[pure-silver] Re: Karsh


-----Original Message-----
>From: joe mcguckin <joe@xxxxxxx>
>Sent: Dec 17, 2007 2:36 AM
>To: Pure-Silver Free <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [pure-silver] Karsh
>
>I was perusing a Karsh book of portraits this evening. Karsh really  
>likes to accentuate skin detail. Generally, every wrinkle and pore is  
>visible. One portrait was quite different.
>Audrey Hepburn's portrait looks almost like it was done with chalk or  
>pastel pencils.
>
>Any idea how this was done? Was this using one of the soft portrait  
>lenses?
>
>
>Joe McGuckin
>
   I don't know for certain but can guess at a couple of things. First of all 
his portraits of women generally are much softer than his male portraits. I 
think for men he used an orthochromatic film. This, in itself, tends to 
accentuate skin blemishes and textures. Also, I think he used a film with an 
upswept curve similar to the sort of curve current Tri-X ISO-320 film has. Both 
Kodak and Ansco made both ortho and pan films with this type of characteristic. 
The effect of the increasing contrast in the highlights is also to accentuate 
textures. Straight line films tend to reproduce mid-grays lighter than very 
long toe films so skin value is a bit lighter. The other factors are lighting 
and makeup. Women were generally made up while men were not plus the character 
of the lighting can make an astonishing amount of difference. In his book on 
motion picture lighting _Painting With Light_ academy award winning director of 
photography John Alton says the first excercize in portrait lighting for women 
is to learn to light an orange so that the pores don't show. Of course, I am 
leaving out retouching. Doubtless Audry Hepburn's portrait received some 
retouching (maybe a lot). 
    I believe he studied classical art, his lighting and posing certainly 
suggest this. 
    At any rate, all of these are factors. When I was in my teens I tried to 
duplicate Karsh's work by experimenting with lighting. At that time I didn't 
know about the effects of film sensitization and type of curve. 
    BTW, Karsh worked mostly in 8x10. I saw a blurb in some early 1950's photo 
magazine showing him taking delivery on a couple of custom built Ansco view 
cameras, they were painted white because Karsh thought they were less 
intimidating to the subjects. 

--
Richard Knoppow
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Los Angeles, CA, USA
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