This is the second post in this series about Don Giannatti’s 8 Week Portrait Class workshop. If you missed our first on Victor Skrebneski, you can read it right here. Week #2 was all about Yousuf Karsh: a truly challenging subject. But that’s what this class is all about (and for that we are truly grateful): continually facing obstacles that allow us to be so creative.

WEEK 2: Yousuf Karsh

We said when shooting Victor Skrebneski that we were blown away by his images. Well, Yousuf Karsh is another one of our idols, so what can we say?

If you look through his images you might say you can’t really see a set style, and that his portraiture is just about the most famous and renowned people in our world. The list of celebrities (the real kind!) the list of people he has photographed looks like the chapter index on a history book: Albert Einstein, Sir Winston Churchill, Audrey Hepburn, Picasso, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela… the list goes on and on.

We have to admit, we did at first think he was only about photographing the famous, it took us a while to understand. Then we watched this interview, about his then newly released book, and it clicked. Karsh wasn’t just taking someone’s photo: he was telling their story. Photographing mainly in black and white (he did colour too, but not as often), he always looked to capture the person’s true expression -and sometimes their hands. It is said that you can learn a lot about a person by looking at their hands – Karsh would agree.

Technically speaking, his framing was usually “conventional”, in a classical sense, and his use of light was masterful. Unlike Skrebneski’s single light portraiture, Karsh’s style involved several light sources to add dimension to the subjects.

OUR TAKEAWAYS:

Here’s the list of what we set out to do, again based on his images:

• To capture a very natural, candid look for our subject.
• To bring in hands into the image, with a purpose.
• To adapt his lighting style to our work, and make it work for a female model.

And here are the results:

The natural look:

First up, capturing a natural expression. Easy enough with Iana! 😉

The Hands:

Next up: feature the hands in a prominent position, with a motive. And like the week before, out came the sewing machine – showing the wrist cuffs gives the hands a reason for being in the frame.

The Light:

As said above, Karsh’s lighting was usually very intricate and expression driven. In our adaptation we used 5 light sources. Can you work them all out? 🙂

Coming up next week: Sarah Moon. Oh boy…