Presentation (Auto-Interview)
Why an auto-interview?
Because I can ask the questions to which I know the answers.

Adrian, is this your real name?
Actually it is my middle name. I always liked it but never used it. My photography is a good opportunity to use this signature.

Are you really a photographer?
I'd like to think that I am! I don't make a living out of it if that's what you mean. I'm actually a physicist working on the detection of gravitational waves ($#@**!?), but don't worry, I won't explain what that is here.

You must be busy then. How much time do you devote to photography?
Well, the actual "picture-taking" phase is not so time consuming. I usually always carry my back pack with my equipment when I travel. Most of the time I don't use it but better be safe than sorry. Then as soon as I have a chance I shoot.
With my work I tend to travel a lot for meetings, conferences... some places I would never go otherwise. This is a good opportunity to take pictures. You have to add some vacation time (we got a lot of it in France) where the photography is one of the main criteria to choose a destination.
I think most of my time is used on post. I'd say that for me, a picture is 30% in the field and 70% on photoshop.

Some people might argue that the most important is the "in-the-field" phase.
I would obviously agree in the case of photo-journalism. But this is not what I do. There is a true story about Monet (or Manet, I forgot). A guy looked at him while he was painting a landscape and questionned Monet about a tree that he painted but wasn't there in the actual scenery. Monet said: "I put it there because the nature forgot it". I like that. I like looking at an ideal picture, the ones that only exist in your imagination, like a good memory. I usually play with the colors to give a surreal look to the landscape without going to far though. My best pictures are the ones which flirt with fantasy (got that?) while being grounded in reality.
Don't get me wrong! I like to take my time when I shoot pictures, to find the right spot, the right light etc... But I usually take multiple pictures of the same place to cover uncertainties. Typically a panorama requires about 50-60 pictures. Then I have all the material I need to play with in post.

You must fill your memory card pretty quickly!
Not really. It is not my habit to shoot a lot. As I said, most of the time my camera remains in my bag. I don't need hundreds of picture to remember a place. One or two good shots are usually enough to give me the flavor of a place I went and revive my memories. Memories are an important part in my pictures. In fact there is a delay of 6 months to 1 year between the time where I take the shot and when I post-process it. This maturing time helps me to work on my pictures, my fantasy plays a big role.

Let's talk about your photography evolution. How did it all start?
I started pretty late, I must have been about 20 when I bought my first reflex with the money of a summer job. Digital cameras were starting to be popular at that time. However, I really wanted to start to work on film to adjust my skills. I didn't want to skip that step and I think I really gained from that experience. Working on film is a lot more demanding, you can't erase a picture and do it again, you have to be very rigorous and make sure everything is perfect before pushing the button. You have no idea how happy you can be when a photograph turns out exactly how you imagined it.

When did you move to digital?
Progressively. Before buying a digital camera, I first digitized my pictures taken on film. It allowed me to start enhancing my pictures on a computer. I was amazed by what was possible and how simple it was! That is also when I started to produce panoramas. At first I did it manually. It was so time consuming! I add to align the layers by hand to make 2 pictures match! I was so relieved when I discovered tools like photomerge or Autopano pro. I worked like this for a few years before finally buying a digital reflex.

Why the panoramic format?
This is my vision of things. I see life in a panoramic format so I expect to see the same through my photographs. Moreover as you can see on my web site my favorite subject is the nature. The panorama is, for me, the best way to capture it.

Can you explain your work pipeline?
I'm a pixel-freak. All my work aims at preserving the best quality for my picture. I'm working on the RAW format to get the best from my camera. Going back from a trip I have typically about 2 to 4 GB of pictures in a raw format. I download my pictures via Adobe Bridge, convert them to the DNG format, make a rough sorting and archive the pictures carefully. As I said, it takes about 6 months before I come back to them. Then comes the Camera Raw software in which I developed only my best shots. Most of my work is done in Camera Raw: cropping, rough cleaning, white balance, colors treatment, noise reduction... All this work is non-destructive, you can always come back on your decisions without loosing in quality. Finally I move to Photoshop where I usually work in 16 bits (I told you, a pixel-freak!). This is the artistic part where the picture moves to the fantasy world. Finally I switched to 8 bits to save the final photo into a PSD format to keep all the information. That's it.

A last word?
I hope that you can appreciate my work. Maybe it can gives you some ideas for your own pictures. I'd like to believe that browsing through my web site will make you want to travel more, will make you dream and all this in a panoramic format!

Back to main page
Conception and Creation : Adrian. © Fantasy Elements
Contact : Fantasy Elements