Chess Time

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

Chess is huge part of my personal life and journey. I play daily, probably too much. It has been apart of my personal journey the past 3 years and I wanted to make a picture that showed complexity contained within the simplicity of the game rules and objective. It looks best with the monitor set to a photography setting. On my MacBook Pro I use the standard Photography display setting. I noticed on the standard Apple XDR display setting some of the shadows and highlights are washed out.

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Curious what you fine folks think.

 

[ACEkin]

Chess is huge part of my personal life and journey. I play daily, probably too much. It has been apart of my personal journey the past 3 years and I wanted to make a picture that showed complexity contained within the simplicity of the game rules and objective. It looks best with the monitor set to a photography setting. On my MacBook Pro I use the standard Photography display setting. I noticed on the standard Apple XDR display setting some of the shadows and highlights are washed out. View attachment 20429Curious what you fine folks think.

On my display, the shadows are far too dark.

 

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

Here's version 2. If the display brightness is too low, the shadows won't show. I'm not sure how to combat that to make an image like this and cater to various display settings. I bumped the shadows and the brushed out the shadow bump on the queen. I will add that I want this image to be dark and mysterious. The game of chess while appearing simple is complex and mysterious. I want to convey that in the image.

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[ACEkin]

In Photoshop:
1. Add a Levels layer and move the center slider to the left, slowly
2. Add a Curves layer and select a point on the curve close to the lower left corner, say about 1/3 up, and drag it up. Adjust the rest as needed

In Lightroom or ACR
Increase the exposure, possibly lower the Highlights, increase the Shadows and Blacks
Click on the Auto button, adjust the sliders up or down as needed

In all, make sure the monitor is calibrated for color and brightness. Too bright a monitor may also be a culprit.

These are the thoughts that come to my mind without having the original file

 

[Kerro]

Here's version 2. If the display brightness is too low, the shadows won't show. I'm not sure how to combat that to make an image like this and cater to various display settings. I bumped the shadows and the brushed out the shadow bump on the queen. I will add that I want this image to be dark and mysterious. The game of chess while appearing simple is complex and mysterious. I want to convey that in the image.View attachment 20430

AJ, I am a chess player too. Unfortunately I don't get to play very often. I like the 2nd photo much better. The 1st was a little too dark. Even though the majority of the image is B/W I would've liked to see the Queens reflection also in colour, albeit very subtle. IMO.

 

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

I’m thinking of recreating this shot again, and getting the entire reflection of the queen in there. I didn’t notice the reflection came out so well in camera and didn’t see it until post after I had put everything away.

 

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

I think I may have found a better display setting for anyone who’s interested. I switched to “Internet & Web sRGB” and I’m seeing more consistent colors and brightness across multiple photos. I’ll have to see how these edits print.