Julian Elliott
About Julian Elliott
I am an award winning professional freelance landscape and travel photographer as well as an occasional writer based in the Loire Valley, France but I also travel across Europe mainly encompassing France, Italy and the UK.In October 2015, one of my images was chosen as the winner of the Countryside is GREAT section of the Landscape Photographer of the Year in conjunction with Visit Britain. In October 2017 my image of Big Ben and the Shard entitled “A Shard of Ben” was commended in the Urban View category of the Landscape Photographer of the Year.My photography and stock footage has been sold across the world in nearly 40 countries through agencies such as Getty Images. They have been used as magazine spreads right through to commercial and product sales. The footage has been used in things such as corporate websites or part of a TV broadcast.Back in April 2005 I decided that being in the office was not something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I would rather spend my time on the side of a freezing cold hill getting superb light at dawn or seeing the setting sun produce an endless display of colour over a beautiful seascape, mirrored on a beach full of shimmering sands than in the comfort of a cosy office.My approach to photography is simple, get it right in camera first and don’t spend needless time in front of a PC having to adjust various exposures, merging images etc all in the name of trying to get the perfect picture. Although I do merge images from time to time when it is only absolutely necessary. The majority of blended images are interior shots as it is impossible to use traditional filtration.In order to get some of the colourful images that you see on my portfolio, I use filtration in the form of Lee Filters neutral density graduates, a Heliopan polarizer and/ or a Lee Filters neutral density filter. The graduate filters add no colour to the image but instead help to balance the light between the sky and foreground. I am often asked if what you see is real and not a product of Photoshop. The answer, simply, is yes it is real. The colours that you see are real and are a reaction of the colour temperature of light to the particular time of day or the weather conditions accompanying them.If Photoshop is used it is only to adjust the curves and sharpness of an image. The vast majority of my work is edited in Lightroom. Digital cameras have a different tonal range than that of film emulsion. The curves adjustment will put more depth into the image in the form of blacks or, occasionally, some highlight information. The curves adjustment adds no colour.Currently, I use a Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 6D with Canon L Series lenses to capture the images you see on the galleries. The time lapse footage that I produce is facilitated by a Promote Control with post production ramping occurring in LR Timelapse.My stock photography and footage work can be found with the following image libraries: Getty; Robert Harding; AGE Fotostock and Alamy.Outside of the world of stock, I have done various commissions for some of the UK’s leading photography magazines such as Digital SLR User magazine, Digital Camera Mag and Photo Plus. Visit Britain – The British Tourist Authority commissioned me in 2016 to ensure that some of the major cities in the UK looked beautiful in a series of time lapse sequences. The Mairie de Tours in France have also commissioned my work for use in their publicity material.
Professional roles: Blogger, Photographer, Tutor, Videographer
Location: France