Photoshopping Sunrays with Curves
Sometimes you only get a fleeting second of light and you’ll have to grab what you can with the camera you having your hands. The story behind this photo is that we were walking to ...
Training
Lencarta Beauty Dish Test Shoot
I recently bought the “MOD048 | 60cm Folding Beauty Dish Silver Mk.2” as a small, portable light modifier. These are available (or will be when stock arrives) on their website (https://www.lencarta.com/all-products/light-shapers/studio-beauty-dishes) or if you’re in ...
Tilt shift lens for portraits of Andy Taylor Boocock
Who on earth uses a tilt shift lens for portraits? A nurse by day, a fashion model by – well any time he’s not being a nurse really – on this winters day we had ...
Fast photo editing software – Luminar AI
Imagine a world where you could click one thing and your photo would be edited to your personal taste – fast photo editing software is the ultimate productivity booster, is Luminar AI the tool for ...
How to get Maximum Sharpness with Focus Stacking
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, ...
Blending Light Painting Photos in Photoshop
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 ...
Affinity Photo for Businesses
After talking with the Yorkshire Garden Designer, Sally Tierney, I learned that business owners occasionally need to do stuff a photo editor or designer would do. Clearly, they would benefit from an affordable photo editing ...
Transforming Websites The Easy Way
Here’s a quick “video blog” on solving the problem of poor looking websites the easy way… The text is below if you prefer to read or can’t have the sound on right now I read ...
Try these 3 Things RIGHT NOW to improve your phone photos
You can definitely take great phone photos these days. The technology has moved on massively since the early days, and the app software is truly amazing. There are probably dozens of phone photos tips you ...
FREE Luminosity Mask Extension in Photoshop
Photoshop now comes with lots of “extensions” you can install – either paid or for free – you get to them from this menu item That opens up a web browser – you ...
How to organise your photos like a pro
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 ...
NEVER use direct flash
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 ...
Nightscapes 1 – The Art of Light Painting
NIGHTSCAPES 2018/2019 Begins! It all started last night in Roundhay Park – our winter of light painting around Roundhay Park saw us using torches and gels to colour the world! New for 2018 is a ...
Summer Night Photography Workshops – 2018 Review
Another series of Photography Workshops drew to an end in Manchester on the 26th September. It seems like ages since we started on our beginners evening in Leeds, which turned out to be the only ...
Correct Skin Tone in 1 Second
When you’ve done a shoot and have hundreds of shots to trawl through, you need a quick way to get the skin tone the right brighness on your subject. It’s not straightforward enough to use ...
The Reality of Running Workshops
One of the most common issues we get are people asking to cancel (or come on a different workshop for no extra cost) – it could be work related, or a sick pet or anything ...
2018 Portrait Workshop 2
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 ...
Maximising your photography investment
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 ...
AMAZING Panoramic Photos Made Easy with LIGHTROOM
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 ...
Night Photography at Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds
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 ...
LIGHTROOM Bright Sky Rescue!
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 ...
Instant Vintage Effects in Lightroom
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 ...
How to make a soft, dreamy, black and white waterfall photograph in LIGHTROOM
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 ...
A Stunning Yorkshire Dales Day – Ribblesdale and Malham
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 ...
How to fake an ND Grad filter with LIGHTROOM
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 ...
GoodSynch keeps your work safe & SYNCHRONISED!
The Problem GoodSync Solves…. As a photographer, we’re dealing with huge files ALL the time, many of which we bin after we’ve finished a project – these fill hard drives, meaning you’ll waste £££££ on hard ...
Mind Blowing Depth of Field – Tilt Shift Lenses
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 – ...
Super-Fast Spot Colouring in LIGHTROOM
Learn Spot Colour in Seconds Using Adobe Lightroom Spot Colouring is where you make a black and white photo but leave a part of it coloured. You may see it in wedding photography, and most ...
A Wet Workshop at Malham
January’s Malham Workshop 2017 We always run a landscape workshop at Malham in January fo those who’ve got a new camera for Xmas and want to learn how to take great countryside shots in the ...
Castlefield Manchester – Canals and Viaducts
Water and Rail Meet at Castlefield Manchester Castlefield is incredibly central in Manchester, a stone’s throw away from the massive Beetham Tower and Deansgate Station. It’s a stunning place for every photographer to enjoy, be that ...
LIGHTROOM TUTORIAL – Cornish Beach Scene
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 ...
LIGHTROOM tutorial – Landscape – Swaledale Waterfall
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 ...
Lightroom and Photoshop – Focus Stacking Tutorial
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 ...
Lightroom Tutorial – Landscape – Ribblehead Viaduct
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 ...
Lightroom Tutorial – Landscape – Wilder Kaiser in Austria
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 ...
Editing a Landscape in LIGHTROOM – Zell am See, Austria
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 ...
Ribblesdale – Yorkshire Dales Western Diamond
Ribblesdale – a fantastic photography destination Coming from Ribblesdale, I’m obviously biased – though I’m a good 20 miles downstream from most of these destinations The Ribble is 70 miles long, starting at Ribblehead and ...
Yorkshire’s Best Kept Secret – Knaresborough
Knaresborough Workshop Night Yorkshire is full of little market towns, each with their market square lined with pubs. Most would think of places like Thirsk, Bedale, Masham or Pickering – but there is one far ...
Super-Charge your Editing with Lightroom Presets
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 ...
The Pixelstick – The Verdict
Was the Pixel Stick Worth it? Having watched this cool light painting tool evolve for a while it was only a matter of time before I got one. That came on Black Friday 2015 when ...
York Photography – A Beautiful City at Night
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 ...
The Amazing Milky Way at Brimham Rocks
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 ...
Salford Quays Workshop
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. ...
How to fast track car editing – Lightroom Grad Tool
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 ...
See How Easily Focus Stacking You Gives Ultimate Sharpness In Your Landscape Photos
Focus Stacking in Landscape Photos If you like to get everything pin sharp in your landscapes, Focus Stacking is for you. If you shoot low with foregrounds which are very close to the lens, then it ...
7 Top Tips for Low Light Photography
Low Light Photography for Beginners 2015’s summer looks to be ebbing away – certainly in the evenings as it’s dark by 8PM now! So last night we started our summer-winter transition and showed a group ...
Car Photography Workshop – TVR and Porsche
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 ...
How to take better travel photos on your smartphone
Sunrise and sunset provide the best light for photography: Lauren Bath AS THE saying goes, the best camera to have is the camera you have with you. And for must of us, that’s a smartphone. ...
HDR Photography is DEAD!
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. ...