically applied to the photo.  On an 8 core Mac Pro, it’s REALLY fast.

First, the camera had to be synchronized to the back.  This was the challenging part.  Typically, a sync cable would be connected from the pc port on the camera to the pc port on the back.  That does not work in this case.  The flash sync pulse duration is not proportional to the shutter speed with this camera so the digital back does not know how long to record the image.  The pulse duration is very short and is the same for all shutter speeds.  To work around this, you can use a shutter speed sync pulse equalizer like the kind that Davin at DPI has.  But I found a way to do it without one of these.  Here are the steps to do it:

1. The P25+ is a ‘two shot’ back so a wake-up signal is required to prepare the back to record an image.  I connected a pig tail mulitsync cable to the back and then connected a sub-mini plug on a Canon Digital Rebel cable release to the pig tail.

2. Connect a Fuji GX680III cable release to the camera.

3. Set the shutter on the camera to 1/8 sec with aperture at f/11.

4. Press the Canon cable release to wake up the back.

5. Press the Canon cable release again and hold it down.  I did this to simulate the duration of the sync pulse from the camera since the actual sync pulse is too short.

6. Press the cable release on the camera to fire the shutter.

7. Let go the the Canon cable release so the back will stop recording the image.

This worked great since the back was ready to record the image the whole time I was holding down the Canon cable release.  The shutter speed on the camera was SHORTER than the length of time I was keeping the back active with the Canon cable release.  When the shutter fired, the image was recorded.

But if the duration of the shutter speed is LONGER than the time the back is recording, an error occurred.  This error can be seen as purple stripes across the image.  To get this to happen, I put the shutter speed on B, opened the shutter, THEN pressed the Canon cable release timed for 1/8 sec., then closed the shutter.  I believe this happened because the back thought the shot was finished recording but light was still falling on the sensor while the black calibration was happening.

Thanks to Mark at K&M Camera for letting me use their gear to do this test.