Caged by Discomfort

[AnnetteJ]

What does this picture evoke for you? Does it tell a story, if so what?



It is supposed to represent how I sometimes feel about having arthritis - trapped in my own body, uncomfortable when I should be comfortable [ie in bed]. I think it looks better larger.

I took a pic of me on my bed, propping the camera on a bookcase [bit tricky and first time I used the timer!] then using Gimp cut round me with the free select tool, adjusting the edges and with a feather [what was it now? 30? 40?] Next I opened up an image I took a few days ago of a rusty mattress skeleton in the snow and pasted me in it, scaled the layer, positioned, made semi-transparent [again how much was it? 40ish?] and anchored. Then I boosted contrast and maybe brightness a bit too. Sorry for the imprecision!

I didn't put exif coz it's two different pictures and I thought the heavy pp would negate the point. I can add it if anyone really wants me to.

[FocalFrenzy]

I like this! Having arthritis myself, I can really relate. I use "GIMP" also, but haven't yet tried anything this complex. Very well done.

[Giya]

A very evocative image. It really communicates being trapped. Almost gives me the chills looking at it. Your picture also reminds me of horror movies like "Silent Hill" where some of the monsters are posed in impossible positions. It's painful (in a good way) to look at. Amazing composition!

[wulf]

It is a very powerful image and the post-processing is well done. At first look, I was thinking "how did she get the model to lie down in the snow on that rusty old bed?"!

Complemented by a title like "Arthritis", to direct the mind away from more macabre suggestions, it provides a powerful commentary.

The one thing that I might be tempted to look at is whether it would be better framed in a portrait format, further emphasing the feeling of being trapped?

Wulf

[AnnetteJ]

Originally Posted by FocalFrenzy

I like this! Having arthritis myself, I can really relate. I use "GIMP" also, but haven't yet tried anything this complex. Very well done.

Thank you! And I hope you don't feel like this often

Originally Posted by Giya

A very evocative image. It really communicates being trapped. Almost gives me the chills looking at it. Your picture also reminds me of horror movies like "Silent Hill" where some of the monsters are posed in impossible positions. It's painful (in a good way) to look at. Amazing composition!

Thank you very much, that's exactly what I was going for.

Originally Posted by wulf

It is a very powerful image and the post-processing is well done. At first look, I was thinking "how did she get the model to lie down in the snow on that rusty old bed?"!

Complemented by a title like "Arthritis", to direct the mind away from more macabre suggestions, it provides a powerful commentary.

The one thing that I might be tempted to look at is whether it would be better framed in a portrait format, further emphasing the feeling of being trapped?

Wulf

Thank you very much as well! I was pleased with the effect but I've never tried anything quite like this before, although I have played with cutting bits out of one pic to go in another, I've never done the transparent or b+w convert. So it's good to know my pp skills are improving!

Yeah - there is no way on earth I would have lain on that thing! Even if I could have! Plus then I couldn't have got the ghostly see-though effect anyway. As for your suggestion I have tried a couple of alternative crops. The image was full-size so there was no extra above or below the bed, so the portrait crop had to cut off some of the mattress:



So I tried a square crop as well:



[PS - mods - I had to delete a couple of smileys as it said I had too many images! I read about this somewhere else or I would have been totally thrown by the message that I had 6 images when there were only 2!! Is there any way you could change this so smileys are not images please?]

[wulf]

Is that portrait crop in 2:3 ratio? If so, try 3:4, which gives you a little more horizontal room to play with.

Wulf

ps. I'm not sure there is much that can be done about the smiley problem :-( (except for using alternative forms which are not auto-converted ;-) ).

[rgs photography]

I like the square cropping better. But, no offense, it kind of creeps me out... Before I read about the arthritis symbolism, I was thinking it was some kind of cold-case victim... After reading your explanation, I like the symbolism! :-)