Yousuf Karsh Emulation

When taking the photos for this shoot I needed to think about placement of the camera, placement of the studio lights and also the positioning of my model. In order to make my models face look as detailed as possible I needed to get a good contrast of lights and dark's. I did this by positioning the studio lights either side of the model, creating heavy shadow on the models face, therefore revealing all of the models facial details. Once everything was setup against a black background I attached the camera to one of the studio lights flashes and set my camera to a fast shutter speed and a high aperture, insuring that the areas of the image that were not illuminated by the studio lights were dark. The flash was also set to a low brightness as this meant no area of my model would be over exposed by the studio lights. Post process editing software then allowed me to use adjustment layers to add black and white effects and further alter the levels and contrast of the image.

I personally feel that this emulation of Yousuf Karsh's work has been a great success, as I feel my photos have really captured the minor details of each of my models faces, just as Karsh had achieved with many of his subjects.

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