Danger & Treasure
by Adrian Tung

Comment by amazoneea:
Very nice feeling to the photo. It is a mistery and an inner glow... I just love it. 10

Danger & Treasure
by Adrian Tung

Comment by train:
I like the treasure chest very much but it seems a bit on the dark side for me I like the idea though maybe you could have cropped it closer and focused on the chest more

Danger & Treasure
by Adrian Tung

Comment by QuAcKeR:
I can't really tell what is going on in the pic. Is it D&D toys or something?

Queen's Gambit
by Adrian Tung

Comment by ursula:
FROM THE CRITIQUE CLUB

Hello, Adrian,

First of all, congratulations on the new camera!

I don't know much at all about chess, and I assume that your title refers to a particular move or strategy in chess? It's a good title for a very good photo.

I love the colourisation you chose to use for this picture. IMHO, blue doesn't work all that well very often, but here it does, it looks beautiful!

Your focus on the middle three pieces is excellent. The back pieces OOF look almost like they're floating, or as if they're in a dream. IMO, keeping the transparent front pieces so out of focus is very good here, very beautiful.

I'm afraid that I'm not going to be of much help to you. I actually really like your shot, and think it should have scored higher than it did. One possible thing to try would be to have included the tops of the king, queen and one bishop in the background, but I'm not sure if that would add or distract. Same goes for the partial pieces to the right hand side.

Anyway. Keep up the good work, your pictures are very interesting. Take care,

Ursula
Comments, complaints, questions, please email (uabresch@el-sol.ca)

Queen's Gambit
by Adrian Tung

Comment by ursula:
Sorry - I posted the CC comment twice :)))

Message edited by author 2003-11-16 20:36:59.

Queen's Gambit
by Adrian Tung

Comment by Koriyama:
Adrian,

As a chess player, I know the risk in 2.c4. As a photographer who has taken lots of shots of chess pieces, I'm also aware of the problems of transposing chess (intellectual) tension into photography (visual) terms. We must rate each photograph purely on visual terms, unless we are sure of our audience completely.

Visually, (and I find this very difficult because I'm looking at the position from a chess player's perspective) the shot is okay. The dof produces a very blurred foreground, a sharp centre, but not the necessary blurred background required to balance.

The main lines are difficult to make out visually, and there seems to be an arbitary cropping. Lighting is good and it allows pawn d5 to pop. Unfortunately, d5is blocked somewhat, reducing its effect. Maybe a wider lighting would have produced more clarity on the squares.

I got hammered with my last chess shot, too. I don't think that people noticed the heart in the centre. Don't worry about your score. You made a good shot which most people found worthy.

Queen's Gambit
by Adrian Tung

Comment by Neil:
I like the light, and the effect works in general. However, I think this is not the most interesting arrangement of pieces, interest wise. Perhaps fewer pieces, and using some of the more interesting ones in the "clear piece" position might have been more interesting. I think the use of DOF is good here, but perhaps the foreground objects should be closer into the focus range (not as blurry)

Queen's Gambit
by Adrian Tung

Comment by dertyklobb:
Interesting, but there was so much more you could've done in terms of design and object placement as well as point-of-view

Queen's Gambit
by Adrian Tung

Comment by Jackpotwinner:
would be better if no pieces in the forground.would make it more visible as to what you are trying to capture in this pic

Queen's Gambit
by Adrian Tung

Comment by GP:
Nice milky blur! Matt&Glare playing their game.