Digital Photography Hacks

Remote-Control Camera

You don’t always need to have your finger on the shutter release to control your camera. You might prefer to click the mouse button instead.

One of the things people often overlook when comparing digital cameras is the software that comes bundled with them. Throughout this book, it’s clear that I think Photoshop Elements or its big brother, Photoshop CS, is essential software for digital photographers. A bundled copy of Elements is certainly something to keep an eye peeled for when shopping for a camera.

Beyond that, however, many manufacturers also include their own software to enhance the value of their product. This hack introduces another of my favorite bundled applications: remote-control software. I’ll be working in Canon’s excellent RemoteCapture program, which comes free with their cameras, but Nikon offers Nikon Capture, Minolta has DiMAGE Capture, and other manufacturers make similar products that are equally compelling.

RemoteCapture allows you to think about your camera in a whole new way. Instead of always needing to join photographer and camera at the index finger, you can mount your camera on a tripod, connect its USB cable to your computer, and watch what it sees on your computer monitor, as shown in Figure 8-31. You can even adjust its controls right from your keyboard. When you have everything the way you want, click the mouse to take the picture.

Figure 8-31. RemoteCapture setup

One of my favorite uses for this setup is photographing birds and ...