Karsh Signature

Yousuf Karsh, master photographer of the 20th century

What were Mr. Karsh’s developer formulae?

The developers were to his own formulae because that is what he learned from his early years with George Nakash and John Garo – no Kodak packages. For negatives, he used special chemicals that allowed a faint green light to reveal the deepening densities so he could judge each one individually. For prints, he had two developers, “hard” and “soft”, and sometimes both would be used on the same photograph – one to bathe the print, and the other to be applied in specific areas with a piece of cotton.

Jerry Fielder, from Karsh: Beyond the Camera.

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