By Heinz Richter
A while ago I had the opportunity to see an exhibition of portraits by Yousuf Karsh at the Institute of Arts here in Minneapolis. It is a known fact that he did most of his work with a large format, 8x10 camera. I was not disappointed. The overall quality of the images was breath taking, with a tonal range that needs to be seen.
The biggest negatives my camera equipment at that time was able to accommodate was 5x7 inch or 13x18 centimeter. But I was doing the bulk of my work with 35mm Leica equipment. That made me think how close I could come with my 35mm equipment. I had no illusion that there would be some noticeable differences. But I had never put this to a test.
The first order of business was to find a suitable model. For quite some time I had contemplated to photograph Reggie Anderson, an artist who also worked at MIA, the Institute of Arts in Minneapolis. He agreed and we set a time for the shoot.
To get the most out of my Leica equipment I chose to use Agfapan APX 25. To this day I consider it one of the best 35mm films ever available. The Kodak high contrast copy film at that time was rated at a slightly higher resolution, but by its very nature, it was also quite contrasty, even when developed for a full tonal range, and therefore was definitely less desirable for portrait work.
I chose a Leica M3 camera with a 135mm f/2.8 Elmarit. I purposely went with a longer focal length because that enabled me to use a greater shooting distance. Individuals that are not used to sit in front of a camera quite often, like models, for instance, usually are a lot more comfortable if the photographer and the camera are further away.
On the day of the shoot I purposely chose lighting that was similar to what I had seen numerous times used by Karsh. I chose a profile view with one light set for rim lighting to outline the profile of the face. That was done with an open, undiffused studio strobe. To light the side of the face towards the camera, I used a second studio strobe with a relatively large softbox. For the exposure setting a handheld light meter was used. The initial reading was for the rim light. That was overexposed by 2 1/2 stops to make it rather light. That also established the actual exposure setting on the camera. The side of the face was supposed to be relatively dark. Therefore I chose an underexposure of 1 2/3 of a stop.
Even though the shoot took place in a studio with all white walls, the background was far enough away to be underexposed by about 3 stops which rendered it virtually black.
The film was developed in Agfa Rodinal, diluted 1:100 with a developing time of 16 minutes with constant agitation in a rotary drum. Even though Agfa Rodinal is by no means a fine grain developer, using ISO 25 film made grain a non-issue. Rodinal, on the other hand, is a high acutance developer. That renders negatives with enhanced sharpness and tonal range.
I think the result speaks for itself. Obviously it cannot compete with a large format, 8x10 negative, but on many occasions viewers have wondered if it was not done with medium format equipment.
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