Adrian Schaub
March 2025 - Shopping at the Night Market
Original
Original 2
About the Image(s)
It was taken in December in Bologna. I followed the lady with the hat until she stood still in front of a good background. I am struggling with the horizontal positioning. In the first version I had the hat in the center. As I was unhappy with the positioning by the lighted fruits and the saleswoman in the back I moved the woman to the right, which I found overall more balanced. What are your views?
I considered a while lightning up the saleswoman a bit, but decided against as I wanted the viewer to firstly focus on the hat, then wander to the fruits and finally discover the saleswoman: your thoughts?
Technically I did nothing particular but some radial and other masking to highlight the hat. I blackened the light top of the fruits, which I found disturbing.
Hasselblad X2D, ISO 1600, XCD 65, f/9.5, 1/125 sec
This round’s discussion is now closed!
8 comments posted
Adrian,
You dir a masterful job of pulling your subject out of the shadows. Positioning her to right of frame is perfect. Having the vendor in the shadows is also a good choice
My eye sees the 7/8 "hot" bananas though . They have lost some detail and probably need to be brought down a some. It may require a PS layer to fix them and then a mask.
Regards
Emil
Posted: 03/01/2025 12:30:30
You dir a masterful job of pulling your subject out of the shadows. Positioning her to right of frame is perfect. Having the vendor in the shadows is also a good choice
My eye sees the 7/8 "hot" bananas though . They have lost some detail and probably need to be brought down a some. It may require a PS layer to fix them and then a mask.
Regards
Emil
Posted: 03/01/2025 12:30:30
many thanks Emil for the kind words and the helpful suggestion - I will definetely dim down the bananas. Posted: 03/03/2025 07:51:49
Adrian, somehow you see wonderful images where mere mortals wouldn't. I'm terribly impressed. This photograph is captivating. The idea of photographing the back of the woman and bringing the viewer's attention to her hat is brilliant.
I couldn't help playing with the original. Typically, my images don't have the intense contrast that yours exhibit. With that in mind, here's what I came up with. It's really a completely different image. Thoughts??
Posted: 03/04/2025 19:25:38
I couldn't help playing with the original. Typically, my images don't have the intense contrast that yours exhibit. With that in mind, here's what I came up with. It's really a completely different image. Thoughts??
Posted: 03/04/2025 19:25:38
Hi Pete: many thanks, I like the look of the fruits and will darken them. I would however lighten up the hat to direct the eye to it (as per my intention in the description). Many thanks Posted: 03/06/2025 06:13:38
Michael Laezza
Adrian - Excellent image - it evokes the high fashion sense and the love of gastronomy that people from Bologna display. I too found that the bright bananas, the light strip and the sign occupy too much of the image and draw the attention ( either too bright or the need to read and translate the text ) away from the hat and the interaction with the vendor.
Perhaps you have more pixels in the original image to maintain a square crop.
Mike Posted: 03/10/2025 11:29:10
Perhaps you have more pixels in the original image to maintain a square crop.
Mike Posted: 03/10/2025 11:29:10
Adrian, I like how you capture this moment with this individual. It allows to be part of the man's thinking on which fruit he should buy. I agree with the other comments that the bananas seem to be too bright and distracts from the rest of the image. Pretty impressive how you were able to brighten up the subject in the foreground.
I did take some time with generative fill in Photoshop to remove the lights. The black rectangle you used the cover the one light takes away from the image. I find with generative fill that you need to give it prompts to help remove the distractions. I used prompts like, "Fill in area with a grey wall" and "fill in with a will similar to the background". Those prompts helped the generative fill to give me better results. See my version of the image where removed the lights. Posted: 03/18/2025 07:13:30
I did take some time with generative fill in Photoshop to remove the lights. The black rectangle you used the cover the one light takes away from the image. I find with generative fill that you need to give it prompts to help remove the distractions. I used prompts like, "Fill in area with a grey wall" and "fill in with a will similar to the background". Those prompts helped the generative fill to give me better results. See my version of the image where removed the lights. Posted: 03/18/2025 07:13:30
Wow Chris, this is gorgeous. Whilst I am a keen user of AI in my daily work, I have not done so far in my photography. But your rework definitiely is a substantial improvement to the original and encourages me to try it. Brilliantly done! Posted: 03/26/2025 09:13:09
Adrian, I love the scene and the detail in the hat but am drawn to Chris' version. In the original the banana's are too bright and distract me, the viewer from the rest of the image. While Chris' version changes the image, taking away the beautiful detail in the hat I feel that it pull my eye further into the scene and keeps me there longer. Posted: 03/29/2025 19:08:22