Making sense of a busy shot

[Neb]

So I was asked to take some shots of a construction site for work (basically getting stock photography). And the site is very busy as you'll see from the following photos. I'm just wondering how you would go about to make the shots more interesting. Is it playing with one element in the shot in p-shop after? I'd prefer to try to figure it out without having to dissect the image after the fact if possible. I don't have access to the site itself but I can get close and I have a 70-200mm f4 lens and 17-55 f2.8 lens to play with.

All unedited shots.

 

[WimFoto]

it's busy there on rideau to make them more interesting try to get some closer up shots of the workers faces.

 

[Pugs]

When the background is busy, fill more of the frame with your subject with a shallower depth of field to de-emphasize the background. Unless, of course, the point of the photograph IS how busy it is. Construction sites are carefully chaotic places and some pics illustrating that controlled chaos can be good.

Basically, shooting from the hip at whateve happens to catch your eye can lead to some good shots. Deciding what you want a shot to be about and then thinking through how to do it and then executing that plan has its place, too. Especially in a chaotic envrionment.

 

[Derrel]

The overcast weather is killing the dimensionality component...with no real, significant shadows, buildings under construction look dull and lifeless.
A previous poster makes a good point about filling the frame more and suppressing background depth of field; the first shot,for example has what appears to be a senior guy talking with a couple of workmen, but there's a distracting background figure,competing for attention.

In the second shot of the two men standing, talking--that should have been a vertical composition, which would have allowed you to turn the camera to pick up more of the building behind them, and would have helped eliminate that orange electricity generating machine on the left. The two men would have been positioned bottom left, and then the entire first floor and 2nd floor of the building could have filled out the top of the composition.

This subject has a lot of inherent clutter. It's not easy to breathe life into a building going up,especially when the light is wintry,flat,and dull. I have photographed a handful of buildings under construction,and they are, to me at least, very boring things.

 

[Neb]

thanks for the tips and comments, I agree, the overcast really killed the lighting. maybe I'll go out again today and see what I can come up with.

 

[John Sampson]

On construction sites you have to focus on what it is you're trying to get. Is it one particular area? then go for it. If it's people, try to cut out the background mess by using less depth of field. Your pictures are alreight, you just need to decide which portions make sense for what the boss wants. You can't just shoot a bunch of general shots. Pick your shot, and angles.