I was inspired by some of the guys in my office playing chess today. I was hoping to go for a slightly less-traditional chess shot — not sure if it worked or not. In any case, I couldn’t decide whether the super-stopped-down photo was better, or the only mostly super-stopped-down photo was better, so I thought I’d post them both up. I like the first better, I think.
Actually, looking at them again, I like the second better. I dunno. What do you think?
Comment
I like the first one better, partially because the crop on the second one doesn’t include the whole queen, which is sort of central to the picture thematically. But I also like the slightly larger focal depth on the first picture because it keeps the queen more in focus (although still not completely so) and provides a gentler degradation of focus across the ranks in the background. Of course, that does obscure the shape of the front knight’s head a bit, but that could be solved by a slightly different perspective, maybe? In any case, the lighting, board, pieces, and background are absolutely beautiful and complement each other nicely.