A photo and a story,
He tells you with the lens.
Usually, many people are attracted to works that have stories, some people record it in words, some people use sound, and someone is good at using the camera!
This man is steve McCurry, a famous American photographer
Steve McCurry Steve McCurry
I believe that we have all seen this well-known and shocking work "Afghan Girl" (also known as "Green Eyed Girl"). This work is by Steve McCurry, and the character's eyes are full of horror and longing for a better life, conveyed through the big, turquoise eyes!
"Afghan Girl", filmed in a refugee camp in Pakistan in 1984
In 1984, the "Afghan Girl" was published in National Geographic magazine, and Steve McCurry became known to the public, and Steve joined Magnum Photos in 1986 as one of Magnum's photography masters. Moreover, the shot that Steve used at the time to shoot nichel 105/2.5, which is why it is affectionately known as the "Afghan Girl" lens.
"Afghan Girl" footage
【Camera Parameters】
Camera name: Nikon FM2
Lens used: Nikkor Ai-S 105mm F2.5
Using film: Kodakchrome ISO64
As a master of photography art who tells stories with images, Steve McCurry has traveled the world for more than 40 years, based on excellent photography basic skills, using cameras to capture natural and real moments, using lenses to capture the life course engraved on the faces of characters, and also showing colorful local cultures, reflecting the different experiences of all corners of the world and all kinds of people.
Steve's work is rich in color and contrast, and is revered by many international magazines and books, often used as a book magazine cover, exhibited in museums and well-known galleries, and favored by many collectors around the world!
So how did Steve get to make such an eye-catching, memorable, and storytelling work?
- 01 -
Key skills in shooting
"There are so many people around the world — their circumstances are different." Steve McCurry said, "I was wondering what these people had gone through. ”
Steve puts himself in the shooting scene, no matter what kind of person he faces, he will establish a real connection between himself and the subject, and think and understand the feelings of the person at a deeper level.
Steve adds, "I think on a deeper level — sometimes it's an intuition that doesn't reflect a person's emotions or circumstances. He believes that in photography, it is very important to create based on one's own perspective and interests, following one's heart and intuition.
It can be seen that empathy and inner intuition in the scene are the key skills in Steve McCurry's shooting.
- 02 -
Communicate and guide the subject
"I especially like to capture the natural and real moments, the faces of the characters engraved with the course of their lives, and even feel their inner soul." 」
Steve once said that a person's face often reflects the person's experiences and emotions, and is the epitome of a person's soul. Many countries have different customs and cultures, and people have different beliefs. A portrait of a person can tell a lot of stories about the person's heart, and it can also portray a person's personality characteristics very well, and it is not easy to photograph the inner world of the character!
Steve likes to place the subject in a slightly darker interior, a graffiti wall and other shades, so that the other side is facing the door, window and other light sources, and quietly looking at the camera with his eyes wide open.
Guide the characters to watch the camera silently
The characters are positioned, and Steve will install a large aperture portrait lens of 85mm F1.4 on his Nikon camera, with Kodak reversal film, a tripod, and chat with each other while constantly manually focusing and quickly pressing the shutter.
In his works taken in this way, the focal section bokeh effect is good, the frame is compact, the focal plane is particularly prominent, and the character performance will be more real and natural!
Chat with the subject, and the characters are more realistic
In addition, Steve will also ask the subject to look up at the camera and shoot slightly, at which point the sky forms a huge light source box, reflecting on the other person's eyes to form a beautiful eye light
Look at the camera with your face slightly on your back
Lift your head slightly and take a dip
Steve also found that the child group is the mirror that is the most direct and direct reflection of real society. Moreover, the children are also happy to cooperate and show the most natural and innocent side. Taste the local social form and cultural situation from the eyes of the children.
Curious and slightly rusty
Slightly frightened of outsiders, timid eyes
Quite manly, gradually lost the innocence of liveliness
- 03 -
How to let the photos tell their own stories
To date, Steve McCurry has been to Afghanistan at least 30 times. Over the past few decades, he has traveled to many countries, including India, Nepal and Pakistan.
Describe the scene and portray the sense of story
Measuring the world with your feet and recording human history and culture with your camera is one of the purposes of Steve photography.
Different regions, different living customs
"I want to be able to remember who we are, where we came from, what we look like, what kind of clothing we have worn, what kind of buildings we have seen – this is the common memory of all mankind." I hope to create such memories through my work. Steve said.
The past is resurfaced in the image
The good photography in Steve's mind should not only be "remembered by others", but also contain a good story that can bring some changes to others and make the viewer feel emotionally resonant.
For portrait photography, Steve also gave specific advice based on his own personal experience: "I think people can get information from their eyes and understand their stories through direct eye contact. ”
Make eye contact with the subject
When shooting, focus on building eye-eye interaction with the subject, and the photos taken will be more expressive.
As a normal experience, when the subject in the photo looks at the camera, it is as if he is talking to you, and his eyes are always calling to you.
When the subject looks at the camera, it's as if there's a story to tell you
In this way, we see that in Steve's portrait works, the light in the eyes of the subject, always the highlight of every photo, is the most memorable place.
It seems that every character is telling us their story, their country, thought-provoking, intriguing, and even through Steve's lens, to come out of the box and come to us!
- 04 -
Later polishing is indispensable
We know that Steve McCurry is a photographer for Magnum Pictures, and Magnum used traditional darkroom techniques to print photos. Whether it is traditional darkroom technology or modern digital (Photoshop) technology processing, it is only one of the ways of post-processing. Especially for portraits and humanistic documentary photography works, post-editing treatment is by no means indispensable!
Post-processing increases the texture of the picture
Steve likes to present his work in complementary colors, but during his shooting, he rarely uses flash, which shows that he pursues the most realistic color rendering.
Color rendering
Photo post-processing, improve saturation, so that the already colorful photos, appear more colorful, more visual impact, improve texture!
Work with details to highlight the body
High saturation and high contrast
Sharpen details are textured
Steve McCurry said: "For me, the most important quality of a work is [its] independence, just a photo can bring you a story." ”
Through Steve's work, we can feel his deep interest in exotic cultures, and he tells their own inner stories by capturing the eyes and facial expressions of the characters.
What inspiration or inspiration did you get from these blockbusters? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area~
If you like today's article, welcome to like and forward, share with more people; if you want to learn more from teachers, you can follow us!
The pictures in this article come from the internet, if there is infringement, please contact us to delete.