This idea came about while studying English language idioms on The Idiom Connection //www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/6720/
The literalism I chose is "Give someone enough rope and they will hang themself", meaning that if you give someone enough time and freedom to do what they want that they will make a mistake or get into trouble and be caught. This is a tactic I use at work when questioning travellers with illegal goods in their bags. If you let them talk enough and ask the proper questions, they almost always incriminate themselves. Makes my job that much easier.
Shot in our basement. Rope was suspended from ceiling fixture and was about 45 cm in front of the camera. Light source was my trusty red flood lamp. Used Color Balance to switch from red over to pale blue. Used Neat Image to clean it up and then USM.
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This image conveys a very clear message. The dark tones, blue color, and the model's pose all indicate depression. The noose shows the portent of his thoughts, and using it to frame the subject works really well. The shadow adds drama. Overall, a great photo, and perfect for the Literalisms challenge.
Since you did request a critique, let me point out the minor and barely noticable weaknesses. There are indentations in the carpet where the furniture was before you moved it out of the way for the photo. There are apparent compression artifacts around many of the edges (did you use jpeg to go to and from NeatImage?). And parts of the chair legs and baseboard seem a bit oversaturated. The red lamp makes this basically monochrome; the Colorize option of Hue/Saturation may have worked a little better than Color Balance to avoid this.
The shadow and blue color really adds drama, and the frame of the rope around your subject has real meaning - however grim. Crop the top to get rid of the line of the ceiling. 8
sheesh.. that rope is OBVIOUSLY too close to the ground to hang from.. hehe, of course i'm kidding.. the blue seems the obvious choice, i would have liked to see this in pink... you'd really confuse some people.
I like how the color suits the mood of the image. Using the noose as a frame is also good. Shame about the line near the top, which I assume is the start of the ceiling. His right shoulder (on our left) blends into the background a little, and that whole left area seems a little dark compared to the brigher blue on the other side. A creative idea that is well executed. Well done.
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