I photograph teams all the time – it’s great fun meeting and getting to know everyone, albeit usually very briefly. I understand that selecting a photographer to capture your team can be a daunting task, and you may have several questions about the process. That’s why I’ve created a video that answers some of the …
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 »
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 »
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 a limestone pavement to capture photos of trees growing out of rocks when one of the clouds opened and let …
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 …
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 this? Obviously 1-click editing isn’t really possible because every photograph is different and every situation as different lighting and composition, …
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 »
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 …
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 package, which allows you to add text to things like PDF documents and photographs or brighten a dark shot up …
I learn more through audio than text…. I don’t know about you but I definitely take more information in through my ears than through reading! Which is kind of ironic, because I’m writing this using words which you will be reading…. Anyway, having searched for the most realistic, affordable text to voice converter on the …
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 a Pearl of Wisdom on LinkedIn yesterday which was “Business is all about finding a problem then providing a solution …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Facebook Hates Portrait Professional 17! The bottom of the internet, where people comment on things with impunity, is full of bile and anger whenever Portrait Professional is mentioned. Portrait Professional kept popping up on my feed, so decided to try the Demo version – it seemed to be pretty quick and effective IF you didn’t go …
They say Portrait Professional 17 is Terrible… but is it? 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 …
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!
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 »
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 …
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 – …
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 …
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 »
Iconic Steam Train Photo Here’s a shot taken from a bridge – in this tutorial I work through a few different controls to eek out detail in the steam and the engine body. The “how to” video https://youtu.be/c0CZRn6ZYkM
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
A Bavarian Lake Scene Here’s a photo of the stunning Konigsee, part of our 2016 trip to Austria. It’s taken by our friend Julie Pfeiffer, who came all the way from Milwaukee to join us in Tirol. The shot is from the banks of the lake next to a beautiful church. Wiki Says…. Situated within …
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 …
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 »
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 »
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….
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 can be hard to get the background AND the foreground pin sharp. Focussing 1/3 of the way into a scene …
See How Easily Focus Stacking You Gives Ultimate Sharpness In Your Landscape Photos 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, …
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 …
10 Stop Filters – All the Rage! I’ve got one, have you? Well no landscape or architecture photographer worth their salt goes out without one these days do they ? 😉 It is the current fad – that surreal sky, those misty sea shores… you simply have to use them… They are genuinely interesting to …
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 …
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 …
Landscape Video… If you’re into landscapes, here are some cool tips in a short video – well medium, it’s 8 minutes long. Photographer Antony Spencer teamed up with Phase One last year to share inspirational tips on how to shoot better landscape images. But these aren’t necessarily any ordinary tips that you’ve heard before. …
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 training@mcfade.co.uk …
Free Lightroom Tips and Photo Critique – Week 10 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
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 6 This weeks Lightroom tips…. This week we had 5 photos uploaded, a nice mix of subjects including a lancaster bomber, river and York scene. Main tips are on image editing and losing quality through excessive noise reduction, cropping and vignetting. Free, anonymous Lightroom Tips – Submit now …
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, …
NIK EFEX Define – the best Noise Reduction Software Available? There are a lot out there, Lightroom and Photoshop have filters to do this for you, so why use NIK EFEX version? One reason I use NIK EFEX it is the extra control you have in choosing “noise”. On the screen shot above, you’ll see a …
GOOGLE NIK EFEX Guide – 2 DEFINE Noise Reduction Read More »
