Imaging USA came to a close the last week of January, and photographers from all over the country and world are making their way back to their studios and sets equipped with insights, information and plenty of new gear.
If you were at the show, you got to see several demos of well-known photographers using Imaging Brands, including Tether Tools and Spekular gear, in their education workshops. Imaging Brands has 3 powerhouse brands underneath them including Spekular, and it’s sister brands, Tether Tools and Frio Photo. For many attendees, those demos had them curious about how to best use a tethering workflow in their business, and how to incorporate the KYU-6 LED Light Wraps in their next food or commercial photography shoot.
My colleagues and I fielded a lot of questions from new and experienced, photographers alike, and wanted to share the most common questions we heard from people stopping by our booth.Â
1. Tell me about Spekular’s KYU-6 light wraps.
When it comes to lighting on the go, Spekular’s KYU-6 lights will be the tool you’ll always want in your camera bag. The KYU-6 lights comes in two different flavors: RBG and Bi-Color. Each light is wearable, wrappable, and magnetic. Â During Imaging USA we used these handy lights to light up our commercial photography demos. The KYU-6 has 5 brightness levels, 5 effects modes, and the white lights have a temperature range of 2700 K to 6500K, the RGB lights have 15 different colors you can work with. The size of the lights make them easy to travel with, and place in hard to light locations. You can place them behind a bottle to give it a stunning glow, underneath a product, or mount them as a contrasting light.
2. How do you mount the KYU-6 lights?
The KYU-6 light wraps have multiple different mounting options. You can coil the light up to get nearly 360 degrees of light spill, wrap it around your phone or camera, use the lights magnetic capabilities to attach it to a c-stand, or use the Frio Grasp or Frio Cling with a cold-shoe mount to attach the lights wherever you need them to be!
The Frio Grasp comes in two sizes, the Frio Grasp Mini and the Frio Grasp Bigi, both are great options for mounting the KYU-6 lights or any other device you need near you during a shoot. If you visited our booth, you saw both the Frio Grasp Bigi and Mini in action as they mounted the KYU-6 lights to the side of the table, and the glassware we had on display for our commercial photography set up. The Frio Cling, uses a vacuum seal, which allowed us to mount a flash on the side of the booth to get the perfect lighting for our food photography set up. Whether it is a camera, light, or your cell phone Frio has unique mounting options for nearly any device.
3. Do I just need a cable to get started? Â
The most essential components required for tethering include 1. A camera that enables tethering, 2. tethering software and 3. A high-quality cable to quickly transfer images. Tether Tools is widely known for our signature high-visibility orange cables. If you’ve got the camera and the software covered, Tether Tools and its dealers can help you get the exact cable you need for the job.
4. I shoot with [name of camera]. What cable do I need?
As technology changes, new camera models and new computers include different types of ports. For example, the TetherPro Cable you purchased a couple years ago likely won’t work for the newest camera or laptop you bought at the end of last year. We make sure we meet those changing camera and device requirements. While we don’t commit every single camera and device variation to memory, we do maintain a robust gear compatibility database so you can find all the tools you need for your application.
5. I’ve been shooting with your cables for years and love them, but when did you start offering all of this [motioning toward our expansive booth display]?  Â
While most everyone knows us for our cables, thousands of photographers have expanded their tethered capture workflow by tapping into Tether Tools’ full line of workflow solutions. Since the beginning, our focus has been on how we improve and enhance tethering by helping photographers improve their efficiency as well as their collaboration with clients. In doing so, we constantly think about the end-to-end process from connection to capture.
For example, once you introduce the cable to your set, you need to ensure your equipment, staff and clients are protected. Cable management solutions like the TetherGuard and TetherBlock ensure an organized and safe set. To aid collaboration, we introduced equipment which builds upon your existing stock of tripods and c-stands to create modular workstations, including our Complete Tethering System for High Volume Photography. To help you maintain a high level of productivity, we offer a line of ONsite Power solutions so that all devices stay powered throughout your session. Plus, we’re constantly partnering with companies to bring you the best options for every component of your tethered workflow. We’ve recently partnered with CaptureOne to offer tethering into an iPad which we will dive into later in this article.
6. I bought the cable and it doesn’t work. Am I using the cable wrong? Â
If you’re plugged into your camera and computer ports, refer to question #1 above to ensure your camera and software are capable of tethering. If you confirm that they are and need more help troubleshooting, get in touch with our customer service team by calling 888-854-6565. We’ll be happy to get you on the right track.
7. I shoot with SONY and want to know how I can tether into Lightroom with Smart Shooter?
This is a common question among SONY shooter, how can I tether into Lightroom? With the Smart Shooter 4 Plug-in for Lightroom Classic Sony and Nikon shooters are able to tether directly into Lightroom Classic with their camera. Smart Shooter is a tethering software compatible with most Canon, Nikon and Sony cameras that tether. This plugin allows photographers to enhance their tethering experience with full camera control beyond shutter, aperture, and ISO. It eliminates watch folders to speed up image transfer, and maintains the same Lightroom workflow with Sessions, Cataloging and Metadata. For Nikon users, it provides the ability to send JPEGs to Lightroom via a watch folder (also known as a hot folder) while letting you save raw files to your cameras card.
 8. Is there a mobile option for tethering into an iPad?
If you stopped by our booth, you more than likely noticed the commercial photography demos we had set up to highlight our Mobile Photography workstation. Â Whether you are a wedding, portrait, landscape, commercial, or food photographer, there will be times where bringing a big set up isn’t possible. That is where our mobile photography workstation comes in handy. By tethering into an iPad using CaptureOne for iPad, photographers are able to have the benefits of tethering with a much smaller device compared to bringing their computer or monitor to a photoshoot. To mount the iPad, we recommend the Tether Tools AeroTab Master Kit. The kit includes a master articulating arm, clamp, and AeroTab that allows you to attach your iPad directly to your tripod. It’s that simple!
Have questions on how to get started? Contact us via email or give us a call at 1-888-854-6565.