Gonna Take it Higher...

[FootLoose]

I have been shooting a lot of scenes like this lately. When I am happy with the processing of the others I will post a set. This is shot from my balcony with the Canon 70-300 F/4-5.5L. The site is roughly half a kilometre east of me. I thought the level at the bottom of the frame was the final one, but this morning I noticed them raising more formwork. By the time it is completed, my sunrise will be delayed by 20 minutes or more - which will be good in summer, but in winter... ? Anyway...

Does the composition work?

I would love to be able to shoot this type of scene from a closer position, but even though they are about 15 stories up (or more), there are trees in the way - that smudgy bit in the lower right corner, for example - so I am restricted to the longer distance.

Processed in Photoshop and given a touch of Nik's Selenium toning. All C&C welcome.

[Shadowman]

The composition works as is, but I see other crops that would work as well, the workers and/or the lower right hand side works as well.

[IzzieK]

Well done on this one, Greg! I love the almost sillouette treatment here. Now you've just encouraged me to learn Nik's software...I forget about it when I use On One...Thanks.

[FootLoose]

The composition works as is, but I see other crops that would work as well, the workers and/or the lower right hand side works as well.

Thanks, John. I had considered cropping so that it was just the workers on the scaffolding but I wasn't happy with the clarity.

[FootLoose]

Well done on this one, Greg! I love the almost sillouette treatment here. Now you've just encouraged me to learn Nik's software...I forget about it when I use On One...Thanks.

Glad you like it, Izzie. I did the conversion work in PS and only used NIK at the end for the toning.

[selig1656]

As above nice sillouette, nice work on the balance and tonal treatment. I can see that cropping would be a slight problem . Thank you /

[flashback]

Greg, for me the sky (for this particular composition) appears too flat and bland, and I'm not sure the crane on the upper LHS adds anything to the image. On the other hand, looking at your image in lightbox, on full enlargement, I can adjust the image so it's just the scaffolding and the two workers which, in my opinion becomes a very strong image. Just a thought. Hope you don't mind but this is what I'm seeing:



I darkened a couple of reflections and darkened the outline of the man on the upper lever to a silhouette to match the lower man.

[FootLoose]

As above nice sillouette, nice work on the balance and tonal treatment. I can see that cropping would be a slight problem . Thank you /

Thanks for viewing and commenting, Ray.

[FootLoose]

Greg, for me the sky (for this particular composition) appears too flat and bland, and I'm not sure the crane on the upper LHS adds anything to the image. On the other hand, looking at your image in lightbox, on full enlargement, I can adjust the image so it's just the scaffolding and the two workers which, in my opinion becomes a very strong image. Just a thought. Hope you don't mind but this is what I'm seeing:

I darkened a couple of reflections and darkened the outline of the man on the upper lever to a silhouette to match the lower man.

No problems, Jack. Thanks for commenting, your input is appreciated.

I agree the sky is bland. (We are cursed with tedious weather at the moment: cloudless, ugly blue skies and temps of 30+ every day.) And the crop you have posted is one that I considered also. I didn’t go with that because I didn’t feel the detail was sharp enough – although it doesn’t look too bad on the web.

It was because of that “boring” blue space that I included the crane but I wasn’t sure if it would work as it is only a small segment of it poking out of the left of frame. I had hoped that it would give some balance to the scene – positive space upper left corner and lower right/bottom of the frame, divided by the negative blue space running diagonally from lower left to upper right.

[flashback]

We all have our own vision, just wanted to show you what I was thinking/saw.