Lightroom Alternatives You Can Actually Own Outright There’s this daft idea that once you leave Lightroom you’ll be crawling back within a year, waving your credit card and muttering apologies to Adobe. Utter nonsense. If you’re an enthusiast who wants cracking image quality, a sane one-off payment and software that doesn’t nag you every month, […]
The Joy of Editing Photographs: Choosing the Right Tools for the Job Half the fun of photography is getting outdoors and capturing those moments in-camera. Mastering exposure, composition, and building rapport (if you’re photographing people) is an adventure in itself. Add to that knowing your seasons, tides, weather, and locations—well, you’ll never run out of
The Joy of Editing Photographs: Choosing the Right Tools for the Job Read More »
A Short Walk Around Morley From Morrison’s Car Park: In the humble setting of a supermarket car park, one is reminded of the juxtaposition of the mundane and the profound. From this starting point, I embarked on an exploration not just of Morley’s streets, but its very soul. Town Hall – Sentinel of Civic Virtue:
The Timeless Beauty of Morley: A Photographic Reflection Read More »
The 12 Month Test Have you ever looked back to things you did 10 years ago? You should see some huge progress and changes, based on everything you’ve learnt, new tools or technologies and just growing as a person. But have you ever looked back just one year and revisited something? Like a “Remix” in music
What difference 12 months makes? Read More »
In advance of our Manchester workshop, where I was going to show the delegates how to shoot extra long exposures, using 10 stop (or even 15 stop) neutral density filters, I popped down to the beautiful world heritage site at Saltaire. If you’ve not been, this is the site of a Victorian Mill,
How to shoot and edit extra-long exposures with a 10-stop filter Read More »
Can you Photoshop me???? How Much £££ !!!!????? That’s our most commonly asked question and it’s only natural because everybody wants to look the very best and a little bit of tweaking goes a long way. But doing high-end retouching can take a long time, and end up costing an “absolute fortune”, which is something
4 FAST Retouching Tools which Won’t Break Client’s Banks! Read More »
Have you been a walk this winter and photographed dead plants, twigs or leaves on branches, got home and been uninspired by them – they don’t really jump off the screen? Well previously in Lightroom, to make these “pop” out of your monitor, you would have to work quite hard to make your subject really
LIGHTROOM TIPS: Making subjects jump off the screen! Read More »
Anybody who photographs “normal people” will hear this question – every single shoot! It’s our “question everyone asks”. People want to look their best and they put their trust in you, also a great Icebreaker. The answer is “Yes of course”, we always do “something” to the photograph, just how far and how long we
Can you photoshop me? Read More »
Lightroom just changed its selective editing tools into one new mega-powerful suite, called “masking”. It’s hard to sum up how powerful this change will be for editing in future, so instead I’ve created a short video showing you to colour a specific area of a photo using two of the controls. Sounds easy? Well, it
Supercharge your Editing with new LIGHTROOM MASKS Read More »
Like many people I have used HDR or purely ambient light for property photography for years, when time permitted I would use a a flash or 2 to add some light to the rooms but the results were always a little bit garish, bright and weird shadows would get in the way. This relatively novel
Modern Property Photography Read More »
Sometimes you just cannot get everything in Focus in one shot… This happens a lot when you are photographing landscapes with a very close foreground, the background becomes blurry if you focus on the foreground, and vice versa. In this tutorial I show you two photos I took of the exact same scene, all the
How to get Maximum Sharpness with Focus Stacking Read More »
The Lightroom Brush Tool Stand out with Selective Editing Some images really stand out when you see them on Instagram or Facebook, parts of the shot just look so much better than you could ever achieve using normal Lightroom techniques. The secret to creating these kinds of images is to get selective using the Lightroom Brush
Make your photos SHINE with the LIGHTROOM Brush Tool Read More »
A second shoot with this Morley based star of the future – a model and competition diver at 12! This was at a ruin in a Morley golf club on a cold January day…. It’s an exposed bit of land, the lights were blowing around, Jaeda had a cold starting – it had all the
Finding old photos can be a pain – if someone asks if you’ve got photos of Liverpool (or something like that) in future, how quickly could you locate them in your file system? Or if you’re looking to create a print of Ingleborough, could you find all your photos of the hill and quickly make
How to organise your photos like a pro Read More »
I know – sometimes it’s too dark to shoot and you don’t have any off-camera kit, so you have to use your flash “on camera” But the light you get off a direct flash is horrible – there’s an example in the video below. It serves a purpose, but it creates a passport photo look
NEVER use direct flash Read More »
Leeds Architecture in 2019 Winter’s a great time for Leeds architecture photography. The sun is low in the sky and sets around 5PM, so you’re not out waiting for ages in the evening. We’ve done this before of course, here are some shots from 2014 and some from the shopping areas in 2014. On the
Our second portrait workshop the summer was with Nicola Papperazzo, Chloe Mason and Andy Blue McLaren. We split it into a couple of locations on the west end of Leeds city centre. Starting in the flowery Park Square, where I showed people how to use flowers in the foreground to add blurry texture – like this one
2018 Portrait Workshop 2 Read More »
Our little secret! All photographers and designers know how to do this – and it is REALLY easy to do – and it really can leverage that photography investment to your advantage. We use Adobe LIGHTROOM to do it at McFade, but there is a free tool called “IfranView” which does it as well. Leverage your
Maximising your photography investment Read More »
Gone are the old days… Stitching panoramic photos used to be a pain. you’d have to do all kinds of prep on each photo in LIGHTROOM first, then export them as high res files, then create a stack in PHOTOSHOP and merge them…. and it’d probably go wrong at some stage! The panoramic world has
AMAZING Panoramic Photos Made Easy with LIGHTROOM Read More »
The bright sky problem… We’ve all done it – had a great scene to shoot but not got the right filters to balance the bright sky and land! We end up with a boring bright sky and really dark foreground – it’s not ideal, but with most camera RAW files you can now fix this
LIGHTROOM Bright Sky Rescue! Read More »
Age your photos in seconds! I’ve tried using “bought” LIGHTROOM presets many times and they all seem to have one thing in common… This makes perfect sense to any seasoned Photoshopper or Lightroom expert – but I guessed that most photographers don’t know about this. So here’s a video explaining how you do it – a quick “how to” guide so you can start making your own toned presets for free!
Instant Vintage Effects in Lightroom Read More »
Fed up with paying £10/month for Lightroom? Don’t get me wrong, I really like Lightroom – but I’m not a huge fan of paying a tenner each month to use it… I used to like buying something and then being able to use it as long as I liked. The new subscription model Adobe use is
Is ON1 RAW 2018 the Best Solution For Cost-Conscious Photographers? Read More »
Using LIGHTROOM to make a dreamy waterfall Here’s a shot from a recent workshop at Swaldale – it’s Crackpot Force, yes, that’s really a thing! The shot was underexposed, but I liked the shape – so gave it a go in Lightroom anyway. Things we explain:- black and white conversion basic controls like Highlights, Whites, Shadows
How to make a soft, dreamy, black and white waterfall photograph in LIGHTROOM 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 »
Flash of inspiration This technique came to me one night – just watching sunset on a road bridge and thought about it. It applies to Tilt Shif lenses mainly – but I’m sure you can do it with a normal lens, or telephoto. Maybe not an ultrawide 16mm though. The Problem So you invest £2000
How to fake an ND Grad filter with LIGHTROOM Read More »
Learn Spot Colour in Seconds The Magic of Spot Colouring in Adobe Lightroom Welcome to the fascinating world of spot colouring, a technique that can transform your photographs from ordinary to extraordinary. With Adobe Lightroom, you can achieve this stunning effect in mere minutes, no faffing about! The Art of Black and White Photography with
Super-Fast Spot Colouring in LIGHTROOM Read More »
A New way of working with LIGHTROOM? Here’s a video of how I found using these LIGHTROOM Presets and Brush settings to edit a few photos The company who created them are called Sleeklens – and can be found on the following links:- Main Website https://sleeklens.com/ Products Landscape Lightroom Presets Professional Photo Editing Service Lightroom
Sleeklens Lightroom Workflow – First Impressions Read More »
Lightroom edit of our Night Photography Workshop – Roundhay Park, Leeds Here’s a shot from our light painting workshop in Leeds – a small but perfectly formed group of intrepid photographers gathered to paint the park red, blue, green and any other colour we had in the bag. This photo had 3 of us with
How to edit a light painting photo FAST using LIGHTOOM Read More »
Here’s a scene from a cornwall town – it’s been uploaded anonymously so I’ve no idea who’s work it is. Essentially it was a quick case of brightening up the photo to add a bit of punch – using the GRAD tool. Before… After The Video https://youtu.be/zgQoOuix7rY
LIGHTROOM TUTORIAL – Cornish Beach Scene Read More »
Anonymous Edits Here’s a lovely street scene from what I guess is France – again, I’ve no idea who’s shot this one is, it’s uploaded to DROPBOX with no name attached so I can be totally impartial. A bit like the STIG was on Top Gear. This edit creates a couple of results – one
LIGHTROOM TUTORIAL – French Street Scene Read More »
Is Swaledale the best Dale? There are so many dales, all with different character, all with different features. Swaledale is known for its steep sides, lead mines, waterfalls and 1000 barns – so lots to go at for the photographer We went up there yesterday – Richard Spurdens with his new Canon 5D mark 4
LIGHTROOM tutorial – Landscape – Swaledale Waterfall Read More »
Front to back sharpness Here’s how it’s done! Even at F16 with a wide lens, you can struggle to get everything sharp in a photo. If you like getting a foreground object such as a boulder or stream in your shot – the background may get blurry – of the foreground may get blurry… it
Lightroom and Photoshop – Focus Stacking Tutorial Read More »
Yorkshire Dales Lightroom Tutorial – Ribblehead Viaduct A sunset shot – without a great sunset So you’re driving up a long country road with no real signs of life apart from the odd farm or bird of prey, then all of a sudden this massive viaduct pops up! That’s Ribblesdale – it’s full of stuff to
Lightroom Tutorial – Landscape – Ribblehead Viaduct Read More »
Lightroom Landscape Tutorial – from Austria! The Wilder Kaiser, Tirol Here is a full editing Lightroom tutorial of an Austrian landscape – it’s the Wilder Kaiser range, which loom majestically over the farm we stop at on the McFade Austrian holiday which runs every October At the top of the ski slopes they have these little lakes
Lightroom Tutorial – Landscape – Wilder Kaiser in Austria Read More »
Lightroom Edit of Zell Am See – Austria Real-time Lightroom editing tutorial Here’s a 10 stop shot – taken with a very dark ND filter which makes the exposure 1000 times longer. This one has a 30-second exposure. The filter has a blue cast, so we show how to correct this – and work through
Editing a Landscape in LIGHTROOM – Zell am See, Austria 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 »
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Lightroom Recovery – Transforming a Dull Day Landscape Read More »
Want great results FAST? Need to prep some preview images but don’t have time to go to town? With most landscape photos, you’ve got the sky and the foreground – and other great elements like foreground interest boulders, trees, water… So editing that lot individually can take a long time. How about splitting your shot into
Sky-Rocket Your Editing With LIGHTROOM GRAD Tool Read More »
Lightroom Presets – Work Smart! Do you always do the same editing steps? Have you created a fantastic shot, and want to re-create it in future? Do you want to spend less time editing and more shooting? Making your own LIGHTROOM PRESETS Well if you’ve said yes to any of those, then Lightroom Presets are perfect
Super-Charge your Editing with Lightroom Presets Read More »
Why do people get so angry about photo watermarks? You’d be amazed how polarised opinion is on photo watermarking is. Many think it pointless, and will fight to the death to convince everyone so. Others think it idiotic to post anything without the protection of a watermark What is a photo watermark? It’s a logo, text
The Great Photo Watermark Debate Read More »
2015 – January’s Photography We kicked off the year with workshops in Leeds and the Dales, shot lots of fitness and training for clients, interiors of event spaces, huge office spaces and a couple of gigs with the Chicago Blues Brothers Here are just a few memories of January See the rest of 2015… Read about
2015 Photography Review 1 – January Read More »
Empowering the Lightroom Grad Tool Did you know you could have as many Lightroom Grad Tools as you like on a photo – and they can operate in any direction? Well in this video we see a beautiful TVR Tuscan transformed with 2 easy steps….
How to fast track car editing – Lightroom Grad Tool Read More »
Grand Finale Car Photography Workshop for 2015 We’ve done 3 great Car Photography workshops this summer, the final one was at Temple Newsham in Leeds – where we have a huge car park full of puddles and a gritty feel. Something to contrast to the other workshops. The cars were TVR T350 TVR Wedge –
Car Photography Workshop – TVR and Porsche Read More »
Is HDR Photography Dead? In many situations, new cameras do indeed render HDR Photography redundant. We use HDR to increase the “dymanic range” of our work – capturing extra detail in the highlights and shadows. Older cameras had a limited range, was was proved by lightening an under exposed shot. The “noise” would be intolerable,
HDR Photography is DEAD! Read More »
How to Create That Vintage Look in LIGHTROOM In this short tutorial video, we look at editing a beach shot at Alnwick, Northumberland. It was a bright day with strong clouds, so lots of mid tones and some crisp shadows to play with. There are many ways to process such a shot, in this session we’ll
Creating Vintage Photos Made Easy in LIGHTROOM Read More »
A New Look Pays Off! Having recently opened an events space in Leeds, our client needed some fresh shots to promote it. So we created some of our “special HDR images” of Lambert’s Yard – using a mix of angles and styles to show the features, and sell the place as a modern, warm, fun, city centre venue to hold
Bookings “go though the roof” with McFade Photos Read More »
Shoot to the right… what’s that then? It’s a technique to get better image quality… simple as that really. Why does the “shoot to the right” technique give you better image quality? Well the science is pretty complicated and all to do with how a sensor captures light. Digital cameras sensors are more efficient at capturing the light
Why you should “Shoot to the Right” Read More »
Poland’s Blackpool? Sopot is a resort in Poland with a pier, sand and seagulls – yes, it’s just like Blackpool! Actually, it’s more like Penarth in Wales – a more subdued, classy affair than the coastal towns of northern England. Its centre street is spotlessly clean, lots of bars and shops with a bustling student
Free Lightroom Tips and Photo Critique – Week 11 This weeks Lightroom tips…. This week we have a night photo, castle, lake and canal. Main tips are on composition, cropping and focussing. It’s not easy focussing on dark subjects at night – so there are a few tips on how to do this. Here’s the
Free Lightroom Tips and Photo Critique – Week 11 Read More »
Free Lightroom Tips and Photo Critique – Week 10 This weeks Lightroom tips…. This week we’ve got Lindesfarne, a fountain, some cool shallow depth of field effects with a toy car and much more. If you want to join in – just send me your email address via any means you can, email to [email protected]
Free Lightroom Tips and Photo Critique – Week 10 Read More »
