Masters of Photography - Yousuf Karsh

Yousuf Karsh was a Armenian-Canadian portrait photographer. He was born in Mardin, Tukery on December 23, 1908. He died in Boston, Massachusetts on July 13, 2002. During his career he held 15,312, during which Karsh captured the semblance of the men and women who shaped the twentieth century. 

We originally tried to replicate Karsh's portraits exactly. We tried Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn, Brigitte Bardot, Grace Kelly, Jim Henson, Nelson Mandela, and Susan Strasborg. However, this was incredibly time consuming, so instead we decided to emanate his style. 

We chose Karsh because his photographs portrayed some of our rules (simplify and aspect ratio). Karsh's simple, black and white portraits inspired me. I learned the best ways to take a portrait. I also figured out exactly how to make my subjects laugh.

I edited all of these photos in the same manner. I cropped the picture because Karsh's portraits focused entirely on the subject, with no background distractions. I turned down the saturation completely, which turned the picture black and white. I increased the vibrancy and exposure in certain places by using the brush tool. I also increased the clarity around the subject's eyes. 

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Kaitlyn Shih

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M.C. Mendonca

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