  We adapt the classical Q-method based on a reddening-free parameter
constructed from three passband magnitudes to thwe filter set of IPHAS survey
and combine it with the maximum-likelihood-based cluster parameter estimator by
Naylor and Jeffries (2006) to determine the extinction, heliocentric distances,
and ages of young open clusters using Halpha and ri data. Themethod is also
adapted for the case of signific ant variations of extinction across the
cluster rfield. Our technique is validated by comparing the colour excesses,
disdtances, and ages determined in this study with the most bona fide values
reported for the 18 well-studied young open clusters in the past, and a fairly
good agreement is found between our extinction and distance estimnates and
earlier published results. although our age estimates are not very consistent
with those published by other authors. We also show that individual extinction
values can be determined rather accurately for stars with (r-i)0>0.1. Our
results open up a prospect fpr determining a uniform set of parameters for
northern clusters based on homogeneous photometric data, and for searching for
new, hitherto undiscovered open clusters.
