Archive for the ‘strobist’ Category
PR Shoot – Andy Green
Photographer "Directs" the Director Andy Green of "Video Advert" spends his days directing and creating promotional videos for businesses around the UK - so the "directorial boot" was certainly on the other foot for our PR shoot. Used to showing people how to present and perform, Andy now was in front of the camera and, like me, obviously was far more at home behind it! BiY Associates Working Together A fellow BiY Associate, we met at their HQ, Carwood Park and used the atrium and grounds as our backdrop. Starting off with a white ...
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" ...
PR Shoot – Phil Allum
Telecoms expert, Phil Allum, helps people & business talk through his company TGE Solutions. An urgent need for some new PR profile shots arose, so we got together to shoot at his offices in West Yorkshire. We created a wide variety of looks for all kinds of uses - the obvious shots of Phil using the phones he supplies, and some more generic out door shots along with a few "working at the PC" type images. The opening to the shoot was "I hate having my photo taken!" It's always a challenge to take this attitude and "flip" ...
PR Shoot – Louise Lapish
Louise Lapish runs Gatewood Consulting, training UK-wide in all aspects business from CV writing to sales. We'd met through Yorkshire's most exciting new business support network, BiY. She needed some great new shots for her personal PR, so we went to meet at Regus near Elland Road and used the building around there to capture some new shots. Using small flashes means you can quickly and easily move around the building to get a large variety of looks with minimum of fuss. Louise needed some colour and black and white, so we ...
Muay Thai Boxing Champion
Brad Stanton.... At just 19, Brad has conquered the UK and Commonwealth - just turned 20, he's now headlining stadiums with his amazing Thai Boxing skills. He's based at Leeds premier gym, Edge (www.edgegyms.co.uk), and needed some great shots to help lift his profile - so we did a shoot in the actual gym. To say he's quick is like saying the sun's warm... I asked him to do some jumps and round house kicks - up he went, nearly hitting the cieling, then round he went - so fast I couldn't always hit the shutter in time! So these ...
Flash Accessory Test
Flash Bender Accessories - New Toys! Always on the look out for new "light modifiers" of "flash accessories" to advance my off camera flash photography - I'd seen these flash benders around before, so thought I'd take the plunge and get a couple. I took them up to Temple Newsham with trombonist Chris Colbran and had a look at what they can do. What are they? First off, here's Chris altering one - you can see that they strap on to the front of the flash with velcro and have a pretty large white area off which to bend your light. Inside ...
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 ...
Radio Aire DJ Shoot
Michael Blades broadcasts live from Leeds every Saturday and Sunday night, jetting over to Rock FM in Preston for saturday afternoon... Having found McFade Urban Shoots on Google, he'd spotted the style of images he was after - so we met outside Leeds Town Hall and had a great couple of hours shooting and chatting about life on the radio. He's a keen photographer so showed him a few tips too. Here are a few of the shots we created - using city centre locations, lighting (mainly 2 lights - different coloured gels to add vibrance) and a ...
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 ...
How To Shoot Ice & Snow – With Flash
A thick Hoar Frost looks amazing. It only happens now and then, so you really need to make the most of it when it happens. One of the downfalls of this frost is that the sky can be very dull on such days, so your usual landscapes can lack impact. So how to add something a little different? Get your strobes out You can create something more interesting with flash - even "on camera" flash can create something slightly different. The shots in this article are all taken with the flash "off camera", triggered with radio ...
Urban Photoshoot – Gateshead
Never posed before? Never had your photo taken before? Nervous in front of the camera? These 2 Cramlington girls answered yes to all of these - but that didn't stop us having a great shoot with some cool results. We'd got a location in mind with a bit of graffiti and in a reasonably quiet area, so all met up there and started to shoot. Alex and Kerry were both completely stuck for what to do, where to look, what expression to make... we're used to this, unless you've got a model or someone with PR experience, it's always the ...
BMX Madness
BMX Star Luke Gareth Gamble jumping over Ade on a wet day in Yeadon... . We'll be putting on a workshop to show you how this is done... .look out for it in 2013, when it's a bit warmer... And now here's a gallery to enjoy [nggallery
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 ...
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 ...
5 Tips – To Pose, or not To Pose?
A few people mentioned to me that they'd like to know more about "posing" people, and in on of the McFade Training Taster workshops last year, I covered some ideas - maybe ones which surprised people. The "by the book" posing techniques will produce just that - by the book, traditional shots of people. They remind me of those Victorian family portraits, everyone looking stiff and uncomfortable. With creative photography, the McFade approach, we're after something a bit more interesting - wanting to reveal something about the person ...
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 ...
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 ...
5 Thoughts on Off Camera Flash
Off camera flash is a popular portrait technique at the moment, taking speedlite flashes off the camera, onto light stands and using radio transmitters to trigger them. There's quite a lot to take into account and understand to get consistent results - so here are 5 things to think about when setting your lights up... First - understand manual exposure You need to understand how your camera works and "manual exposure". A challenge in itself if you're not used to metering. To control the brightness of the background and the flash-lit ...
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 Edits Phil Gledhill’s “Chris” playing
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 Chris with his trombone on the stairs. Original Shot This shot seemed to suit mono, so started off with a black and white pre-set - went through a few till I got one which looked nice. Selective brush work to bring out detail and add light to interesting areas of the shot Added vignette to see whether it worked... down to personal taste ...
McFade Edits Phil Gledhill’s “Chris in Window” 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 Chris playing his trombone. The gallery feature isn't in the right order, but each shot has a number after it;s name "brass-band-119-3" - that number is sequential :- Original Bleach bypass preset Crop, rotate a bit and some vignette Selective darken with brush tool Alternative crop to 4 [nggallery
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 ...
Brass Musician – Training Shoot
McFade Training's Brass Night at the Lyric April's taster session saw delegates return to the amazing venue that is the Lyric Cinema. This month we ventured away from the main auditorium into the more abandoned looking areas around the projector rooms - the prefect backdrop. Chris Colbran and Sam Houghton were the subjects this time, both professional musicians working in many bands in Yorkshire and beyond, so as well as looking very cool for the photos, they both entertained by playing their trombone and sax. We shot with both ...
Photography in the Lyric, Leeds
Leeds Training at the Lyric! Here's a few shots from March's McFade Training evening in the Lyric Theatre in Armley. The subject was "an introduction to Off Camera Flash" and had people using our speedlite system to capture Rocco, Salman and Eleni in the dramatic setting of an old, disused cinema. Have a go...... The idea of these evenings is less about "tuition" and more about "having a go" - and those wanting to know more can book onto a seminar or full workshop. Anyway - here are a selection of Eleni, a fantastic dancer from Cyprus ...
Wedding Photography for Sophie and James
Wedding Photography at Coniston Hotel A few shots from Sophie and James' wedding at the lakeside of Coniston Hotel - a perfect location and lovely couple. [slideshow id=2 w=736
Rocco in the Woods
Leeds Model in Leeds Woods We're always on the look out for new locations for both training and shoots with models, families and business people. So on this rekke shoot Rocco and I took to some woods in Leeds, armed with 2 flashes and a mix of lenses - and got some shots using the surroundings to create atmosphere and background interest. So this shot uses the winter trees, without their leaves, to create a veil over his head This was the last shot from the shoot, it was mainly a sky shot with Rocco peeking in, using a polariser ...
Valentina DIAZ Video
Follow this link to see a short Youtube Video of the amazing Valentina Diaz, over in the UK from Bolivia. [tube]R90o-Vd7Ixg[/tube] Valentina
Published in Photo Professional Magazine – March 2012
McFade in the Pro Photography Magazines Hot off the press this week is our latest article to go in to a glossy photography magazine. Previous published articles have been on "inspiration" and "painting with light", this one's our first in Photo Professional and discusses the merits of small flashes on location shoots - and it's got 4 of our photos in there too! Click on the thumbnails below and you'll get to see the gallery - to see the full sized screen shot, click on the bigger thumbnail in the gallery :-) [gallery columns="2" ...
What Award Winning Wedding Photographers do?
McFade approach to Wedding Photography The McFade approach to wedding photography in 2011 was to create classic shots with off camera flash adding that extra bit of magic, leaving minimal processing in Photoshop. Actively been trying to avoid things that would look dated - there are enough "filters" out there which are in fashion for a few years, then look as current as a Ford Cortina Mark 2. Wedding Photography Course Just seen some info on a wedding photography course being run by a multi-award winning wedding photographer, so decided to ...
Facebook feedback from Claire and Andy’s Wedding
The last wedding of 2011 was down in Cheshire with Andy and Claire - a great couple and a top bunch of friends and lovely family... but enough of the eulogising... They had deal where they got a disc of photos from the day and Claire put them on Facebook - which I actively encouraged. Here they are.. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150816448690652.729132.821875651&type=1 I know most people say they like their wedding photos, but I was really pleased with their friends' feedback ...
McFade Photographs a Ferrari California
Ferrari Cars are amazing things - beautifully designed, powerful and a joy to photograph. Where better to take them than to a bleak moor on the Lancs/Yorks border and create something dark and brooding, like the sound of the engines in these super cars. This is the california, a car that can hit over 190mph and has 454 horse power - yet seems very classic in appearance, not some snarling hypercar, but something with flowing curves and styling. Here are a selection of "Automobile Art" shots from the shoot - a mix of ...
Leeds Band Photography on the Bridge
Leeds Band Photography by McFade Photography! As well as photographing everything and anything, I also play piano and keyboards in 2 bands - one being the Blues Brother's tribute band "Sweet Home Chicago". The Band got a fantastic brass section comprising of Greg, Sam and Chris, and they seem to be in about 1000 bands between them. So they got most of the members together last week for a shoot with me. Where else but the darkest, moodiest place in Leeds - the Dark Arches... perfect. Was quite a windy day to say the ...
A shoot with Krishna
Stylist and makeup artist Saadiya invited me to shoot a session with models Krishna and Mahera last week. Though I've not really had much chance to process the shots, I've edited a few of Krishna which I thought I'd
Wedding Photography – How much!!?!?!??!?!
If you're looking to get married you'll no doubt be in the market for a photographer to cover some of or all of your big day. A little research will probably show you that there's a huge range of prices, from the £250 "shoot and burn" type, to the £2000+ mega wedding packages. You'll also see that there are all sorts of different styles of photography, off the top of my head there's.... Reportage - usually black and white, candid photos where people don't know they're being photographed Traditional - beautifully posed shots, ...
Sari Shoot at Kirkstall
My friend Hash Parmar recently started up a beauty treatments business in Leeds. We did a few shots of Kat, who'd had a Hash make over, down by the Aire at Kirkstall Abbey. A lovely location, leafy and green, with the added bonus of a 12th century abbey in the background. The shots here are just a few "experimentally processed" shots, to show a few different looks we can achieve from what was essentially the same looking shots. [gallery link="file" columns="4"
Bradford Switch Networking – the opening night
A new dawn in Bradford Networking Rob and Jag - the guys behind Bradford Switch Yesterday, a new networking group was born - the brainchild of Jag Panesar and Rob Ives, Bradford Switch is a relaxed, friendly way to meet new business contacts and build relationships. The first meeting was in The Sparrow, a lovely new bar opened in the heart of Bradford. We were in the cellar which seemed to create a warm atmosphere, the room was buzzing with people from the off at 4PM I took along a couple of flashes and the camera kit to ...
An industrial shoot…
I like a photographic challenge - in fact, I had a project called "something from nothing" in the past, where I'd go to places with seemingly no photographic interest and then diligently crawl around looking for something interesting. They usually ended up with really dark skies and became broody and moody.... it's easier to make dramatic dark shots from such situations. Well I had a similar challenge last week where I was invited to perform my "mcfade magic" on a waste disposal site in Sheffield. Its a place where companies send ...
Where to shoot ?
How much difference does "location" make to your images? Obviously landscape and architecture are totally reliant on location, but with subjects such as portraits, products and cars, you can choose to shoot in the studio or choose a location to create something totally different. Getting outside with the camera and lights is definitely a technical challenge, and also a gamble with the weather conditions. But you can usually find something like a bridge to hide under when it's raining, wind can had a dynamic feel to the shots and ideas ...
McFade Media Shoots
What does social media profile shot really say about you? Does your business benefit from meeting new contacts and networking? McFade Media shoots combines networking with business people and creating fantastic profile shots for ALL your media use:- Twitter/LinkedIN/Facebook - your online presence your website your promo work - also send them to clients for use in their promo literature your PR - ideal for press releases print media - ideal for use in brochures and leaflets print and frame the photo for home ...
Engagement shoot with Jason and Jo
Here's a short film of the shots from Jason and Jo's wedding consultation and engagement shoot. Jason and Jo\'s engagement shoot Everyone who books a wedding with me gets one of these shoots, they're my chance to:- get to know the couple better, talk about the day and any special requirements the couple would like, check out the location for good vantage points to shoot from plan the time line for day so we all know where to be and when and get the couple comfortable in front of the camera. Most people don't get a ...
5 Tips on improving your portraits
The first time I ever took a portrait it was pretty awful - horrible confession there! Actually, the first time I met a piano, I made a terrible din. I've got better at both I'm glad to say, and it's all about practice. Natural Light Get Rid Of Excuses The first thing to do it get rid of your excuses, you don't "need" expensive lights, a make up artist, costume designer, expensive model and fantastic location to start learning. You just need a camera and a person to shoot. When I was first practising, it would tend to be a fellow ...
Everyone hates having their portrait taken…… at first
Out of your comfort zone Unless you are a model, you are completely out of your comfort zone. No one has a camera pointing at them, like a sniper, in normal life. You will be uncomfortable. So the photographers adds in all the lights flashing, other unfamiliar gizmos like reflectors, snoots and softboxes, and then puts you in odd positions; you really are in unfamiliar territory. Then if you're on location, there will be people walking past and looking at you... that's weird - they'll be looking to see if you are famous! Relax ...
What does Your “Profile Photo” Say?
Everyone in business uses social media - we're all on Linked IN, Facebook and Twitter, and they all allow us to upload a profile photograph. In most cases, the first impression people have of you comes from this shot - scary thought! So what impression do people get from "your" profile shot? Recognise Yourself? Egghead - No Picture Of course, one option is to have no profile picture, this leaves the picture holder empty or with a default grey silhouette. What does this say about you? Having no avatar can give messages ...
5 Tips for off camera flash
Flash is often seen as a necessary evil by many photographers, and when the flash is "on camera" (like most are) it can be a bit bland and create "bunny in the headlight" portraits. However, get the flash (speedlite) on a stand and trigger it remotely, you'll see the true creative power of flash. Here are a few starter tips. Take note of your camera's "synch speed" - it's usually around 1/20oth second. If you go faster than this, you'll get dark areas on your photos Learn how to use your speedlite on manual flash power as ...
Portraits…. outside is where it’s at?
I guess the traditional "Family portrait" is usually thought of as:- a visit to a shop on the high street where you sit in a little room with umbrellas, choose a slightly mottled blue background get posed in a traditional way feel awkward and have to calm the kids down get a few shots taken and then wait for ages to see the results. [caption id="attachment_91" align="alignnone" width="515" caption="Traditional Family Portrait????"][/caption] Studio based photography has of course moved on a lot since then, many people ...
5 tips for better portraits
We all take photos of people these days, be it on the phone, a little camera or a £5000 pro camera. Here are a few ideas which apply to any camera and any skill level... 1 - Don't put the person in the middle of the shot, but slightly to one side 2 - Get them to face "in to" the shot - if they're on the left of the photo, get them facing to the right & vice versa 3 - Rather than getting them just to "smile", get them to act out a few things - e.g. puzzled, angry, sad, delerious, drunk etc. 4 - If its sunny, get the ...
