Here's how I made the shot. The chess board was created in Photoshop, printed out in sections and taped together. It is setup on a sheet of glass above a dark blanket and I used a polarizer filter to eliminate the reflections on the glass to create a very smooth background. I took dozens of shots with the chess pieces in different positions until I settled on this one. I even tried a glow effect beneath the chess board but I didn't have the proper lighting to pull it off. I cropped it this way because I felt that it gave the photo more of a dynamic look and showed the illusion best.
i have to admit that i've been stewing for the last hour - but your explanation has calmed me down quite a bit - congrats on a well-done shot and a well-deserved 1st place
Originally posted by spiderman: i have to admit that i've been stewing for the last hour - but your explanation has calmed me down quite a bit - congrats on a well-done shot and a well-deserved 1st place
If you always assume the best rather than the worst it's a lot easier on those budding stomach ulcers!
Since you've apparently got that photo and such, perhaps Tim could be persuaded to write a "How'd they do that?" article. I know that when I first joined DPC those write-ups were invaluable to me. It sure wouldn't take as much time as the set-up on that shot and it sure would help a lot of folks!
Doug, I will write up a more complete 'How To' and see if we can get it up there. I appreciate the nice comments from you and everyone else. Thank you.
Like every body I have been wondering how you did it ... thanks for the explanation.
And like some other shots ... it bring to people that are trying , like me , to improve. There is some great shot that are jujst done with instincts .. there is other that needs a lot of preparation, even sometimes when they do not look 'staged'. SOme of the winner shots or the good shots (but not winners) did not need a lot of preparation ... but somewhere there is peobably a lot of shots we are doing that would be improved through tries, and tries and work.
I am not big on 'art thinking' but I guess that photography you have a 1/3 natural photographic talent , a 1/3 cretivity/imagination/vision and a 1/3 of work. Values can be added .. but foe sure ... work is part of it. Like the extra mile to take a good shot to a very nice picture like this one.
I am not very good at this ... but we should always try to learn from the winners and if Tim explanation open some perspectives for others , like me, then ... that's one additional achievemnt Tim.
Yeah, and someone told me that they 'knew' that the top chess pieces were cutouts because the lighting was wrong and didn't match the pieces on the board :- ) The lighting is definitely correct because they were all real chess pieces but the angle of the top pieces certainly could be off a bit, I only tried to eyeball it. It seemed like a little too much math to figure out the exact angle for my tired brain that night. After thinking about it I'm not sure why I made the whole thing that complicated but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
