Thanks Allan, tried a few angles, high up, low down, straight on, top down etc but found this the most pleasing, all have plusses and minusses, wrt background items, reflections, depth or lack of, DOF or lack of.
Andy, I couldn't say I had this exact shot in my mind and I set out to take it...... I had the subject, and just needed to find a way to make it stand out in an image. As above, different angles, backgrounds, locations, light directions were shot, with different apertures as well.
Once I had come to this arrangement, and small aperture for required DOF, shutter was the only variable... too long to handhold even at mega high ISO, so tripod came out. Previous shot with 0 EC did blow the highlights a little (in the jpg preview), but left the backs of the light pieces quite dark, so also shot with +1 EC which was the one I used.
So yes, it was intentional
amazingly, from
the jpg here, there is still detail in the highlight that can be extracted from the RAW file, not in the shiny surface of the board, but certainly in the wooden floor. Quick version with highlights protected (-2 EV and shadows lifted in RAW conversion too) here.
Was still a fair bit of processing done, perspective correction, distortion correction, gradiented darkening of foreground, vignette on the three dark corners, cloning etc but having detail behind the black pieces doesn't have the same dramatic appeal as the "blown" white. (IMHO).
I'm pleased with it, just wish I'd left a bit more room above the King, as the rotating & distorting cut into the small space I'd left above him anyway. And I think diffraction is possibly at work too... shot at f/25 which has left the pieces a bit soft, sharpened with high pass filter which has made a big difference.