Zenfolio live upload from your camera: what works

What Zenfolio offers for uploading

Zenfolio's help centre describes three ways in: a browser uploader that takes drag-and-drop batches, a Desktop Uploader for Mac and Windows that uploads from any folder on your computer, and a publish plug-in for Lightroom Classic only. None of these is a live connection from a camera or another app — they're the tools you use once the files are on a computer. CloudTether isn't among them, and it doesn't list Zenfolio as a destination.

So the useful question is how quickly the files can be on that computer. With a phone tether, the answer is: while you're still shooting.

The workflow: tether to a folder, upload from it

Send the shoot to Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive. Each full-resolution photo comes off the camera, uploads once from your phone and lands in a folder named after the shoot (or a folder you choose). The provider's desktop app syncs it to your laptop. When you're ready, point the Zenfolio Desktop Uploader at that folder, or import it into Lightroom Classic and publish to your Zenfolio gallery with the plug-in.

For a portrait or event day this splits naturally into the shoot (everything flowing to the folder, backed up off the camera) and the delivery (your selects, edited, going to Zenfolio). For a school or sports job where you sell straight from proofs, upload the folder in batches between sessions. Either way, every frame is already off the camera and backed up in the cloud before the Zenfolio upload starts, so a lost card or a laptop left at the venue no longer costs you the shoot.

Keep camera file names — they matter in Zenfolio

Zenfolio displays JPEG, TIFF, PNG and GIF files in galleries. RAW files can be stored for an extra fee, and Zenfolio links each stored RAW to its gallery photo by file name or date taken. That's a good reason to deliver with the camera's own names: CloudTether's default is “Keep camera file names”, so IMG_0042.JPG in the folder matches IMG_0042.CR3 on your card. See original file names.

Shooting RAW+JPEG? JPEG only sends the JPEGs and leaves the RAW files on the card — the fastest set-up over mobile data. If you want RAW in the cloud too, send it to the same folder and upload only what Zenfolio needs.

Live viewing on the day

If someone needs to watch the shoot happen — a client, an art director, a parent committee — share a Dropbox or Google Drive folder link, or fill a SmugMug or ShootProof gallery live, and keep Zenfolio for the finished gallery and sales. On Canon and Nikon, send only rated shots keeps that live view to the frames you starred.

How to get camera photos into Zenfolio with a phone tether

1. 1

   Connect the camera to your phone

   Open CloudTether and tap “Connect a camera”. Plug in a USB-C cable (Sony: USB mode PC Remote; Fujifilm: USB tether shooting) or choose Wi-Fi for guided wireless set-up. Take a test shot and wait for “Test shot delivered”.

2. 2

   Send the shoot to a synced folder

   Pick Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive as the destination. Leave file names on “Keep camera file names” so files match your card.

3. 3

   Sync the folder to your computer

   Install the provider's desktop app and keep the shoot folder available offline on the computer you'll upload from.

4. 4

   Upload with Zenfolio's tools

   Choose the folder in the Zenfolio Desktop Uploader, drag it into the browser uploader, or import it into Lightroom Classic and publish with Zenfolio's plug-in.