Syncing the shoot from two cameras

[Penni]

I am shooting with two cameras on assignment.  How do sync the pictures so they are in order ?
Thank you very much !  Penni

[Juerg]

Either you ensure both cameras internal clocks are set exact to the same reference clock or (and that what I did in the past)...

1. Prior to shooting I took a picture with each camera from the same clock/watch and started shooting.

2. After the even I ingested the pics from each camera into a separate folder.

3. With the picture of the clock/watch being the first one, I selected all pictures in the first folder (from the first camera) and then used the "Adjust capture time" function in PM to exactly match the time shown on the watch (first picture).

4. Then I repeated the same for the pictures of the second camera, but of course adjusting the time to the clock/watch picture taken with this camera.

As you now have synced all pics capture time to the same clock they should be in correct order (more or less, unless the camera did record sub-seconds).

BTW, using a digital clock or at least one that shows the seconds is a must. Otherwise you may be off by up to a minute.

There may be another way to do it, but that how I do it and it works for me. Takes only a minute to sync thousands of pics. And it works even when shooting with more than two cameras.

Juerg

[Penni]

So all the pix will show up on ONE contact sheet ?
  That's what I need.

[Juerg]

Well, you can open pictures located in various folders in one contact sheet and then even save it as a favorite to they open up all together in the future.

Or you can copy them all into the same folder after syncing.

Of course you could ingest them from different cards direclty into the same folder. But that may make syncing the time between them more difficult.

I would ingest them into different folders first and then do what I described in my first post.

[hya]

@Penni: archer9's steps are pretty solid—I have a team of 4 photographers shooting with me (for a total of 5 cameras), all ingesting into the same folder for the event.

If you need all the pix to show up on one contact sheet, in addition to archer9's suggestions, you can also open one folder, then add other folders to the contact sheet by holding down the alt-key while double-clicking on the other folders in Photo Mechanic.

[FVlcek]

Usually when shooting with two cameras I make sure their time is synced before the event, and then just ingest them into the same folder, and sort by capture time. It's easier to manage for me. If you setup your cameras to output unique base filename each, you don't get the files mixed up. Also, you can always sort later by camera serial or even embed the base filename or serial into some unused IPTC field upon ingest to make sure the data which camera was which stays there even after rename.

[platti]

Hi,
I agree with Frantisek: adjust the time of the cameras which are used before the shooting ...

[Penni]

I put all the pix in one folder. I did a Cmd A  and hit Capture Time.   It didn't put the pix in order.
Any answers ?  I so appreciate your help.
Thanks, Penni

[Kirk Baker]

Did you adjust the Capture Times of your photos before you put them in the same folder?

-Kirk

[Penni]

Hi Kirk,
  No I didn't...
 4 cards shot. Time had already been set in camera.   Took all four shoots and put them in the one folder. Then I did capture time but it didn't work.
Thanks, Penni

[Kirk Baker]

Penni,

  No I didn't...
 4 cards shot. Time had already been set in camera.   Took all four shoots and put them in the one folder. Then I did capture time but it didn't work.

Four cards with photos shot by separate cameras all shot about at the same time?  If you put:

Capture Time: {time}

in your 'Info Text' and then look at each image in the Preview window do the times seem reasonable?  You can set your Info Text by going to the Edit menu, then the Settings sub-menu, then Set Info Text...

When the Sort popup menu in the toolbar is set to 'Capture Time' the photos should line up nicely if the capture times of the photos are correct.  If one or more of the cameras clocks is off by any significant amount then you'll have to select all of the photos shot by each individual camera and adjust their capture times.  Then they should line up nicely.

HTH,

-Kirk

[FVlcek]

Did you make sure both your cameras are time synchronised? If not, you can do it after the shoot, just follow the advice above about shooting the clock with both. Find out how much they are off, and adjust the photos from one that is off in the matter described. If you followed my advice, your cameras would have different file base names already, if not, you can do Search by camera serial number or type or whatever that makes them different in PM, which will select only the files from the camera you searched for, and now you can use the Adjust capture time & date function inside PM to adjust their time by the exact offset you found out.

[PrePhoto]

The shoot-a-clock and change the time afterward methods are primitive but possible. Nikon bodies can be synced to a specific computer's internal clock - and by default to each other - in a few seconds using Nikon Transfer. It's free download, takes up virtually no room and the process is nothing more that connect a body via USB and turn it on. It's probably also the only reason to use it...

Push the "Sync"button and you're done. Canon must have something similar, but that's outside my experience. As the camera clocks drift a bit, I'd spend a moment before critical shoots and re-sync my bodies. It took much longer to type this than the process takes.

Dave

[Sven]

Hi!

Canon EOS utility offers the feature to sync the camera(s) one by one with the time of the local computer.

Sven

[Hayo Baan]

On a mac you don't even need “special” software; the standard image capture application can do it too with most cameras