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 »
Last Ditch Pitstop! The Dales Experience workshop was somewhat spoiled by ice – the 3 roads to get to our favourite spots were impassible! So rather than panic, we grabbed loads of great shots elsewhere and on the way back to base, I remembered these trees on the side of the road near Airton I
Lightroom Landscape Workflow – 3 Minute Mono! Read More »
Who’d Want to do Photography in Leeds ? I’ve heard this said many times – along with classics such as… you’ve not got many great buildings, you’ve not got any sky scrapers costs a fortune to park and they charge you at night its really rough and you’ll get mugged. Ok… Parking is Terrible… Well
Leeds is RUBBISH For Photography! Read More »
A Wealthy Town If you’re into classic sports cars and wealthy old german people wandering around streets, this place is for you. Its a playground for the rich, with E-Type Jaguars and classic Porsches along the litterless streets. We did look at property priced and it’s more like Mayfair than Leeds! But as this blog
Kitzbuhel Church, Austria Read More »
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 »
This week’s selection are up and ready for you to enjoy. We have a mix from a US mountain to a Lancaster Bomber
Lightroom Tips and Critique Week – Week 9 Read More »
Free Lightroom Tips and Photo Critique – Week 7 This weeks Lightroom tips…. Welcome to the 7th instalment of video critique – this week we have a set of 7, from a TVR to portraits, beach huts to classic architecture. As ever, these are uploaded to DROPBOX anonymously and imported into Lightroom so we can
Free Lightroom Tips and Photo Critique – Week 7 Read More »
NIK EFEX VIVEZA – it’s just curves, right? NIK EFEX Viveza is, on the surface, a very simple NIK EFEX plugin, and when compared to Silver EFEX, it looks trivial! But with its 4 sliders and curves control, it is extremely powerful! Add to that the ability to create as many “control points” as you like,
GOOGLE NIK EFEX Guide – 3 Viveza Read More »
NIK EFEX Define – the Best Noise Reduction Software Available? Direct answer: NIK EFEX Define stands out because it gives you more control over what the software treats as noise, rather than just applying a blanket fix. In this workflow, you can sample a noisy area by hand, help the filter learn the difference between
NIK Dfine Explained: Smarter Noise Reduction for Landscape Photos Read More »
Sharpening with GOOGLE NIK EFEX Google Nik has to be one of the best suites of plugins for Lightroom and Photoshop available. Many of our McFade Training customers use it, so in this mini series, we’ll introduce the workflow NIK recommend, showing you how we’d use it on a Landscape photo of the lake district.
GOOGLE NIK EFEX Guide – 1 RAW Pre Sharpen Read More »
The Grande Finale! We started a series of Night Workshops back in November 2013 – 15 workshops taking people from Nidderdale in the north to Huddersfield in the west, Parks and moors, city centres and saw dozens of photos edited for the attendees. The final night was thankfully a dry one, one with hazy moon
Fire on the Moors! Read More »
Read about our trip east to enjoy The Humber Bridge Bridlington Flamborough North Landing Flamborough Head Lighthouse http://www.mcfade.co.uk/training/flamborough-head-review/ Here are a few of our photos from the day… more if you follow the above link
Flamborough Head Workshop Read More »
Welcome to Castleford: A Photographic Adventure Exploring the Waterside Castleford, a small town in West Yorkshire, is a treasure trove of photographic opportunities. My adventure began by the River Aire, which was brimming and roaring as it cascaded over the weir. I snapped away with my trusty 70-200mm lens, capturing the scene in all its
Capturing Castleford Photos: A Photographer’s Guide to Hidden Gems Read More »
December’s night workshop was at Brimham Rocks so I decided to head up there early to get some shots of the valley… little did I realise the clouds would be inverted, with the valley full of mist and the sky clear… here are some shots from one of the best days of 2013.
Amazed in Nidderdale… Read More »
Visiting Yorkshire? The coast is well worth a visit for anyone, especially photographers. Here are 5 places to call into with your camera. All these photos were taken on one day – Sunday 1st December 2013 – during a McFade Photography workshop, proving you can get a huge variety of subject in 20 miles of
5 Yorkshire Coast Photography Locations Read More »
Here’s a selection of photos from Leeds’ Roundhay Park firework display on 5th December 2013, and a few tips on how we did them. Get a good place to watch them A good clear view is best, you get to watch the entire journey of all the fireworks. Too close and you may end up
Fireworks Photography Tips Read More »
Casvegas…. Pontecarlo…. West Yorkshire’s casino district? Well maybe not, but between the 2 or them, they have a couple of real photographic gems. The boating lake at Pontefract’s racecourse is fantastic for sunsets, and this bridge in Castleford is pretty spectacular after dark. So what brought me here… Well 2 things really – I’m starting
The lakes in Austria tend to be green – a bluey, greeny Jade kine of colour. But on an overcast day, they weren’t really shouting “colour” at us – so I decided to create a series of black and white images from our morning walk around the lake on the German border. The passers by
Austria Workshop – The Lake at Kufstein 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 »
Wind farms are, by definition, positioned in windy, desolate places. This makes for truly atmospheric shots – given the right lighting conditions. The best time is sunset or sunrise, because the sun light comes in low and lights 1/2 of the turbine, leaving the other half in shadow. It gives a 3D feel to them.
Wind Farm Workshop with McFade Training Read More »
This may seem a bit obvious, but having taught many people flash/portraits, it’s the number one reason why you get bored looks on your photos…. Don’t look at the back of your camera all the time You need get the lights right and checking this on camera is fine. But once you’ve got the lights
Top Tip to Keep Your Portrait Sitters Happy…. Read More »
Mastering the Art of Portrait Photography: 5 Essential Tips for Engaging with Your Subject When it comes to portrait photography, the technical aspects like lighting, camera settings, and composition are undeniably important. However, the way you interact with your subject can often make the difference between a good portrait and a great one. Whether you’re
Exposure is entirely dictated by the light conditions when you are shooting. There are no perfect settings – you need to use your light meter to “read” the light level, then set ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed accordingly. There are certain rules of thumb you can follow – generally landscape shots are sharp from front
Exposure – Subject Cheat Sheet Read More »
Infographic A simple aide-memoire for the 3 main exposure settings. Enjoy!
Exposure Cheat-Sheet Read More »
Where in the Yorkshire Dales is Ribblesdale? It’s one of the major ones, with a west watershed, that starts at Ribblehead then goes via Settle into East Lancashire – ending up at Preston where it enters the Irish Sea. Most people think of Ribblesdale as a limestone heavy location, with the 3 Peaks all around
22 Yorkshire Dales Photos – Ribblesdale Read More »
Grim Day… Day 1 of the summer series of workshops and we get a winter night…. in may…. It wasn’t raining too much when we got to the reservoir, so I showed a couple of new people how to expose using a meter. Here’s the shot I got – 4 seconds, histogram told me that
Lightroom Rescue in under 10 minutes… Read More »
So you can do most things in Lightroom these days. I thought I’d meddle with this shot of the Royal Armouries to show a few things you can’t do in Lightroom…. yet! Start point So to get to this point, you could probably have used Lightroom. Its been through these steps… Capture – 1
How I did This…. 5 Photoshop Steps Read More »
McFade Training hits Wensleydale Our 2013 Landscape trips have been a cold affair so far – wensleydale was no exception with show and ice in just about every shot. Meeting near Skipton then traversing Wharfdale via Kilnsey Cragg and the waterfalls near Cray, we started at West Burton Force. Its setting is as beautiful as
Discover Wensleydale Read More »
Night Program Finale…. at Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds We spent 3 hours playing with torches, lighting the majestic ruins at the Abbey, then at the end, created these amazing sparks with wire wool. How did we do this then? There are lots of Youtube videos online, you just need a 9 volt battery, steel wool,
Sparks @ Kirkstall Read More »
Automated Band Photography? The “ALL NEW” Chicago Blues Brothers came to Dubai and rocked the Manidat Theatre for 3 nights. Flying out on a freezing March Tuesday, we landed at Abu Dhabi in the warm Arabian evening, transferring to Dubai by bus. Here are a set of performance shots taken by Ade on the last gig, saturday
Band Photography – Chicago Blues Brothers – Dubai Read More »
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
Flash Accessory Test Read More »
Why McFade Splits Beginners Workshops To total beginners, photography is a new, exciting pastime – but with a learning-curve as steep as Hardknott Pass! Where do you start? You can boil photography down to 2 things:- Finding interesting stuff to photograph Using camera settings to get an interesting shot This is the philosophy behind my
The 2 Poles of Photography Read More »
Got a fair coming to town? They’re brilliant to shoot at night – all those moving lights create amazing patterns; so much for the eye to see. Here are 5 tips for making the most of your night there 1 Long exposures – so take a Tripod! Every night photographer will use a tripod, so
5 Fairground Photography Tips Read More »
The cold doesn’t stop us. We wrapped up warm and forged our way to Malham in the Yorkshire Dales and created great images anyway. Our group of 5 intrepid explorers on the McFade Training “Discover Malham” workshop visited the full range of highlights the area has on offer – Scalebar Force, Highland Cattle, Janet’s Foss,
Discovering Malham Read More »
Since I wrote an 8-page article for Digital SLR User magazine in 2008, I’ve loved shooting at night. Once the unreliable ambient light has gone, you are in control. Photographers are control freaks…. Also since then, LED torches have massively improved, to the point where for as little as £50 you can buy a Cree
5 Light Painting Shots Read More »
Cropping a shot is a great exercise – you can find completely new images within an existing frame. Here’s a shot with lots going on, probably too much to be an effective shot on its own. We have a few rocks in the foreground and lots of lines and circles from the moving foamy water. It
5 Tips on Cropping Photos Read More »
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
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 »
Homeward Bound – Church, Coffee and Cake Beautiful landscape is one part of out workshops, but we’re partial to a bit of architecture too, and when the weather is lacking, we can always pop into something interesting like this church. It’s on the way to Munich Airport so we pulled off the Autobahn and had
Austria Workshop 2012 – Bavarian Church Read More »
Austrian Landscape Photography Holiday McFade Photography’s “Austrian Photography Holiday & Workshop” took 5 photographers over to the stunning Tirol area of Austria in the middle of October 2012, an area of outstanding mountains, lakes and gorges. A long weekend, from Thursday to Monday, with 3 full photography days in stunning locations, fantastic food and accommodation with Keith and Manu
Austrian Landscape Photography Workshop – Day 1 at The Gorge Read More »
Just a few shots from the first Night Photography session. We used Leeds as a base to learn the theory behind taking long exposures at night – how things like Aperture have more unusual effects than you’d think at night! We’ll be meeting to discuss each others images in a fortnight and share ideas on
Night Photography Programme Starts Read More »
The most complete night photography workshop series in Leeds today? Does your camera go into hibernation over winter? Join our Night Photography Workshops in Leeds. Embrace the dark to create amazing images! We’ve listened to your feedback from the recent survey. People wanted…. a “collaborative” approach, one where we learn from each other to know more
Night Photography Workshops in Leeds Read More »
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
5 Tips – To Pose, or not To Pose? Read More »
Off Camera Flash Essentials Off camera flash is a popular technique at the moment, taking speedlite flashes off the camera, onto light stands and using radio transmitters to trigger them. It’s getting easier and cheaper – with budget brands bringing flash to the masses Technically, there and awful lot to understand to get fantastic results
5 ESSENTIALS every photographer MUST know before using Off Camera Flash Read More »
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
McFade Edits Phil Gledhill’s “Chris in Window” shot Read More »
Here’s a shot by Dave Goodman, who came on our Brass Workshop in the Lyric. It’s a shot of Chris playing Trombone on the stairs up to the projector room. For me, the main thing here was the shadow and brick textures, so all the emphasis was dragged in that direction, leaving chris himself very
McFade Edit of Dave Goodman’s “Chris” Shot 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 »
An example of workflow in Lightroom on a coastal shot. 5 shots here Unedited Tone to add contrast, slight rotation, dust removed Clarity added to boost detail/contrast Colour boost – more blues and orange Selective edits with the brush tool and final crop. To view each step, just click on the picture below
5 Steps to better Coastal Shots Read More »
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
Brass Musician – Training Shoot Read More »
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
Photography in the Lyric, Leeds Read More »
