The Complete Walkthrough

How to Use TETHER STUDIO

Plug in, press space, deliver. This is the whole app, from first capture to final export, in the order you actually work. Pick a stage below.

Keyboard-driven the whole way. Press ? inside the app any time for the full shortcut sheet.

TETHER STUDIO finds your camera on its own. Plug in over USB, or connect over WiFi for Sony, Canon, and Panasonic. No account, no cloud, no import dialog to fight.

  1. Open the app and plug in

    Connect your camera with the cable that shipped with it, then power it on. The camera name appears in the header bar within a couple of seconds. That's it, you're tethered.

    One thing worth knowing up front: use a real data cable, ideally the one that came with the camera. Many spare USB cables are charge-only and carry no data, which looks exactly like a connection failure. If a camera won't appear, a charge-only cable is the most common culprit.

  2. Set the camera to the right mode

    Most cameras just work. A few want a specific USB setting first, this is the one thing worth checking on your body before a shoot.

    Sony
    USB Connection → PC Remote (Mode 300)
    Canon
    Plug and play. WiFi via CCAPI.
    Nikon
    USB. Connect to PC mode.
    Fujifilm
    USB → USB RAW / Tether mode

  3. Open Connection Manager if needed

    Hit the CONNECT button in the bottom-right (or ⌘K) to open Connection Manager and see every camera the app can see, switch bodies, connect over WiFi, or forget a camera you no longer use.

Camera not showing up? TETHER STUDIO automatically fends off the macOS process that tries to grab the camera (ptpcamerad), so most connections just work. If a camera still won't appear, unplug and replug, or as a last resort run killall PTPCamera ptpcamerad in Terminal and reconnect. If the name looks wrong (it reads as another brand), that's cosmetic, connect anyway and shoot.
USB vs WiFi: USB gives you full remote control, live view, shutter, and settings. WiFi (Sony, Canon, Panasonic) transfers images as you shoot but is image-transfer focused. For studio control work, use USB.
Your live settings sit along the top bar: ISO, aperture, shutter, WB, and drive mode, always visible, updating as you or the camera change them, with connection status on the right.

The core loop: press Space, see the shot at full resolution in two or three seconds. Everything else on this page hangs off that one action.

Quick orientation. Three areas to know: the left panel holds Capture, Output & Naming, and Image Analysis; the toolbar above the image holds the tool buttons (Crop, Compare, Markup, Overlays, LIST, CULL, STACK, FILM, CLIENT, META, REMOTE, DUAL); and the right panel is Develop. The very top strip shows your live camera settings.

  1. Start or reopen a session

    Work is organized into sessions. In the left panel, just under the session counter, is a row of buttons, NEW, SAVE, OPEN, IMPORT, EXPORT. Hit NEW (⌘N) to open the Session Browser, name the session and pick where it saves, or OPEN (⌘O) to jump back into a Recent one, they're listed with capture counts and dates, so last week's shoot is one click away. SAVE is ⌘S.

  2. Set where your shots land

    In the left panel, open Output & Naming. Choose the Save To folder captures land in, set a File Name and Format template, and tag the Job and Client so files come in named the way you deliver them. Set this once at the top of a shoot and forget it. A running session counter right above it tells you how many frames you've captured.

  3. Turn on dual backup

    In the right-hand panel, scroll below the Develop sliders to the Backup & Sync section (expand it if collapsed). Set a Primary Backup folder, and optionally a second one, and every capture writes to those locations as it comes in. On a paid job this is the difference between a hiccup and a disaster. Set it before the first frame.

  4. Shoot

    Press Space (or the CAPTURE button, top of the left panel) to fire the shutter from the computer. Each frame lands full-res on screen and drops into the filmstrip along the bottom of the window as you go.

  5. Tune preview speed if you need it

    Set Preview Quality in the left panel, right under the CAPTURE button: Quick and Normal use the fast path for near-instant review between frames, Full renders at full resolution when you want to pixel-peep. On a fast-paced shoot, Quick keeps you moving; switch to Full when it's time to check critical sharpness.

  6. Work off a shot list

    Open the Shot List from the LIST button on the toolbar above the image (or press L) to track what you've covered and what's left. Paste in a whole list, headers, bullets, numbered items, and it imports as a live checklist. Set a target count per shot (e.g. "3 angles"), and a progress bar fills as you shoot. On a lookbook with many looks, it answers the expensive question, "did we get it?", at a glance.

  7. Frame against overlays and reference

    Open the Overlays & Reference panel from the overlays button on the toolbar (or O) to drop framing guides over live view, rule-of-thirds, centered-product placement, headshot and portrait templates, packaging guides. Or load a reference image and toggle it with R to match a previous shot's crop and composition exactly, essential for consistency across a campaign or a re-shoot.

  8. Focus stack for edge-to-edge sharpness

    For macro and product work that needs front-to-back sharpness, open the Focus Stack panel from the STACK button on the toolbar (or ⇧S). Set the number of shots, focus step size, direction (near to far), and shot delay, use Test Focus Step to check the range, set focus to the starting point, then Start Capture. The app steps focus and fires the sequence automatically, saving the set to a FocusStack subfolder. To blend: in Photoshop, File → Scripts → Load Files into Stack, then Edit → Auto-Blend Layers.

Crash recovery is automatic. Sessions auto-save as you shoot. If something ever goes sideways, your captures and picks come back.

A live feed from the camera before you fire, exactly like Capture One's live view. Nail focus and composition on the big screen, not the camera's tiny LCD.

  1. Turn on Live View

    Click the LV button near the top-left next to CAPTURE, or press ⇧L. The live feed from your camera fills the screen. Press it again to turn it off.

  2. Check critical focus

    Zoom into the live feed to confirm focus is exactly where you want it before you commit a frame, essential for product, still life, and anything on a tripod.

  3. Send it to a second screen

    Open DUAL view to push the live feed to a second display, so an art director or client watches the shot come together in real time while you work.

  4. Digitize film with Film Scan mode

    Copying negatives with your camera? Turn on Film Scan from the FILM button on the toolbar (or ⇧F) and the live feed flips negative to positive as you shoot, so you compose against a real image instead of an orange mystery. Handles C-41, B&W, and E-6, with orange-mask removal built in. No more guessing at an inverted preview.

To control exposure from the app, the camera needs to hand over control. Take the exposure dials off their auto/"A" positions (set ISO and shutter to fixed values). Once the camera isn't running the exposure itself, the app can drive ISO, shutter, and aperture and live view tracks your changes.

Get from hundreds of frames to your keepers fast. Rate by hand, or let Smart Cull flag the throwaways for you, offline, in half a second per image.

  1. Rate and flag as you shoot

    Press 1–5 for star ratings, P to pick/keep, X to reject, all on the frame in the filmstrip at the bottom. Fast, keyboard-driven, no mouse. Switch to Grid View (⇧G) to browse the whole take as a contact sheet, or color-label with 6–9.

  2. Open Image Analysis

    Expand the Image Analysis section in the left panel (below Output & Naming), or press I for EXIF, to read a frame's full story: complete EXIF, ISO, aperture, shutter, focal length, camera and lens, dimensions and file size, pulled straight off the capture. No hunting, no guessing what settings you shot.

  3. Zoom, then check histogram and color

    Click an image or press Z to zoom to 100% and confirm focus before you commit to a keeper. Press H for the live histogram (RGB + luminance) to catch clipped highlights or crushed shadows while you can still re-light, and read the color readout for exact RGB values and a swatch, so you can verify a neutral grey or a brand color is landing on set, not in post. Toggle the Focus Indicator (⇧I) to show a per-frame sharpness score from Smart Cull's analysis right on the image.

  4. Run Smart Cull

    Press ⇧C or hit the CULL button on the toolbar to auto-analyze the whole take. Smart Cull returns an average quality score and sorts every frame into Keep, Review, Reject, with the reasons broken out, focus issues, soft faces, eyes closed, under/overexposed, and duplicates grouped together. Click any category to filter the filmstrip to just those frames. It runs entirely on your machine; nothing leaves your Mac.

    Under the hood it's smarter than a fixed threshold: sharpness is scored relative to the sharpest frame in your session (so it adapts to your camera and lens instead of a generic cutoff), portrait shots get face-region sharpness and eyes-closed detection specifically, and exposure scoring leaves intentional high-key and low-key shots alone, your white-seamless product shot won't get dinged for being bright.

  5. Apply labels and act on them

    Hit Apply Labels to color the whole take (Keep = green, Review = yellow, Reject = red) in one move. Then use the Actions tab to Export Keeps to a folder, step through the Review Queue for fast yes/no on the maybes, or Move Rejects to a _rejects subfolder, and send selects straight to Lightroom, Bridge, or Photoshop. High-Performance Mode skips face/eye detection during bursts when you need raw speed.

  6. Compare and decide

    Use Compare view, the compare button on the toolbar (or V), to put similar frames side by side at full resolution and pick the winner, the classic "which of these three near-identical shots is sharpest" call.

Filter to just your picks once you've culled, using the PICKS filter on the filmstrip bar at the bottom, then hand that set straight to Client View or Export. The reject pile stays out of your way.

Adjust your RAWs right in the app, no round trip to another program to see how a file looks. Exposure, white balance, contrast, and tone, on a proper color-managed pipeline.

  1. Open the Develop panel

    Select a frame and the DEVELOP panel runs down the right side of the window. Your edits apply live to the RAW and follow the image through the filmstrip, compare view, and the client gallery, so what you adjust is what everyone sees. Up top, pick a Profile, TETHER Standard is the built-in color-managed look.

  2. Set exposure and white balance

    Start with White Balance (Temp/Tint, or "As Shot"), or grab the white balance eyedropper (W) and click a neutral in the frame to set it instantly. Then work the Exposure group, Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, and push Saturation and Vibrance under Color.

  3. Let Auto do the first pass

    Hit the Auto button in the toolbar at the top of the DEVELOP panel (or press A) for a smart, scene-aware tone pass. It reads the frame, mean brightness, dynamic range, and any faces, classifies the scene (normal, high-key, low-key, backlit, portrait), and sets Exposure/Contrast/Highlights/Shadows accordingly, targeting face brightness on portraits and leaving intentional high/low-key looks alone. It animates the sliders to the result, which is a starting point you can then fine-tune. Press A again or hit Reset to clear it.

  4. Use the top toolbar to move looks around

    The icon row at the top of the DEVELOP panel (just under the DEVELOP header, right side) is your workflow bar: Auto, Sync to Selected (push this frame's settings onto every selected image), Reset, Copy / Paste settings, Save/Load XMP, and Browse profiles. Dial one frame in, then copy or sync that look across the whole set in a click.

  5. Lock color and sync it forward

    Under Processing, set your working Color Space (e.g. Adobe RGB 1998), and flip Sync to new captures on so every incoming frame inherits your current develop settings, dial in the look once and the rest of the shoot matches automatically (turn it off and new captures come in at defaults). The setting sticks between sessions. TETHER STUDIO renders through a color-managed pipeline, so previews match the export.

  6. Round-trip with Lightroom

    TETHER STUDIO does bi-directional XMP sync: it watches the sidecar files, so if you adjust sliders in Lightroom (or Capture One, or darktable), it detects the change and regenerates the preview automatically, and edits you make here carry back the other way. An XMP indicator shows sidecar status at a glance. Edits are non-destructive, they live in XMP sidecars beside the RAW and never touch the original file.

Why your RAWs look right: TETHER STUDIO does a full linear demosaic, then color-manages through real DCP camera profiles, ForwardMatrix and ColorMatrix into ProPhoto, HueSatMap, LookTable, and the profile tone curve, the same class of pipeline Capture One and ACR use. It's not a quick default JPEG render, so color and detail hold up to the file you'll deliver.

The features people buy TETHER STUDIO for. Put a clean gallery in front of the client, on a second screen or on their own phone, and let the art director mark up frames right on set.

  1. Client Presentation Mode

    Hit the CLIENT button on the toolbar for a full-screen, distraction-free gallery, ideal on a second monitor on set. No sliders, no panels, just the work, so the client sees exactly what you want them to and nothing else. Pair it with DUAL (also on the toolbar) to run live view on that second screen while you shoot.

  2. Or send it to their phone or tablet

    Hit the REMOTE button on the toolbar to open the Remote Viewing Server and press Start Server. TETHER STUDIO shows a QR code and a URL (like http://192.168.0.22:8848). The client scans the QR with their phone or iPad, or you Copy URL and text it, and the live gallery opens right in their browser over your WiFi. No app to install, no login, works on any device.

  3. Let them approve from across the room

    On their phone or tablet the client swipes through the take and taps Approve, Reject, or Revision on each frame (or the on-screen keys, approve / reject / revision). Their picks sync back into your session in real time (refreshed every couple of seconds), so the shortlist builds itself while you keep shooting, no shouting selects across the studio.

  4. Mark up in Art Director Mode

    Enter Art Director Markup from the markup button on the toolbar (or M) and draw directly on a frame: arrow, circle, rectangle, freehand pen, and text, in six colors with adjustable stroke width, plus undo and clear. Perfect for "move this, sharpen that, kill the reflection here" the instant the client says it.

    Add text notes or even voice notes per frame when your hands are busy on set, and export markups to a Markups/ subfolder next to your captures (annotations burned in, or notes out as a .txt sidecar) to send along with the selects.

Cull first, then present. Filter to your picks before you open Client or Remote so the client only ever sees the frames you want them to see.

Finish the job. Press ⇧X for Pro Export, format, resize, color profile, watermark, done.

  1. Open Pro Export

    Hit the EXPORT button (in the left-panel button row, or at the bottom of the Develop panel, or press ⇧X) to open Pro Export. Choose your format (JPEG, TIFF, PNG, or original), set quality, and resize if you're delivering web-sized selects.

  2. Set color and metadata

    Apply an ICC profile for correct color on delivery, and embed IPTC metadata via the META button on the toolbar, credit, copyright, caption, so your files carry your name out the door.

  3. Watermark and ship

    Add a watermark for review copies if you need one, export, and you're done, capture to delivery, one person, one Mac.

  4. Or hand off to any editor you use

    Need to retouch a select right now? TETHER STUDIO's Open In row sits just below the main preview image and sends the current frame straight to your editor of choice. It auto-detects Photoshop, Lightroom, Bridge, Affinity, Capture One, and Preview, but you can point it at any macOS app, hit + Add Application in editor settings and pick the app or its path.

    Three configurable slots have their own shortcuts, ⌘E (Editor 1), ⌘⇧E (Editor 2), and ⌘⇧B (Editor 3), so your most-used tools are one keystroke away. Edits round-trip back through the XMP sidecar, so TETHER STUDIO stays your hub even when the finishing happens elsewhere.

That's the whole app.

Every feature unlocked. One price. Yours forever.

Try Free for 7 Days
Camera-specific setup? See the camera guides and workflow blog.

Simple and fair: one price, own it forever, no subscription. Try it free for seven days, buy once, and it's yours.

  1. Start with the free trial

    Every feature is unlocked during a 7-day free trial, no account, no credit card, no cloud. Shoot real jobs with it and see if it earns a place in your kit.

  2. Buy once, own it

    A perpetual license, one-time purchase, yours forever. No monthly fee, no annual rent, no feature held back for a higher tier. Your license activates by email and is stored securely in your Mac's Keychain.

  3. Move it between your machines

    Got a new Mac, or shooting on a studio machine this week and your laptop next? Open the logo → About → Account and hit Deactivate to free your license, then activate on the other machine. You get a couple of machine moves a year built in, so switching computers is a normal, self-serve thing, not a support ticket.

  4. Check your status anytime

    Click the TETHER STUDIO logo (top-left) to open the About panel, license status, camera info, and the open-source Licenses that ship with the app. It's also where trial days remaining show while you're evaluating.

No subscription. Ever. The whole point of TETHER STUDIO is that you buy your tools and keep them. One price, every feature, forever.