Stop Feeding the Kit Delusion New gear won’t make you a better photographer. More shots will. Here’s why the upgrade treadmill is the most seductive trap in any hobby — and how to step off it. Let me be honest with you about something. I own an embarrassing number of virtual synthesisers. We’re talking […]
The One Thing Camera Brands Hope You Never Realise Read More »
We Use Software You’ve Never Heard Of Clients don’t pay for software. They pay for results, delivered on time, without fuss. The reason those results look the way they do is because modern photography quietly relies on a stack of tools most people will never see or think about. Software isn’t a product — it’s
Why Photographers Are Odd: 5 We Use Software You’ve Never Heard Of Read More »
Personal Projects Are Professional R&D Most industries have a thing called research and development. It’s budgeted for. It’s planned. It’s justified in meetings. Photography has it too — it’s just unpaid, informal, and usually done on a Sunday morning with a camera and a flask. Personal projects aren’t a break from work They are the
Why Photographers Are Odd: 3 Personal Projects Are Professional R&D Read More »
We Use the Same Camera for Work and Fun Most jobs have a clear line between work tools and personal life. Photography doesn’t. If you’re a lawyer, you don’t spend your Sunday afternoon drafting pretend contracts for enjoyment. If you’re an accountant, you don’t knock up a spreadsheet on holiday “just to keep sharp”.
Why Photographers Are Odd: 2 We Use the Same Camera for Work and Fun Read More »
Photography Doesn’t End at 5pm (And that’s why the results are better) Before photography, I spent 13 years as a software engineer. And here’s the honest truth: the second I left the office, software ceased to exist. No coding at weekends. No books about programming. No tinkering “for fun”. Work was work. Life was life.
Why Photographers Are Odd: 1 – Photography Doesn’t End at 5pm Read More »
Why I Still Do Free Model Test Shoots It might seem a bit weird that a professional photographer will spend a few hours photographing models for free. I’m sure most professionals don’t really offer their professional services for free that often – lawyers doing a bit of free litigation on a Sunday afternoon isn’t that
Model Test Shoot Guide: Photography, Set Up, Free Test Read More »
TT Artisan 11mm fisheye lens Yesterday I got my first ever fisheye lens – a TT Artisan 11mm fisheye lens specifically for Canon R lenses. It goes on the R5 perfectly. I chose to go to Bradford because I wanted a city to walk around on a bright sunny day. Bradford was always going to
Best Gifts for Photographers in 2023 – Affordable Camera Accessories for Every Photographer Are you on the hunt for the perfect gift for the photographer in your life? Whether they’re a budding smartphone snapper or a seasoned pro, this guide’s packed with the best photography gifts of 2023. From nifty lenses to must-have gadgets, we’ve
Best Gifts for Photographers in 2023 – Top Camera Accessories for Every Photographer Read More »
A list of the main Yorkshire Dales – with the river which runs through them and the highest hill on their edges. Interesting how many dales each of the large mountains touch
The Yorkshire Dales Read More »
Street Photography Experience It’s great to take people with strong landscape photography skills around the city and challenge of them and to capture people and architecture as it happens. That’s Street photography for you. Some of the most memorable photos you will have seen are street photography. Often you sit around waiting for things to
The York Walls and Street Photography Experience Read More »
Usually when doing light painting workshops, I have several people with torches all lighting the scene at the same time so we catch everything in one frame which you can view there and then on the night. But when you are alone, or in small groups, often it isn’t possible because you just cannot get
Blending Light Painting Photos in Photoshop Read More »
Night Photography at Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds Ok, we’re really lucky to have a ruined abbey right on the edge of our city – and it’s got lots of free parking! So each year I take a new group of photographers down there to light it up with powerful torches and sparks. Here’s what we got
Night Photography at Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds Read More »
Sunset at Gross Glockner – Tirol – Austria Do you ever take a shot and never manage to settle on a final edited look? Well this happened with this shot – it’s one of 3 brackets taken at sunset with a 17mm TSe lens… so nice and sharp, oodles of data to play with…. but what
Same Photo Cooked Many Ways Read More »
McFade Summer Nights Workshops 2016 A look back over 12 fantastic evenings – but first some background Where did the idea of Summer Nights Workshops come from? Ever since I took Photography seriously I’ve regularly gone out for smaller outings – usually with 1 or 2 friends. We’d find places to go, new things to try
Summer Nights Workshop – 2016 Review Read More »
Learning from the experts I went down to see support and learn loads from Andy Firth, Gary King and Rachel Hatfield, who each did a talk on their specialist subjects:- Andy – making money online – http://www.ascensor.co.uk/ Gary – business planning and strategy for growth – http://www.tendo-uk.com/ Rachel – social media, specifically Twitter – http://shoosocialmedia.co.uk/ Ok – I
Social Media, Marketing and Business Show – Sheffield 2016 Read More »
I can’t taste or smell the food I see on telly, yet I still watch cooking shows… I’ve never really got why food is such a compelling viewing pleasure, despite the 2 main senses food excites (taste and smell) are not yet available. We can’t feel the texture either… so that’s a third sense we’re
Why Chefs are on TV and Photographers Aren’t Read More »
Shooting the Milky Way – If at first you don’t succeed… Pack up your bags and go back another night! That’s what happened with our legendary Brimham Rocks workshop this year – the first run was a wash-out no sign of a star, never mind the milky way. Horizontal rain, cold, and no shelter anywhere
The Amazing Milky Way at Brimham Rocks Read More »
Do NOT Try This at Home! I’ve got huge dust problems with my 5D2, so was excited to find a Youtube clip which shows you how to get rid properly… I really don’t think this is the right way… see what you think! I actually use a little device called an Arctic Butterfly, which uses
How (not) To Clean Your Camera Sensor…? Read More »
If you have a meeting at 11, say, at a place 15 miles away – what time should you set off to get there on time? Hard to say isn’t it – what are the roads like, is there traffic? Anything else? The “Geeky” Solution… Here’s what I started doing… Get your phone out
Get Me to the Shoot On Time! Read More »
The Perennial HDR Photography Debate: Is HDR Bad? As someone who’s used HDR Photography to make a living and has been a fan since 2006, I often get involved in HDR debates. Sigh… The usual comments would be around I don’t like HDR, it looks a bit weird or maybe I like HDR Photos when
HDR Photography isn’t Bad – People Are! Read More »
If TV Did “Popular” Photography In the wake of the deluge of “talent” shows, which has seen “talented” people battle, week in week out, to survive to the next round – including riveting subjects as:- Baking Cakes Cooking Food Modelling Being a Drag Queen Growing Vegetables oh – and singing… Here’s an idea for
“Britain’s got Photographers” – A new TV Format Read More »
Waking to see rain was never what we wanted, but you just have to go with what you get… and what we started with was a hearty “Austrian farm” breakfast of yoghurt, meats, cheese, bread, butter, jam, orange juie and lots of coffee. Huge thanks to our hosts Keith and Manu for this each day
Austria Workshop – Day 1 Read More »
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
The Photography “Kit Obsessive” Read More »
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
Urban Photoshoot – Gateshead Read More »
Night time means long exposures, things moving through your images, high contrast scenes, a new world of creativity with you camera, a change for your imagination to run wild. To most, the M62 is a car park they traverse every morning and evening, a place of wasted time and torture. To a photographer, it’s a
View from the M62 – Light Trails Read More »
What this Leeds Photographer does… Medding with smart phones takes you to some strange places…. ON this occasion I found an app which did little “mind map” type diagrams, which I thought would be fun for the website… I was white flag waving after 5 minutes of meddling on a little phone screen, so hit
What does McFade do anyway???? Read More »
Thought for the day…. The people who hate their photo being taken invariably have to stand in front of the camera for far longer than others…. (because they’re tense, look scared and take ages to get a half decent shot as a result) If you’re one of these, just relax, have fun and don’t get
Relax…. and escape faster! Read More »
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
Ilkley Moor – Photographed in HDR Read More »
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
Fake that sunset in Lightroom 4 Read More »
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
Rocco in the Woods Read More »
It’s true, here’s a FREE Street Photography Action… Here’s what it does Transforms a street candid from this… To this with one click… Street” is photography in one of the purest forms. We capture the environment as-is; people going about their business is the subject, rather than moody hills, the relentless sea, colourful birds or
Free “Street Photography” Action Read More »
I’m not sure where my fascination with cooling towers came from – maybe the few around Padiham when I was a kid caught my eye? They’re just so incredibly huge and un-natural looking that I’m quite drawn to them. So when I got to Leeds and started discovering the county of West Yorkshire (andy
Past Power To the People… Read More »
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
Leeds Band Photography on the Bridge Read More »
There are some quite amusing things that people say to photographers from time to time, often when you show them their image on the back of the camera, or present a few prints or a recent book, or even just see the shots on the web. Things like :- “Wow – that camera’s awesome” or
Wow – You must have a great camera!! Read More »
I used to work on dairy farms, so am pretty used to cows and their general demeanour – inquisitive, curious and usually pretty friendly. Just move slowly and they’ll hang around you for a while – feed them a bit of grass and you’ll get a nice tongue photo like this! Here’s a few shots
The Art of Portrait Photography: Elevate Your Corporate Image 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. This discomfort is entirely natural, especially when stepping into the
Everyone hates having their portrait taken…… at first Read More »
