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 »
Can mixing a holiday and photography ever work? So you’re off somewhere amazing for your holiday, with friends or family who probably are not photographers – or at least not as serious as you are. Can you really make this work? The dream holiday photography… For the die-hard-photographer who wants photography perfection, you really
The Nightmare Of Holiday Photography Read More »
Most businesses need images for websites, brochures, press, adverts…. the list goes on. So when you hire a photographer, what are you actually getting? Good ones will be expensive, they may quote £1000-£1500 per day even in West Yorkshire – how on earth can this be justified. If you read most marketing copy, we would
Hiring a Photographer : 7 things you’re REALLY buying Read More »
Blackpool – the beach, prom and Cleveleys Its got a bad press, Blackpool. It’s glory years are long gone, there is a drug problem which I’ve never seen, for myself, but you hear about it… But despite all that, you can get a great set of photos on the right day. We went over on a
Blackpool – the beach, prom and Cleveleys Read More »
A foggy day on the coast Driving up to the workshop I feared the worst – a day of rain and misery, with a group of photographers huddled together keeping dry It was grim… But as Americans would say, when life gives you lemons, make a G&T…. or something like that! And that is just
Yorkshire Coast Photo Workshop 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 »
Ovenden Moor and Wind Farm Photographers have flocked to this wind farm over the years – the bright stone on the road really stand out from the darker heather moorland, the large turbines create fantastic subjects and if you can get some rotation on them, preferably 1/3 of a turn, they look magical. I’d not been up
Ovenden Moor and Wind Farm Read More »
Is Portrait Professional 17 Terrible? My Experience and Verdict The internet is not kind to Portrait Professional 17. In the depths of comment sections, where opinions fly unchecked, there’s no shortage of criticism for this software. But is the backlash justified? In this post, I take a deep dive into my experience with Portrait Professional
They say Portrait Professional 17 is Terrible… but is it? 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 »
Your headshot is important – it represents your brand, your business and you. Headshots work for you every day on Linked IN and the other social media channels, your website, in print and at every touch point the world has with you. So it’s worth a little thought about what you want! To help, we’ve
3 Leading-edge options for your new 2018 business head-shot 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 »
Salford Quays Architecture If anyone wants to learn about shooting architecture “up north”, I can think of not better place than Media City at Salford Quays. This trip was a 1-2-1 with a fellow professional photographer who shoots gigs for a living – he wanted to spend an evening learning about architecture and tilt-shift lenses. So
Media City and Salford Quays Read More »
A 1-2-1 Workshop on a Perfect Yorkshire Dales Day You always book workshops in the Yorkshire Dales with a sense of trepidation, and prepare yourself to explain what each location looks like “when it’s not grey, raining and grim”. No such worries for this 1-2-1 session with Jonathan – perfect weather for afternoon landscapes. Perfect
A Stunning Yorkshire Dales Day – Ribblesdale and Malham 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 »
You can’t always get the weather you want on a test shoot – but somehow, bradford suits this kind of sky. It’s got this old yortkshire stone architedtue going on – yellow stones stacked up to make mills and shops. Pair that with blubous grey clouds and you have an appropriate look… maybe not the
Moody Bradford City Centre Read More »
Yellow fields of Discovery Discovering just what Tilt Shift can do is great fun – and you have to be hands on. Sure, I’d seen 10 Youtube videos so had a good idea what I needed to do – but here are a few examples from my first landscape trip in summer 2017. Tilt Shift
Wonderful Yellow Fields – Tilt Shift Lens Read More »
Granary Wharf Leeds and Wellington Street: A Tilt Shift Lens Adventure Just a quick post with some shots from the train station and canal area of Leeds. These were taken during the early days of testing the Tilt Shift lens we invested in for the architecture photography business. Tilt shift lenses are a game changer
Exploring Granary Wharf Leeds: Architectural Wonders Captured with Tilt Shift Lenses Read More »
Which of these people will get the better profile photo:- a relaxed, stress-free person, who has set time aside to enjoy a photo shoot someone with the phone going every 5 minutes, about to do a speech at an event and has a whole crowd of people waiting for them. It’s night and day – chalk
DON’T Piggyback Your Photography and Expect Great Results Read More »
What is Tilt Shift? If you don’t know what a Tilt Shift lens is, this chap explains it well. So take a look at this first if you’re interested. South Leeds Architecture There are some interesting new buildings in the south of Leeds these days – this first one is the Leeds College of buildings, created
Tilt Shift Lens in Hunslet, South leeds Read More »
Landscapes and Waterscapes @ Stanley Ferry With a 17mm Tilt Shift Lens I’ve had a flurry of outings to get used to the new lenses – this trip was to the Stanley Ferry area just outside Wakefield, in West Yorkshire. I’d started out looking for decent wheat fields, but they were not lit that well with the
Stanley Ferry Marina – Stunning Waterway Read More »
So you want to buy a camera? I get asked a lot about buying cameras. The main questions I ask are:- what do you want to do what is your budget The first one is almost impossible to answer for most people – they have an idea what they’d like to do, but until you
How to buy your first camera when you’ve not got a clue Read More »
Tilt Shift Effect… Most people have heard of Tilt Shift because of the miniature filters you get on camera apps. Ones taken from high up to make the world seem like a toy town – or like this where just a bit is sharp. It’s a cool effect and very handy for creative souls –
Mind Blowing Depth of Field – Tilt Shift Lenses Read More »
Business headshots have changed Evolution of Business Headshots… Stern captains of industry in their victorian offices – green lamps, brass, oak… Conservative backdrops – usually brown or blue White wall business headshots – clean and fit on Linked IN nicely, a bit boring At McFade we’ve been doing “location” portraits too – business headshots usually taken around the workplace,
The EASY Way to Do Business Headshots Read More »
Photographing Drax and Eggborough Power Station at Sunset When it’s a windless day, I can see clouds of steam from Eggboeough and Drax power stations – which are 25-30 miles away from my desk in Morley. Last week, I’d been desk-bound all day and saw a great sunset was on its way AND these clouds, so
The 5 Stop Power Station Sunset Experience Read More »
Wensleydale for New Year Wensleydale is one of my favourite Dales, it’s long, wide, full of waterfalls and lovely villages – and has nice cheese! This new year I was up there with friends and popped out now and then to get some shots of the area – especially one fantastic sunset on New Years
Wensleydale – New Year 2017 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 »
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 »
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 »
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’s Yorkshire Coast Workshop – 2016 We returned to the Yorkshire Coast for the 5th time this year – armed with cameras and tripods, out trip took us from Robin Hood’s bay to Saltburn via several stops, coffees and a bag of fish and chips. Here is what we got up to on the Yorkshire Coast
Yorkshire Coast Photography Workshop – Photos Read More »
Ribblesdale – a fantastic photography destination Welcome to Ribblesdale, a jewel within the Yorkshire Dales National Park, renowned for its dramatic landscapes and iconic features like the Ribblehead Viaduct and the famous Three Peaks. As a local lad, I may be a tad biased, but even though I was born a good 20 miles downstream,
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 »
The Yorkshire 3 Peaks – 2 Distinctive, 1 Boring? I’ve always loved Ingleborough and Pen y Gent yet found Whernside a boring hill to look at. As kids playing on Pendle Hill we could easily see the Yorkshire 3 Peaks on a clear day – 2 very distinctive mountains and one boring lump But on a day out
A Rare View of the Yorkshire 3 Peaks – Together Read More »
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Lightroom Recovery – Transforming a Dull Day Landscape Read More »
Chicago Blues Brothers Play the “Liverpool Empire Theatre” and tick off one of their biggest dream venues The Empire Theatre Liverpool: A Jewel in the Crown of British Theatres Introduction: The Liverpool Empire Theatre —More Than Just a Venue The Empire Theatre in Liverpool is not just another theatre; it’s a cultural institution that has
Liverpool Empire Theatre 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 »
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 »
The McFade York Photography Workshop 2016 With its walls, river, minister and castle as highlights – and hundreds of other things to discover, I’ve always loved running Photography workshops in York. It was drizzling, then fine, then raining… and that only adds to the scene. The watery pavements reflecting colourful light into the camera adds
York Photography – A Beautiful City at Night 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 »
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 »
3 Easy Steps to Photography Mastery You want to make friends say “wow” when they see your photography? You want to know how to do it…. well read on! Unfortunately there is no guaranteed path to mastering photography, but there are 3 steps you can take to help get you from boring “point and shoot”
Pendleton High Waters Pendleton, on the edge of Pendle Hill near Clitheroe, has didn’t quite flood like the rest of the valley, but the water was pretty high – after lunch on Boxing day we went out for a look around the place – see what damage had happened! Luckily it didn’t break the banks
Pendleton, Lancashire – High(ish) Water Read More »
Whalley Flood: Lancashire Faces Its Full Force Ah, the 2015 floods in Whalley—a grim chapter in Lancashire’s history, especially coming around Christmas. It’s a story that needs telling, and who better than a local lad with a lens? Let’s turn your blog post into a cornerstone piece, chock-full of facts, figures, and first-hand accounts. The
Whalley in Deep Water – Flood Photos in Full Force Read More »
September 2015 In september we :- Ran our first night workshop in Leeds Did some headshots for a CEO Helped Xpand Marketing with their new location and rebrand photography Ran a workshop in Ribblesdale, ending at Ribblehead Viaduct at sunset Photographed Salford Quays at night Shoot down at Yorkshire Sculpture Park Create product photos for
2015 Photography Review 9 – September 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 »
Salford Quays Workshop Media City is right on the canal network – so where better to teach night photography skills, a location where you get amazing architecture as well as stunning reflections in each shot. The workshop started at sunset and went on well past the 10PM finish time… when you’re in the zone, may
Salford Quays Workshop Read More »
Photography Should Be a Laugh, Even in Business Take the team at ABL Business, for example. We’ve had a few sessions updating their photos, and every time, it’s a right laugh with Alex, Andy, and the rest of the crew. It’s less about posing for the camera and more about having a chinwag while getting
Commercial Photography Should Be Fun Read More »
