I have always been a great fan of
Yousuf Karsh. While some might argue
about his work, his mastery of photographic techniques should be undisputed,
especially when it comes to black and white.
The quality of his prints is amazing which, of course, is partially due
to his use of large format camera equipment.
A while ago I decided to see how
close in terms of sharpness, tonality and overall look I could come by using a
Leica. I chose my Leica M6 with a 135mm
f/2.8 Elmarit. As a film I used Agfapan
APX 25 which I still consider one of the best 35mm black and white films ever
to run through my camera. While Kodak
Technical Pan might have shown a bit higher resolution, I felt that the Agfapan
was superior in terms of overall tonality.
The film was rated at ISO 25 and developed in Agfa Rodinal 1:100 for 16
minutes with continuous agitation.
The photograph was taken in an all
white (walls, floor and ceiling) studio with Broncolor studio flash
equipment. Exposure was determined with
a Gossen Lunapro F light meter in both incident and reflective mode.
The main rim light was done with an
open, undiffused reflector positioned to the back of the subject, slightly to
the left. The light reading was via
incident mode and the camera adjusted to render a +2 1/2 stop
overexposure. The fill light was a
second light source with a large soft box positioned in the front to the left
of the camera and carefully positioned to render the reflections off the
skin. Exposure was taken with a
reflective spot reading directly off the skin and the output of the flash
adjusted to render a -1 1/2 stop underexposure.
Even though the photograph was taken
in an all white studio, the background was far enough back to have no effect on
the exposure and thus turned out to be virtually black.
This photograph is a prime example
why the ability to use a light meter correctly is very important, even with
digital photography. One might possibly
be able to come up with a similar result just by using the instant feedback of
a digital camera screen, but to do so is nothing more than photography by trial
and error. I prefer to use my camera
equipment in a manner that predicts the outcome with the largest amount of
certainty possible.
Did I come close to the excellence of
a Karsh portrait? You be the judge.
This is quite amazing. Are you sure this was done with 35mm?
ReplyDeleteI guess you have to take my word for it. Yes, it was shot with a Leica M6, 135mm f/2.8 Elmarit on Agfapan APX 25. Agfa films unfortunately are discontinued, but I found that the Efke 25 and Adox KB25 films are in virtually any respect equal to the Agfapan APX 25. Those films are currently available.
DeleteI guess I have to get out more, meaning I should start shooting film again. Living solidly in the digital world made me miss an important fact: All Efke films are discontinued and no longer available. This was caused by Efke having used the old Adox coating machines. Due to their age, it was no longer financially feasible to repair them as necessary. Since Adox films were essentially the same films, they too are no longer available. Adox does have a special emulsion, super high resolution film still in their inventory,with an ISO rating of 20. But that is it, no other ISO 25 films are currently available.
DeleteAre you seriously suggesting that a 35mm Leica can do as well as a Karsh print made from an 8x10 negative?
ReplyDeleteNot at all. As I said in the last two sentences of he article, "Did I come close to the excellence of a Karsh portrait? You be the judge."
DeleteIt is virtually impossible to make direct comparisons of images on a monitor, that really requires 16x20 or 20x24 enlargements of either image. But what I can see here is that your Leica with the Agfa film did an extraordinary job, seemingly beyond of what one would expect a 35mm camera to be capable of.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how you arrived a the exposure setting for this shot. Could you please explain it again? Since I don't have a handheld lightmeter, would it be possible to arrive a the same settings with the meter built into my M6?
ReplyDeleteTo better understand how these light readings were taken, it is necessary to understand the two principle types of light readings, reflective and incident. A reflective light reading registers the intensity of the light reflected off the subject while an incident reading reads the intensity of the light illuminating the subject. Incident reading generally are easier because they automatically give an accurate rendering of the general brightness. With other words, with the camera setting based on the intensity of the light falling onto the subject, bright subjects reflect more of that light and will therefore be bright while dark subjects reflect less light and will be darker. A reflected light reading “assumes” that the light is reflected off an area of average brightness. If that is not the case, the reading will be false. For instance, a bright subject, like a snow covered winter scene, will reflect substantially more light than a subject of average brightness. This means the lightmeter will register more light than what is actually available and render camera settings that will lead to underexposure. A dark object will cause the opposite.
DeleteWith this particular picture, I had planned the basic look ahead of time. I therefore paid attention to the brightest areas of the portrait first. Taking an incident light reading of the light source which illuminated the brightest areas normally would be sufficient. However, to make double sure, I adjusted the camera setting to render a 2 ½ stop overexposure. This avoided any areas from being overexposed too much. This established the actual exposure settings for the picture. I had planned to have the side of the head facing the camera to be relatively dark, but I also wanted to maintain all the detail. That’s why I chose an underexposure of 1 ½ stops. Since the camera settings were already established, I needed to adjust the intensity of the light source for this setting. Taking careful light readings rendered the picture as you see it.
It is possible to arrive at the same camera settings with an M6. To get accurate settings for the brightest areas of the portrait, where I took the incident reading, with the meter in the M6 (or any reflective light meter) it is necessary to take the reading off an area of average reflectivity. This is easiest done with a greay card. These are available from various sources. To take the reading, make sure the gray card is illuminated by the same lightsouce as the subject. That too will render the basic camera settings. The rest would be proceeding as outlined in the article.
Why 2 1/2 stops overexposure for the basic camera setting? Why not 3 or 3 1/2?
DeleteDon't forget that the camera used was an M6, with black and white film. Without changes in development, most black and white films will render white without detail when overexposed by three stops and black without detail when underexposed by 4 stops. The 2 1/2 stop overexposure therefore assured that no all detail was lost.
DeleteThe same is basically true with digital sensors also, but differences in sensors and software do lead to differences in the dynamic range (expose range). But a few simple test can easily determine that.