Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category
Lightroom Rescue in under 10 minutes…
Grim Day... Day 1 of the summer series of workshops and we get a winter night.... in may.... It wasn't raining too much when we got to the reservoir, so I showed a couple of new people how to expose using a meter. Here's the shot I got - 4 seconds, histogram told me that the sky had not burned (I'd metered from the sky, so was expecting that!). It was also to show the effect of a polariser on the water and long exposures on the water surface. So you'd usually just throw these things away and return on a better night... but I ...
Yorkshire Photo Locations – 5 Great Dales
5 Dales - Perfect Yorkshire Photo Locations I'd been in Northumberland for a few days and had nothing major planned for the last day, so journey back to Leeds became a 10 hour epic, taking in 5 great Yorkshire Photo Locations, rather than 2 hours down the A1(M). I'm obsessed with Yorkshire Dales pass roads, the tiny roads which straddle the moors between each of the dales. So when I spotted one linking Teesdale with Arkengarthdale, I struck a path from the A1 at Durham to Barnard Castle in Teesdale. Weardale... kinda Technically I ...
Commercial Photography – Made Easy
Rocket Science? Commercial Photography quotes can often be more complex than quantum mechanics, with so many variables to consider and charges for all kinds of things. We decided to make things a lot easier for clients by creating lots of new "packages" which are clearly defined and priced. Personalise... Our 2013 offering is Personalising Business - transforming your online and print presence from "generic" i-Stock type images, to stunning shots of you, your colleagues, your location, your local area, Yorkshire.... Many of our ...
Trinity Leeds
It's been a few years in the creation - at last the Trinity Leeds centre is open, so here are a few shots of the place for those who've not been yet. It's full of well known brands, so no huge surprises to shoppers, and the architecture of the huge glass roof is remarkable and well worth a look if you're into impressive structures. The name comes from the adjacent Trinity Church, an impressive building around which the shopping centre was built. The tall tower can be seen through the impressive glass roof, creating a huge monolithic ...
McFade Blog in top 100 Photography Blogs
McFade's Photography Blog has been included in the top 100 photography blogs to read in 2013 Here's the list - fantastic to be recognised amongst such great company! An infographic by the team at
5 Tips on “Daytime City” Long Exposures
Get Surreal! Long exposures are common place in landscape photography, where the shots are usually taken in low light at sunrise or sunset. You normally get shots with lots of colour, milky water and foam like seascapes. So I thought I'd try this technique in Leeds - just after mid day on a bright, sunny day... with clouds blowing past. Here are some tips on how to do it... Get an ND Filter It's sunny, to get a long exposure you need to stop the light flooding in so fast. There are lots of "ND" filters around these days, right up ...
CREATIVE Shoot – Dancer Shante Liburd
Location, Lights & Action! Shooting with dancers is as creative as it gets - they spend hours training, perfecting moves and poses you can never get "normal" people to do. Spending the day with fellow lighting obsessive and photography trainer, Jayce Clarke, we took Shante and Daniella to an amazing derelict building to use the graffiti-rich walls as a backdrop. A little like being a kind in a sweet shop really - the perfect backdrop and the perfect models. KIT... Most of it was the basic strobist kit I use daily - 3 manual ...
Manchester Uni Union
We captured the student exec a few weeks ago, it was now the turn of the entire staff of the union! It's always nostalgic going to the Union - I first walked into this building in October 1991, a fresher looking around for beer (which was 85p back then) and glasses... those lecture theatres were huge and I couldn't read anything on the blackboard. So my first "round john lennon style" glasses came from this exact building Anyway - when shooting the exec, we liked the colourful Union logo as a backdrop, so we set up 3 lights, put on "X" ...
Bradford From Above
Don't Look Down! When Richard Sara-Gray said that we may be able to get a decent view of Bradford, I never realised I'd be on top of the ice rink, looking down from over 150 feet onto the very heart of the city! So up we went on a cold, windy but occasionally beautiful day - armed with everything from the 17-40 F4 to the 500mm L lens. Here are the shots I created from up there - in a really fulfilling 2 hours of discovery... it's grim up north? Maybe, but it's infinitely fascinating looking at ...
Discover Wensleydale
McFade Training hits Wensleydale Our 2013 Landscape trips have been a cold affair so far - wensleydale was no exception with show and ice in just about every shot. Meeting near Skipton then traversing Wharfdale via Kilnsey Cragg and the waterfalls near Cray, we started at West Burton Force. Its setting is as beautiful as the water itself - a small cliff with jewel like icicles all over it. From here we went to the main attraction - Aysgarth, where we enjoyed the lower falls - from all angles. They are especially beautiful from below the ...
Save Preston Bus Station!
Huge structures do it for me. Visually that is... I first saw Preston's bus station in the 70's, and it was probably the biggest thing I'd seen at that point - Clitheroe doesn't have many huge buildings! Huge! It's the shape and majesty of the thing - the curved edges, the ribbed reinforcement bars, the unchanging pattern along the length of the car park... On seeing the Culture Show's report about proposed the closing and demolition of the building, I decided to pop over and capture some images, just in case I never saw it ...
Sparks @ Kirkstall
Night Program Finale.... at Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds [singlepic id=864 w=600 ] We spent 3 hours playing with torches, lighting the majestic ruins at the Abbey, then at the end, created these amazing sparks with wire wool. How did we do this then? There are lots of Youtube videos online, you just need a 9 volt battery, steel wool, whisk and a dog lead.... it's very easy in theory, though the creativity comes in what you do... where you do it... how fast you spin... and the best way to learn is to do it! [nggallery id=48] Sad to ...
HDR Photography in Leeds… Armley
Famous for it's monumental prison and a gyratory, Armley isn't the first Leeds suburb you'd go shooting alone in - let alone on an incredibly dull February day. I took to the canal first first, to see how the graffiti artists are doing - these walls change regularly. Then down to the river Aire and over the footbridge for some more shots. All these are HDR shots - which means "High Dynamic Range", where we take a few photos at different exposures (brightnesses) the blend them into one. We run workshops on this - check out ...
The 2 Poles of Photography
Why McFade Splits Beginners Workshops To total beginners, photography is a new, exciting pastime – but with a learning-curve as steep as Hardknott Pass! Where do you start? You can boil photography down to 2 things:- Finding interesting stuff to photograph Using camera settings to get an interesting shot This is the philosophy behind my Discover Leeds and Take Control workshops. Discover Leeds helps people think about “interesting stuff” Take Control teaches people about camera control To become a competent ...
Claire’s Band Shoot…
Check out the amazing voice.... https://soundcloud.com/clairecolbran Had a fun shoot with Claire Colbran, jazz singer in these 2 bands, backing singer in the Chicago Blues Brothers and rather excellent on trombone too... a Colbran family thing apparently! The Photography Bit So we had 3 lights - 2 behind at 45 degrees, one at the front at about 20 degrees. Rears were un-gelled with shoot through brollies, front was 1/2 CTO on a softbox. Most shots were taken with the Canon 17-40 F4 L & 5D Mark 2 -with the occasional 70-200mm ...
5 Fairground Photography Tips
Got a fair coming to town? They're brilliant to shoot at night - all those moving lights create amazing patterns; so much for the eye to see. Here are 5 tips for making the most of your night there 1 Long exposures - so take a Tripod! Every night photographer will use a tripod, so best to take it. You can capture so much more with a tripod - this ride was just 2 long stick spinning around - with a long exposure they traced out this circle. 2 Get in Close to Stationary Stuff Kiddies rides get really quiet later on, so you ...
Sam’s Big Band!
[singlepic id=843 w=700 h= mode=web20 float=center] Band leader, arranger and sax supremo (is that bigging you up enough Sam ?? lol) asked for some shots of his big band - so we got everyone into an empty office in Leeds and started creating some shots. Herding cats and musicians is never easy, though it didn't stop us creating some cool shapes with the instruments and body parts! [singlepic id=842 w= h= mode=web20 float=right] The main breif was white background stuff - though being McFade, we had to create some extra odd shots ...
Malham Sneak Preview….
Yorkshire photography - Wet, cold, miserable, overcast.... Today was all of the above, so time to head to a stream and make the most of the low light conditions. Luckily the river was abnormally high so lots of white water and unusual flow patterns. Ideal for creating a milky, surreal effect. We'll be taking a group to this exact spot on the 20th January 2013, there are still places left, so get your booking in - info@mcfade.co.uk or just paypal £75 us at ade_mcfade@yahoo.com, and we'll show you how it's ...
5 Tips on Cropping Photos
Cropping a shot is a great exercise - you can find completely new images within an existing frame. Here's a shot with lots going on, probably too much to be an effective shot on its own. We have a few rocks in the foreground and lots of lines and circles from the moving foamy water. It was taken on an overcast day, so no interesting light. Crop 1 - Most of the shot... So to start with, I've gone mono and done a little work bringing out detail in a few areas, the bank at the top being the ...
The Photography “Kit Obsessive”
Photographers fall into many camps, but one that really stands out is the “kit obsessive”. These tend to:- Talk incessantly about kit – above anything else Buy novelty items they rarely use Are never happy with their current kit Motivated by numbers and specifications Can compare and quote reviews of competing kit items More interested in the tools than the photographic results Are first to hear “new kit speculation” blogs and forums Always think "if only I had a...." rather than "what can I do with ...
5 Post Shoot Tips
After a shoot:- Get your photos off your card straight away - do not leave over many shoots! Cards corrupt... you may loose ALL YOUR WORK! Create a folder structure which is easily searchable - maybe with keywords and dates in the folder name Make a backup on a second hard drive Import the photos into Lightroom - apply appropriate keywords to them at this stage (including meta data about you, your copyright etc) Go through each shot quickly and rate them out of 5 - easy in Lightoom (caps lock on - library mode - hit numbers to go ...
Sports Photography at Leeds Varsity
The biggest Varsity showdown after Oxbridge is held annually in Leeds. I was commissioned by Leeds University to capture 10 hours of action at many different venue throughout the Uni and Met campuses. The breif was to capture as many events as possible - so took the huge list of sports, planned the day and set off to capture the events. First off was Badminton at Edge - a lot faster than you think and the lighting was pretty low, so we're talking serioulsy high ISO settings and wide apertures to capture the action - here's one where ...
Photos from Durham
After a week shooting Scotland and Northumberland, a trip into Durham was just a quick detour on the way home. The cathedral and castle are on top of a huge rocky crag, around which curves the river Wear. One of the UK's most spectacular combinations of nature and man made beauty. The weather wasn't great - over cast yet not raining. This is good for autumn colours as the rich warm tones really stand out from the duller surroundings. The set here is a quick loop around the river, view from a bridge and then up to the ...
Newcastle Revisited
[singlepic id=763 float=] The Return to Toon! Newcastle was home before Leeds - 16 months doing an MSc in computing science, then looking for a job. Always love going back and always seems to be really cold and over cast.... just how I remember it! Parked up at Eldon Gardens and had a walk around the top end of town - taking in the UNI, St. James park and Stowell St. Even saw Professor Green parked up in his black Merecedes SLS - didn't get a shot, just smiled and thought... who the hell is he... looks familiar ;-) 2 hours later I got ...
Austria Workshop 2012 – Bavarian Town
20 minutes before Minuch Airport is this little town - the name evades me sadly. We called in to capture the last shots of our weekend away. It's got a delightful centre, lovely square, colourful houses and shops, stream and lots of sculptures. Also lots of shops for those last minute gifts... [singlepic id=720 float=] It's another location to build variety into the images you take away from our workshop - a mix of both old and modern architecture, perfect for long and wide lenses. We were shooting both HDR and single shots, ...
Austria Workshop 2012 – Bavarian Church
Homeward Bound - Church, Coffee and Cake Beautiful landscape is one part of out workshops, but we're partial to a bit of architecture too, and when the weather is lacking, we can always pop into something interesting like this church. It's on the way to Munich Airport so we pulled off the Autobahn and had a pleasant 45 minutes getting creative away from the rain. I was shooting for HDR mainly, interiors benefit from the extra data you capture from bracketted images. The one above has detail throughout, something you can't always get ...
McFade Photography in Blackpool
Blackpool - Vegas of the north! [singlepic id=683 float=] Friday night saw me playing with the Blues Brothers band at the Empire in Blackburn, so I stopped in the area for the weekend, calling into Blackpool for a few hours on Saturday afternoon. Interesting light - sunny in one direction, overcast in the other, so decided to get lots of HDR shots of the iconic, and less well known structures around the north pier area. I also got loads of silly "kiss me quick" hat shots and stuff like that, but the building shots have been edited ...
Austrian Landscape Photography Workshop – Day 1 at The Gorge
Austrian Landscape Photography Holiday McFade Photography's "Austrian Photography Holiday & Workshop" took 5 photographers over to the stunning Tirol area of Austria in the middle of October 2012, an area of outstanding mountains, lakes and gorges. A long weekend, from Thursday to Monday, with 3 full photography days in stunning locations, fantastic food and accommodation with Keith and Manu Holt on their traditional Austrian farm, with Keith being the perfect location guide, and Ade teaching you photography skills ...
Night Photography Programme Starts
[singlepic id=675 float=] Just a few shots from the first Night Photography session. [nggallery id=32] We used Leeds as a base to learn the theory behind taking long exposures at night - how things like Aperture have more unusual effects than you'd think at night! We'll be meeting to discuss each others images in a fortnight and share ideas on how to process them If you'd like to be a part of the Night Programme, it's running over the whole of winter, 2nd and 4th tuesday nights of each month. Just inbox us at info@mcfade.co.uk ...
Photographer Meets Celebrity Look Alikes in Leeds
Celebrity Look Alikes in Leeds [singlepic id=661 float=] Had the great pleasure of meeting and photographing:- David Beckham Mr T Austin Powers Simon Cowell Britney Spears Will Smith Or at least I thought I did! These were a great bunch of actors who make a career from looking like the actual celebrity - and it is uncanny when you meet them and they adopt the "celebrity pose". The day was a pop music video shoot in Leeds which I was documenting - I'd taken the lights with me and set them up in the back garden to get ...
Light Trail Photography
Light Trails [singlepic id=640 float=] I was looking for a few example light trail shots to promote the Night Photography Programme's first session, which is on Tuesday 9th October. I ended up looking in my 2006 folders and got these shots from a bridge over the M621 between Morley and Gildersome. [nggallery id=30] So for the first session, we'll be showing you how to do this in leeds - using the A58(M) as the road form a good few vantage points around the city. Once you have understood how to do light trails, you have the ...
TVR BNG at Sherburn in Elmet
A fine collection of TVRs at the BNG You couldn't ask for a better day for the BNG, hot and sunny and loads of multi-coloured TVRs. Here's ALL the shots we got on the day - in a 6 minute video - see if you can spot your
The 10 Similarities between Chefs and Photographers
10 Similarities between Chefs and Photographers I'm shooting a restaurant later today and it got me thinking about the similarities between Professional Chefs and Professional Photographers... here's a few Everyone can use the tools I'm not a professional chef, but I can use a hob, oven, knife and many other things you see in a professional kitchen.... I can cook a decent curry most days, lots of different thing with mince beef taste lovely.... Most people will have cooked - just as most people will have taken a photograph with ...
New Kia Sportage
The Kia Sportage Matt Netherwood of Further Reflections did an amazing job of detailing his new Kia Sportage. Here is a selection of shots taken in the Pennines - sunset was a bonus! [nggallery
Twisted Theatre Photography in Leeds…
Theatre Rehearsal Photography in Leeds.... [singlepic id=608 ] Destination Holbeck... Driving around Holbeck (Leeds) slowly caused a few long, suspicious looks... parts used to be the red light district and it's not improved much in the last few years. The road I was after didn't seem to have a name on it... there were just lock ups and arches with mechanics tinkering away. Eventually caving in and asking directions, I find myself outside the venue after all, it just doesn't look like I expected - HUB it's called, Holbeck Urban ...
Cyclic Photography
Round and Round Surely even steak gets a bit dull if you have it every day for a year? I certainly found that with Photography, looking back over the last few years you see the gradual transition from a landcape to a people bias. Though on the way, there have been regular patterns which stand out. Locations which demand re-visits. Though each cycle, things have changed. You have changed. Your tools may have changed and certainly the software you use will have changed. Humble Beginnings I found myself touring around Yorkshire with ...
Landscape Interview….
Just been asked to do a piece for Ephotozine, on Landscape Photography. Thought it worth sharing on here with you all. It's just 3 questions, with my ramblings on each. How did you get into landscape photography? I'm from the countryside originally, rural Lancashire by Pendle Hill, so was always at home there. When affordable digital came along around 10 years, and petrol was cheap, I used to spend most weekends in the car pottering around the dales and north York moors, places I'd been through but never really seen. Spending time ...
Leeds Musician Photography Shoot
Leeds Musician Photography [nggallery id=25] [singlepic id=579 w=700 h= float=] Wind Farms are popular locations for landscape photographers - the moving turbine blades offer a dynamic feel to the shot, the rigid towers stand out of the ground like huge white trees.... but I've not really seen many musician photography shoots at them. So we went up with Sam, a professional saxophonist, arranger and band leader, to create some new profile shots for him. The sky was initially pretty over cast and grey, which gave us a really moody look ...
Castlefield – Manchester
[singlepic id=538 w=700 float=center] Castlefield - Central Manchester A more imposing set for a northern city shoot is hard to find. Castlefield has a mix of huge bridges, canals, brick, steel, pagodas, bars, locks, tow paths and bars.... Add to that the imposing Beetham Tower looming over you constantly, you've got an incredible array of backgrounds to play with. [nggallery id=24] This shoot was just for stock, creating some new images to fuel the portfolio, whilst gathering inspiration for future shoots with business folk and ...
Manchestaaaaaaaaar!
20 years ago, I was a fresher at UMIST, the highly regarded science and technology uni in Manchester - so when I was invited back by Trish to shoot some photos of the new Student Council, I jumped at the chance. Proper nostalgia - I'd not actually stepped into the Union since 2005 when I graduated! Anyway - here they are, all very excited to be photographed..... actually, nothing could be further from the truth :-) [nggallery id=23] We got a few group shots in the Union lobby, then did individual shots of them with a white ...
Getting Floral….
On the way back from my sight test today, I called into a park and grabbed a few floral shots - thought I'd give it a bash, they're not really my thing to be honest but you never know who may need them.... The park's usually full of all kinds and colours of flowers, but today, I was greeted mainly with soil and dandilions... so here's a bunch of shots... all done in Lightroom V4.... see if you like them, I'll pop them up for sale if anyone fancies a print ! [nggallery
Cars in The Park – Newby Hall May 13th
Photographing Cars in the Park Prints of some of the cars can be bought here - email info@mcfade.co.uk if yours is missing and you want a print. http://www.photoboxgallery.com/mcfadeAuto/collection?album_id=1270798377 The rain was happily absent at Newby Hall, near Ripon, today, so the Cars In The Park show was a great success. A mix of sports cars from all eras converged on the greens in front of the hall - we were there taking photos and chatting with their owners along with Matt Netherwood ...
McFade Edits.. Phil Gledhill’s “Sam” shot
As part of the Lightroom 4 exploration, we’ve been editing our student’s shots for fun – using just Lightroom 4, no plugins or photoshop. Here’s one from the Lyric of Sam chilling on the stair with his sax... Original Shot Lift shadows with Tone sliders slight toning with duotone sliders vignette to add atmosphere selective brushwork on Sam's Face and slight darkening around him on the walls etc. [nggallery
McFade Edit of Dave Goodman’s “Chris” Shot
Here's a shot by Dave Goodman, who came on our Brass Workshop in the Lyric. It's a shot of Chris playing Trombone on the stairs up to the projector room. For me, the main thing here was the shadow and brick textures, so all the emphasis was dragged in that direction, leaving chris himself very shadowy. Original Image Tone and clarity added - used a GRAD effect to alter the texture on the left side of the shot Subtle change of contrast/clarity on LHS brickwork Cooled the dark tones to give more "cold" look Crop and slight ...
McFade Edit of Dave Goodman’s “Sam” shot
As part of the Lightroom 4 exploration, we offered to edit some of our students workshop photos to show what can be done just in light room. So this shot is from a McFade Taster shoot where we had Sam and Chris, the brass section from Sweet Soul Blues Brothers and many other bands. Here are the basic steps in Lightroom - click on the photo to scroll through each step:- Original Shot Tone edits Presence Curves (very little difference here actually) Crop and slight Vignette added Selective changes with brush to make sax stand ...
Ilkley Moor – Photographed in HDR
On Ilkley Moor Bah Tat A bright mid-morning trip up to the Cow and Calf is a lovely way to start a bank holiday Monday. Light breeze, nice patterned clouds and nice shadows were what we were greeted with. The ND Grad Problem Thing is, using ND Grad filters to keep detail in the sky would blacken the top of the rocks. So to get both nice, bright rocks, and the sky, I took 3 shots of each scene (dark, normal and light) and then used Photomatix V 4.2 to blend them together to get the best from all 3 shots. Working smart Using the same ...
MS Charity Cake Bake at Bingley
Cake for Charity! One of our good friends from Bingley, Chrisse Carlton, runs a fantastic annual event to raise money for the MS Society. There was a real buzz at the venue, "Foundry Hill Bar", with people bringing and buying an amazing array of cakes and other treats. We've not heard how much money was raised yet, but what a great, fun way to help out such an amazing charity. Here's a few shots of the lovely cakes from the day - the one with Saltaire Brewery beer in was rather special ;-) [nggallery
Yorkshire Landscape Photographers…. is Gordale Scar Impossible to Capture?
[singlepic id=259 w=700 h=700 float=center] Gordale Scar.... Can you do it justice? Going around "that corner" for the first time and seeing inside Gordale Scar is breathtaking. It's as near as we get to Yosemite Valley in Yorkshire! The pleasant, flat walk along side the burbling stream doesn't really prepare you for cavernous geological marvel that awaits you. It's a huge gouge in the landscape, some think it's a collapsed cave, though that theory has been generally abandoned in favour of the land being carved open ...
Fake that sunset in Lightroom 4
So many landscapes have these amazing sunsets, nuclear red skies with amazing orange hues.... Do you think they "really" looked like that when the photographer was there? Here's a demo of how easy they are to fake in Lightroom 4.... Original Look Tone and Saturation changes Tidy up dust and lift the dark areas Lens correction And that's it really - just click on the photo to advance through the images [nggallery
Strobist Portrait – LIGHTROOM 4 Edit
"Strobist" shot Rescue [singlepic id=247 w=320 h=240 float=] This is a shot from a test session - the aim was to try shooting wide open with the 85mm F1.8 to get blurry backgrounds and a sharp subject. Again, it's not a prize winning photo we're using, more one which you'd probably not bother with. Lets see what you can do with it in Lightroom... So the progression of these shots in Lightroom are... click on the photo to advance through the stages White balance and tone Clarity and vibrance Slight curves ...
