Give me grey and day There’s nothing more boring than a blue sky to us photographers! So when we got this dramatic sky all day on my last trip to the northeast, it really was a gift. Pinnacle Bridge, Sunderland First off we went south to see the new bridge in Sunderland. It’s the tallest thing […]
It’s Grim Up North Read More »
Leafy November Shoot This November I did a shoot with young Jaeda, a star of the future who’s not only a great model but a competition diver too! A portfolio shoot around our mutual hometown, Morley, hair and styling by her mum, makeup artist and skincare consultant, Michelle Sharman – who also did the art
Jaeda Sharman – Future Superstar Model! Read More »
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 “Manker MK 35” torch – this claims to have a 1.4Km beam – it does shine a hell of a
Nightscapes 1 – The Art of Light Painting Read More »
Getting used to a noisy sensor again! Drones have tiny noisy sensors compared to your DSLR – if you’re used to brightening up shadows on an underexposed shot with your camera, you’ll be shocked how bad this is on a drone RAW file. So what can you do? Bracketing and HDR is the answer. Bracket
Mavic Air – HDR Panoramics Read More »
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 evening where it rained! 2018 was amazingly dry and hot – it made the whole 10 workshops a joy. So
Summer Night Photography Workshops – 2018 Review Read More »
3 Weeks with a Drone…. So I got one – I saw just how small the “mavic air” is on Youtube and thought the time had come! Reasons why I got one… It really does fit in your hand Has a 12Megapixel camera which shoots RAW 4K movies Simple to use for a beginner Masses
Mavic Air Drones for Photography Read More »
Copyright tracking just got easier How sure are you that your website images are all legal to use? By that, did you buy a licence or hire a photographer – or did you just pop on to Google to get a few shots, assuming no one would ever know. And the chances WERE that you’d be
Save £1000’s by NOT breaking photographers copyright! Read More »
Mean, Moody and Mono Sometimes you don’t get that perfect light – the colours are missing and you’re tempted to get back in the car and drive home. But so long as you’ve got a little definition in the sky and it’s not pouring down, then stick around – get some shots with the intention
Mastering Black and White in LIGHTROOM Read More »
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 Auto Settings – that will take account of the background as well as the foreground and skin – so you
Correct Skin Tone in 1 Second Read More »
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 life throws up. We have to say no in order to stay in business – hope this explains why! We
The Reality of Running Workshops Read More »
It’d been on the cards for months but just hadn’t got round to doing this shoot with Brad. So on Weds, we met up at The Tetley in Leeds and got some great images around the Dock Street and Brewery Wharf areas. Dock Street Great for headshots as it has these converging walls behind you, and
Brad Quinn on Dock Street Read More »
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 »
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 »
7 – License to use the images And finally, the one no-one considers. When you commission a photographer, you are paying for them to create images, edit them and a license for you to use them in your business. You don’t own the images – the photographer retains the copyright unless otherwise agreed. It’s a
Hiring a Photographer : 7 things you’re REALLY buying (7) 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 »
6 – Time to edit the images This is just as important as shoot day, and in many cases, has more influence on the final look of the photos. The signature of a photographers style is often in the edit. The sort of things we do at this stage are:- Look at every shot and
Hiring a Photographer : 7 things you’re REALLY buying (6) Read More »
5 – Time to take the images So this IS the time we spend with you shooting, the contact time, the time on site – it’s where the magic is started, but by no means complete. When people ask “what is your day rate”, I assume this is the thing they are expecting to pay
Hiring a Photographer : 7 things you’re REALLY buying (5) Read More »
4 – A 3rd Party view of your business Following closely from point 3 – business owners are often too close to the wood to see the trees… Getting someone from outside into bounce ideas off is a great experience. We “see” things differently, the yellow stripe on the carpet above actually isn’t that big,
Hiring a Photographer : 7 things you’re REALLY buying (4) Read More »
3 – Creative Mind and Ideas It’s often difficult for business owners to think of images to represent their business. If you’re an accountant and spend most of the day in Sage/Xero/Excel, how do you make that look unique and interesting? We do this day in day out – meeting all kinds of businesses and looking for
Hiring a Photographer : 7 things you’re REALLY buying (3) Read More »
2 – The Right Kit for the Job! They have invested in the right bits and pieces for the job. This really does vary on what subjects people cover and style they achieve. Portrait people will have the right flashes and backdrops, architecture photographers may have very expensive Tilt-Shift lenses, food photographers will have all kinds
Hiring a Photographer : 7 things you’re REALLY buying (2) 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 »
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 »
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 »
Your business photos are your first impression Get them wrong – you lose business It’s as simple as that – people’s first impression is made instantly and will influence whether they bother to read your carefully honed copy and click “play” on that professionally produced video. Business photos are more important than you think Visual
9 Letters which define your business photos 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 »
A Very Inky Man in a very cool Leeds street I’ve always loved Dock Street as a portrait location – a classic thin street, cobbles, high mills and a wide variety of looks to be had. So when I met up with Andy for the first time, it was the first location that came to
Dock Street Shoot with Andy Taylor Boocock 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 »
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 drives. We’ve found GoodSync solves this problem so quickly and easily – for $29 for the pro version! Many photographers
GoodSynch keeps your work safe & SYNCHRONISED! 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 »
New Season – New Food Photography With summer arriving, the menus at Radisson in Leeds change – so they needed new Food Photography to promote it. I was invited down to work with the new chef and Tom, the mixologist, to create a whole set. The Food The Fire Lake vibe is on the rustic
Food Photography For Fire Lake, Radisson Blu Leeds Read More »
McFade in LIVERPOOL Liverpool is a fantastic city – one of the only ones with 2 cathedrals, huge river, architecture to die for and some band which disbanded in 1970 which seems to crop up everywhere. Oh – and up the coast a bit there’s a load of metal men made by Antony Gormley and placed
Photography Workshop in Liverpool 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 »
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 »
