Another chess board

Johnboy2978 · Mar 7, 2005

Hello all. There have been several chess board exposures lately and it has prompted me to try it myself. Here are 2 versions of the same shot. I'm not really that sold on either of them so I'd like your harsh/fair comments. Do you like either and if so which do like/hate the most?
I think that it was digitalMatt who had a shot a few weeks ago "Stalemate" with 2 knights opposing each other (which drastically blew these two away)that inspired me to attempt it.

skiboarder72 · Mar 7, 2005

nice focus point it really helps to bring out the point of the picture

MostlyDigital · Mar 7, 2005

I like the focus also. But the title's wrong

Thats not checkmate

To tell you the truth, I am an avid chess player, and I really love chess photos, but this shot is too set up for me. Theres only two pieces. And they arent positioned right. Unless thats the black king laying down, in that case I cant see his cross, (its lost in the black square) and even then, to tip your king over it means u concede to the other player. Got anymore shots? I'd love too see them.

Johnboy2978 · Mar 8, 2005

MD, here is another shot that I had set up at the same time. I don't like the focus quite as much in this shot. Initially, I thought I'd eliminate the minimal DOF that I had in the first, and try to get the whole thing in focus. Anyway, here you go. By the way, in the previous shot, the black piece is the king. I also made sure that the tip of the black king was on a white square to help with identifying the piece.

and B/W upon request: