Rami Malek, 2016
The photographs that Nadav Kandar has taken are really interesting. Most of his images are really artistic and conceptual. For example, in his National Portrait Gallery, majority of the people are simply floating in the air. But when it comes to the last four of the that gallery, are more serious close up portraits. They are black and white with 3/4 view giving us short light but with fills. In his Solitary Portraits Gallery it is mix of photos, ranging from conceptual, artistic. black and white, to split light, broad light, color and short light. Again, a lot of his photos has fills in them. A lot of his photos tend to be on the dramatic side but they’re some that are silly. The photo that drew me in the most was one with Rami Malek, while it’s somewhat hard to tell, for me. I think the photo has short light, you can tell because the side of the ear is darker with areas of more darker shade/shadows. It would seem that this photograph has a lot of fill on it. Perhaps I can emulate the way he uses fills in his photography in an upcoming portrait assignment. A lot of his photos are very fill heavy. And if possible I would also like to try out conceptual portraits because some of his photos in that category are really captivating.
Martin Luther King Jr, 1962
When it comes to Yousuf Karsh, it is mainly portraits of famous figures. The gallery includes Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., Andy Warhol, Pope John Paul II, and many others. His photos have a mix of portrait lighting styles. In his gallery you can see some short light portraits, front light portraits, possibly butterfly light, and some split light. I’m not 100 percent sure on this but I do believe he is using fill in some of his photos. Another characteristic that I noticed in Karsh’s photos is that all of them are in black and white. No color in sight. Another characteristic is how the portraits convey a range of emotion, from delightful smiles, playfulness, to idealistic stares, and serious faces. The photo that grabbed my attention the most is Martin Luther King Jr., I like this portraits with the way he is somewhat starry-eyed, looking away from the camera. You can see his face is at 3/4 view giving off a short light portrait style. What I can try and emulate from Yousuf Karsh, I could try and bring the emotional range that he has in his photos.
Nicely observed. I think you picked two terrific examples and comparing them to each other is really instructive.
When you look at these two photos together you can see how low contrast the Kander photo is. Notice two that he does not use a background light and in fact he is not trying to create separation from the background. I find the dark shape that Kander created under Malek’s eye compelling as well.