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"Chalk"mate
1st Place"Chalk"mate
kellmak10


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Chalk (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Sony DSLR-A330
Lens: Sony SAL-50F18 DT 50mm F/1.8 SAM
Location: my kitchen
Date: Oct 16, 2010
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/20
Galleries: Sports, Still Life
Date Uploaded: Oct 16, 2010

 i made a handcarved chess set out of sidewalk chalk and took a picture of it on a chess board also drawn with sidewalk chalk... cropped, resized, sharpened, added a border, adjusted the contrast, saturation and color time and made the colors a little more vibrant... also cloned out the line of the edge of the chessboard, so it blended with the black background, i darkened the background bit too to make the chess pieces pop, used cloning also to take out a few "chalk dust" spots on the board from moving the pieces around, and used it to clean up a few imperfections within the chalk itself. not sure what i'm going to do with my handcarved chess set now???

so there have been lots of questions about the carving of the chess pieces...i just used the big sidewalk chalk that comes in the round bucket (about 2 bucks at the craft store) and i had some wood carving tools that are super sharp that i never used before... i just held the chalk in my hand and started carving the pieces to look like a wooden set that i have. it didn't take that long, about 2 hours to do the whole set...the only piece that broke while i was carving is the cross of the top of the king, and i just carved another cross and attached it seperatley with a toothpick. it was super fun and much easier than i thought it would be to carve chalk... this was actually the first thing i've ever carved, i usually have issues with the 3d-ness of carving, i think starting with the round chalk and carving round pieces was a big help with the ease of this...but i was so very happy with how it turned out and getting a ribbon for it makes it that much better...thanks so much to everyone for all the wonderful comments and votes!!

wow...i just checked out the 1st and 3rd place... i feel so out of my league being surround by these guys....amazing images and i am honored to be between them!!

Statistics
Place: 1 out of 55
Avg (all users): 7.2422
Avg (commenters): 8.8750
Avg (participants): 6.7419
Avg (non-participants): 7.3615
Views since voting: 9456
Views during voting: 453
Votes: 161
Comments: 44
Favorites: 16 (view)

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AuthorThread
 10/31/2010 06:39:30 PM
Not only is the craftmanship to be admired, but I really like that you chalked the board, too. And the lighting is perfect! I've enjoyed seeing this on the front page all week.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/27/2010 03:11:06 AM
A huge congrats on your blue ribbon!! This was one of my favorites of the challenge!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/26/2010 02:23:13 AM
Congrats this was one of my top picks.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/25/2010 03:36:17 PM
The mind boggles at the amount of time and patience and detail put into this shot. Wonderfully creative, and so glad it paid off for you! Congrats on the red!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/25/2010 11:50:11 AM
It is the best photo ever! Love it!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/25/2010 09:43:07 AM
Wow! What can I say? Fantastic image and so deserving of a ribbon. You put a lot of work into the making and I'm delighted for you that it did so well. Congratulations, Kelly!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/25/2010 08:42:19 AM
great job all round.
You OWN the Sony Alpha A330 home page!

Message edited by author 2010-10-25 12:44:05.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/25/2010 07:22:37 AM
This is brilliant, great title as well!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/25/2010 07:00:22 AM
Love it! This is so clever! Congratulations!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/25/2010 05:53:27 AM
Congrats on the Ribbon! Awesome work!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/25/2010 05:23:24 AM
Congrats on the ribbon! Truly an impressive photo, not to mention a great carving job.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/25/2010 05:22:38 AM
WOW!!! Great job on photography and carving. Congrats on your Red Ribbon!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/25/2010 04:46:09 AM
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/25/2010 03:17:38 AM
That is quite incredible. Very professionally made. Congrats!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2010 11:46:06 PM
Wow! that must have taken a lot of time, totally deserved ribbon, congratulations!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2010 11:22:11 PM
You totally deserve your red for all your most excellent hard work - one very clever lady! Fabulous image is the icing on the cake....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2010 10:29:14 PM
The time required to do the carving is well rewarded with the Red Congratulations.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2010 10:23:42 PM
Beautiful. I like the idea of drawing the chess also with chalk.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2010 09:30:46 PM
Incredible work on the carving. Just out of curiosity, what kind of tools/technique did you use? Just holding a chalk in the hand and carving with some kind of knife, or something more specific? Also, I can imagine you broke an healthy amount of chalks before obtaining this result... Anyway, congratulations on the ribbon, very deserved!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2010 08:52:20 PM
Very creative! Congrats on the red ribbon! (pretty good carving talent to boot)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2010 08:36:08 PM
Congrats on a PB and a red!! You deserve it for all the work you put into it! (plus it's a great shot :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2010 08:19:49 PM
Wow...very clever.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2010 08:19:21 PM
Excellent job meeting the challenge description in a creative way.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2010 08:12:32 PM
Congrats on the yellow. One of my top picks
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2010 08:08:43 PM
Well done...this is an excellent, creative image. congrats on the red
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
10/24/2010 12:06:34 PM
So creative.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2010 05:18:00 AM
so did YOU carve these out and how long did that take???? that's talent if you did...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/23/2010 11:08:56 PM
Now this is creative. You must have spent a lot of time on this. Deserves a great score. One of my top picks.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/23/2010 05:35:14 PM
Very clever and a lot of work. Nice job.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/23/2010 11:39:08 AM
Wow - really impressive !!

Even down to the board itself.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/22/2010 03:19:53 PM
Ok. Completely and totally, ridiculously amazing. Are these really and truly chalk? I was so impressed, I didn't notice, until my third viewing, that the game board was in chalk. Awesome!

(Would be difficult to play, however, too many colors! (or is it warm colors vs cool colors?) -8-

(voted earlier -- commenting now)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/22/2010 09:39:54 AM
One of my three 10's. I love the work you put into this, even if you didn't do the carving it is still excellent. Great lighting, very nice depth of field and the title is great.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/21/2010 03:46:33 PM
Very nice...10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/21/2010 09:59:03 AM
A straight 10 purely for the concept and effort. Got to be front page!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/20/2010 10:39:21 PM
Very clever you get a 9 for your effort, as I'm sure you spent a lot of time carving these up.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/19/2010 06:24:17 PM
Oh wow!!! Someone is quite the artist! This is such a neat concept!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/19/2010 02:53:12 AM
Real neat idea.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/18/2010 09:41:33 PM
If you carved these, I'm even more impressed!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/18/2010 05:44:28 PM
Now that took some work.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/18/2010 05:11:49 PM
Kudos for the patience in making your props. As for the photo, I like the lighting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/18/2010 04:33:51 PM
amazing, on so many levels...10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/18/2010 08:48:02 AM
Very creative. Nice job.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/18/2010 04:16:26 AM
Oh wow did you carve these yourself? Awesome job. Excellent photograph too.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/17/2010 09:54:03 PM
Creative and terrific!
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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