Yousuf Karsh - The Power of the Portrait

Yousuf Karsh

Was a Canadian photographer of Armenian heritage and one of the most famous and accomplished portrait photographers of all time.

Probably one of my favorite portrait photographer and his work continues to inspire my own. It is hard to explain it in words but his subjects in a way speak out to you.

Within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can. The revelation, if it comes at all, will come in a small fraction of a second with an unconscious gesture, a gleam of the eye, a brief lifting of the mask that all humans wear to conceal their innermost selves from the world. In that fleeting interval of opportunity the photographer must act or lose his prize." - Y. Karsh


One of his more famous photographs was of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, as the story goes Churchill wasn't in the mood for a photo session and was chomping on his cigar. Karsh went on and tried to pose him, but the cigar bothered him for that solemn occasion. finally Karsh said "Forgive me sir" and plucked out the cigar from his mouth. At that time the churchillian frown deepened, leaned forward a bit put his hand on his waist in an attitude of anger and Karsh took the photograph.

In essence this is all we can aspire to be as portrait photographers, to be able to connect with our subject and have them reveal their spirit to you.

Tip: How do you go about it though? There is really no technique to this, you have to improve on your people skills if you want to be a portrait photographer, after all you are dealing with people. The secret is you have to be genuinely interested in the person. A person can detect if you are faking your relationship with them, but if you talk to them first get them to relax, let them be comfortable with you. That is then your cue to take your shot.

"My chief joy is to photograph the great in heart, in mind, and in spirit, whether they be famous or humble." - Y. Karsh

Here are some of his shots

My Gear

Gung hei fa choy! Happy chinese new year to all!

It's been a while since I wrote, I wanted to write something new for the new year. Well since I didn't make it for the regular gregorian new year. The chinese new year will do hehe.

I guess to start the year off, I want to show you what is in my camera bag and why I picked and use them for the work that I do.

Let's start off with the lenses, for me a great lens is the most important piece of my camera gear. I believe that the lens is your eye to the world and the camera, the brain. So no matter how intelligent your brain is, if your eyesight is bad. The pictures will come out blurry as well.

So as much as possible I invest on the Canon "L" lenses. the L designation in the canon line means it is their pro series, with a well constructed and weather sealed body and amazing optics. My pictures comes out sharp, saturated and contrasty.

They are expensive mind you, but It is also good to invest on a high quality lens since their value does not diminish even over time and the resale value is great at almost 80% of the original price. Here they are...

Canon 17-40 f4 L

This is my all around well used lens. It has great optics. It is fairly lightweight and compact which is good for traveling around. The range is good also ranging from landscapes to environmental portraiture, travel and street photography. It's aperture is f4 though, so it is more of an outdoor lens, but with cameras right now that can shoot clean images at iso 1600 to 3200 it can handle indoors now no problem. It is moderately priced and one of canon's bestselling lenses. Highly recommended for a first pro lens.


Canon 70-200 f2.8 L

Next up is my go to guy lens for my pro work. Weddings and portraiture. It is built like tank, a bit heavy and bulky. So I'm not that fond of traveling with it. But for low light work, like a dimly lit church it is amazing. It is also sharp for a zoom lens, with a great range from 70 to 200. It has a fast aperture at 2.8 and has Image Stabilization which is important to hand holding a lens this size. The bokeh is creamy and excellent for portraiture.




Canon 35 f1.4 L

I usually use this as my low light lens. It has the fastest aperture of the bunch at f1.4. I use it for indoor shots when I do not want to use flash. So I could grab shots of candlelit dinner tables so the mood would not be lost by the camera flash. It helps me also to be invisible and candid at events. It does have a very shallow depth of field when shooting at f1.4, great for taking the background out of focus. It is compact and and a fixed lens (non-zoom).





Canon 135 f2.0 L

Last but not the least, my favorite lens for portraiture. It is regarded as the sharpest lens in the canon line. It has a great bokeh and compression for portraits. It is great for indoor sports, if you want to shoot massive mountains in the distance. Street photography is a good use for it as well as you could shoot from the other side of the street without your subject noticing you. It is fast at f2.0 and a great walk around telephoto. It is a fixed lens and a bit long, so use those feet to zoom!






















Canon EOS 5D

For my main camera. I use the Canon 5D. It is canon's first prosumer full frame camera. I like full frame because it let's me use my lenses with it's original range. No conversion factor unlike the other camera bodies. It has clean images even at ISO 1600, which is a big plus on my photography which deals with low light situations. It produces excellent image quality in a more compact form factor, unlike it's big brother the Canon 1DS. There is a newer version that just came out with an HD video. I might check it out at some point.

So there you have it guys, these are my most used gear. the other stuff would be flashes, reflectors, tripods etc.

Thanks for the-digital-picture.com for the product images.