I havent been in the cinemas for ages. Two weeks I however felt that viewing the documentary about Oasis might deserve the big screen. After the show I saw this little girl watching the advertizing. I had to act pretty fast with my manual focusing as she was ready to leave (see her left hand moving). As I will use the picture for exhibitions it had to be 24x65. I did initially a version in which also the advertizments were not cut above, however I felt this version more balanced because of the size of the space at the bottom of the kid. I metered on the commercials and then in LR created a mask with everything but the commercials and lightened it up. I further also added a radial ingredient around the kid and lighted it up. Your thoughts?
Hasselblad X2d 100C, XCD 65 f2.8, 1/125 sec ISO 400
4 comments posted
Emil Davidzuk
Adrian,
Top marks for getting the shot in the first place and secondly your processing of your movie goer and the Ads she is watching.
My thought is the two openings on either side of the screen are distracting from the mood you have created. I think cropping affects the format you desire so I would blacken them down to the carpet.
Regards
Emil
Posted: 10/02/2026 16:24:54
Adrian Schaub
many thanks Emil. Your thoughts reflect my first instinct and I did darken them in my first approach to the picture. Then I found that panoramas work different than 1:1 or 3:2 pictures. Due to the format the viewer cant grap the picture in one bite and has to let his eyes flow around. Finally I decieded that the two horizontal additional items at the border create a nice close to the picture. The initial version without them didnt deserve the panorama format but the 3:2. Thanks for the feedback. BR, A Posted: 10/02/2026 18:10:47
Donna Sturla
I think it's a really sweet picture, children are wonderfully curious and I'm drawn to her, the textures in her jacket and hair, and what she's looking at. Very nice. I would want to have left and right sides cropped. To me they are distracting and don't add anything to the image. If you don't crop them, you could just darken them but I don't know if the sides are really needed . I do enjoy this image, your conversion works really well here. Posted: 10/06/2026 16:24:44
Michael Laezza
Adrian - I am interested in the discussion regarding cropping : whether the crop factor should be adapted to the image or the image be adapted to the crop factor. Since the crop factor has a great influence on composition I am of the opinion that the crop factor should be chosen to suit the image ( of course artistic freedom could still prevail ).
I generally look for the story the image wants to convey. In this case you did a wonderful job conveying anticipation ( from the title, to the body language of the little girl, to the wording on the posters ). Clearly something is going to happen with great anticipation. ( although I did wonder why a little girl is looking in anticipation at the release of an R rated film).
