Master of Photography - Yousuf Karsh

Haroon Rasheed

modeled after Jim Henson's portrait

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After:

For this picture, I first cropped it so that it would match the original better and then turned down the saturation so that it would become a black and white picture. I also enhanced the blacks and increased the contrast. I also used the brush tool to increase the exposure in some parts of the picture.

Before:

After:

For this photo, I just turned down the saturation, increased the blacks and turned up the exposure a little.

Cara Castillou

Before:

After:

For this photo, I just turned down the saturation, increased the blacks and increased the contrast.

Before:

After:

For this photo, I just turned down the saturation, increased the blacks and increased the contrast. I also used the brush tool to lower the exposure of the shadow behind her and increased the exposure on her face. 

M.C. Mendonca

modeled after Judy Garland's portrait

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After:

For this photo, I cropped out the chair in the photo and flipped it horizontally and just turned down the saturation, increased the blacks and increased the contrast.

Yousuf Karsh

Yousuf Karsh was an Armenian-Canadian portrait photographer during the 20th century. He was born in Mardin, Turkey, December 23, 1908 and died in Boston, Massachusetts, July 13, 2002. He specialized in portrait photography and was a master at using lights for his portraits, which helped him stand out from other photographers. 

Our group chose him because his pictures exhibited one of our rules of composition, which is simplicity. Yousuf Karsh's pictures are simplistic in nature, yet still profound. He photographed many famous people such as Ernest Hemingway, Audrey Hepburn, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Judy Garland, and many others. His pictures are inspiring to me because even though they are simple, they still are meaningful and profound. This inspires me to focus less on the "skill" required to take a good photo and focus more on the subject. As we were working on this project, we recreated a few of his photos at first. However, as we tried to recreate more of his pictures, we realized it was taking too long and our lighting was different, so instead we took pictures inspired by his style. 

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Second Portrait

I was able to take this shot of Vicky Pham while we were discussing the upcoming Homecoming Week. For this picture, I slightly cropped it and used the paintbrush tool to brighten the exposure for her face and slightly darkened the left side of the picture.

Composition Review - 3 Rules

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after:

3 Rules:
1. Simplify
2. Depth
3. Aspect Ratio

For the picture from Lens New York Times, we felt that the 8th picture demonstrated our 3 rules the best.

First Portrait

The sidewalk in front of the E-wing
Haroon Rasheed
used the brush to lighten and darken the exposure in some areas

Self Portrait

In order to take this picture, I set the camera on the ground and turned on the self timer. I then had to run back and pose; my team members helped make sure I stayed in the frame.

Shallow Depth of Field

This picture exhibits a shallow depth of field featuring the leaves of the trees with Haroon in the background.

Third Photo Assignment - My Third Rule

Rule: Aspect Ratio

In this rule, we worked with the aspect ratio concept. We decided to take this picture in a horizontal fashion as to be able to effectively show more depth and stuck with the camera's aspects ratio.

Rules: 

1. Simplify

2. Depth

3. Aspect Ratio

Second Photo Assignment, My Second Rule

Rule: Depth

First Photo Assignment, My First Rule

Rule: Simplification