After having taken a closer look at Yousuf Karsh's work with a more technical perspective the first thing that jumped out at me was that Karsh is a master of studio lights. Karsh had a gift for capturing the essence of his subject and would meticulously prepare for each so he could have a list of questions to ask and put them at ease while they posed for him. He was fascinated with experimenting with artificial light with a particular fascination with stage lightning. Karsh practiced using artificial light in the 30's when many photographers only used natural light.. The main light unit he used consisted of a stand made by Dyna Lite Inc., a light box manufactured by colortran Inc. and a Mylar diffusing screen. 2 meters high, half a meter long and almost half a meter wide The light box is painted navy blue on the outside, white on the inside, he used 5 tungsten 250watt bulbs. The large unit stood about one and a half meters to the right and slightly behind his camera.The second light a fill light put behind the camera was similar to the first except slightly smaller and used 3 clear bulbs.He could add a spot light or over head light depending on his subjects. Karsh did not set up his own equipment but had an assistant do that work and would then go in and test everything using his assistant to test angles and where the light was going to fall on his subject. Throughout most of his career he used the Large format 8×10 bellows Calumet camera to document his well known High contrast gelatin silver prints.
Karsh printed in the darkroom with assistants. His photographs are signed in black ink on mount au recto (front), usually imprinted with a studio stamp au verso (back), and mounted to 100% rag board. Some earlier prints were signed in white ink on the photo.
I love this photo of Winston Churchill it captures his essence of disapproval. I love the background lighting.it is stunning. You can see how the back lightning helps make Churchill pop out of the wall. Some of my favorite things about what Karsh does it that he has such a range between his brightest white and he blackest black. Also i love in this image how he has made the face a bit on the sharp side with side lightning and the over all somber mood of this photo. The well known story behind Karsh taking this photos is that he only had two minutes to take Churchill's portrait, and he managed to capture the scowl by plucking Churchill's cigar from his mouth moments before taking the photo. Karsh saw an opportunity and then captured it on film in a superb way.
The Image of Humphrey Bogart seems to be more dramatized and pulls us in by the way his face is highlighted. I love when I found out that Karsh used separate lighting for his hands in many of his photo shoots. I think this image is a perfect example of this. I love the lack of background information so are kept just focused on the subject however he still creates a non- static photo because of the cigarette smoke movement.Once again I enjoy the huge range of contrast here. I would assume he would be using some kind of magenta filter in the darkroom process.
For my last image I chose the Queen of England and her husband not because it was my very favorite but because of how Karsh used his lightning technique. I Liked how it seemed to me that there are two different lights used on the two subjects. For some reason the Queen seems more regal to me, maybe because of the effect of the almost halo look skimming her head. I also like how it seems that that Prince Philip is a thinker with the highlight hitting his forehead. The composition of this image is also interesting as it looks like the Prince has the Queen's back and is going to protect her from anything. I love the soft light on her face and the more tonal depth on his, there seems to be a big play in light and dark between them. The lines in the background also help pull our eye to Queen Elizabeth.
