This photograph shows an American soldier smiling and walking hand in hand with three British orphans who were adopted by his unit. The focal points are the soldier and three children. It could represent the soldier telling the children stories from the war or returning them after the war, though they are orphans. The lighting is bright but the black and white photo represents the age of the image, from 60-90 years ago. Their clothing represents their war experiences, with the soldier's uniform and orphans' dark clothes signifying loss of parents.

1. This picture is well known as the Afghan Girl, which was taken by photographer Steve McCurry, and was
the cover of the National Geographic Book in June 1985. The girl has very sharp focus on her and the
background is completely blurred out. Also the picture looks very sharp, with so much detail on the girl.
The close-up shot is taken to show the detail of the expression of the girls face. The girls expression is
rather a neutral facial expression, but however, it could be ambiguous towards the audience of how she
is feeling. The picture was taken as a close-up to show the detail of her eyes because they are such a
sophisticated color.
In the picture, the lighting of her face is very bright to expose the details of the girls facial features, such
as her eyes and her skin complexion. We see that the lighting comes from the girl’s left side because
you can see that her left side of her face is lighter than the other side of her face.
The use of color is unusual, a mixture of red and green; two colors which never really blend in with each
other. However, in this image, the clash of these two colors compliment each other by making the red
stand out.
Using the rule of thirds, most of her face is included in the middle section because that is where people
who look at this portrait photograph are more likely to look because she is the subject of the picture.
Photography Analysis – Portrait Photography: Steve McCurry

2. This portrait picture is a close-up. It shows the detail of this individual’s face and the wrinkles all over. Also,
this picture looks very sharp. The focal point of this picture is the person’s face; the rest of the photo is
completely blurred out. The facial expression of this individual is a neutral expression; but however it can be
ambiguous towards the audience to how the person is feeling.
The picture looks very saturated in color. It has colors such as red, yellow, and green. Most of the
background is black to make the colors stand out in the picture. The colors works together to compliment
each other in the picture, making the brighter colors stand out more.
The lighting of the picture is bright to expose the features of the person’s face and also to brighten up the
colors of the clothing. We can see that the lighting comes from the person’s right side because the right
side of the subject’s face looks more lighted up than the other side. We can also see a bit of the shadow on
the other side of the subject’s face, knowing which side the lighting comes from.
Applying the rule of thirds on this picture, the subject is in the middle square, where the people are more
likely to focus on. Also, some of the beads land on the first vertical line of the grid.

3. Photography Analysis – Landscape Photography: Andrew Prokos
This landscape photograph is the View of the Jefferson Memorial and Tidal
Basin at Dusk. It shows a various amount of things such as the Memorial, The
traffic (blurred), the Tidal Basin, the beautiful dusk sky and also the city view in
the background. This shows that the photo has a various amount of subjects
that people can focus on. You can tell that this photo was taken at a slow
shutter speed because the light is blurred from the traffic that went past while
the photo was being taken with the slow shutter speed.
The main focal point of the photo is the Jefferson Memorial because it is in the
centre of the photograph. This is so that people can focus on the memorial in
this picture.
The lighting of the trees in the photo is very dark, making them look
silhouetted. The other lighting is bright, such as the blurred light left from the
traffic. The lighting compliments the colour, making the photograph look
brighter and more saturated in colour. The lighting also shows the gradient of
blue to purple to red to orange, which is the colours of the dusk sky. The
saturation of the photo compliments the colour gradient very well, exposing the
gradient of the colours.
Using the rule of thirds, we see that the Jefferson Memorial is directly in the
middle of the photo, showing that it is the focal point of the photo. The sky
lands in the top three squares of the photo, making the sky as a 3-grid focal
point.

4. This landscape photograph is a panoramic skyline of Midtown Manhattan at
night. It shows a beautiful view of a lot of buildings and also the traffic below.
The lighting of the photo is bright because of the amount of lights that is in
this photo. The most lit part of the photo is the traffic below, making it stand
out the most. For the buildings, the lighting is dark but gradually becomes
lighter, following up to the big buildings, as they’re the most lit buildings in
this photo. The colour of the buildings is bright colours but they are lit very
dim. However, the lighting makes them stand out more in the picture, making
them nearly individually recognizable.
Using the rule of thirds, the road and the three of the tallest building in the
photo frame are in the middle frames of the photo, showing that they are the
main focal points of the photo. Another tall building lands in the left middle
frame of the photo making it another focal point of the photo. Also, the other
bright light buildings that are in the picture land in the horizontal middle
frames of the picture, showing that the focal point of the bright light buildings
The meaning of the photo can be ambiguous. It can show how beautiful man-
made can be as nature or it can show the brightness of a city, representing
how successful the city is. It can have different themes depending on the
audience’s perspective of the representation of the picture.

5. This war photograph is an image of a group of soldiers putting up an
American flag during the war. This has two focal points, the soldiers and the
flag. The soldiers represent war, and hem putting up the flag represents
victory and taking over a territory, also it could represent that the soldiers are
proud fighters of their country and they are representing their own country in
the war.
The lighting of the photo is bright. The colour of the photo is black and white,
but however, the soldiers’ clothing is darker to show that war is dark, dull and
negative and it promotes chaos, murder and damage to homes, cities etc.
Using the rule of thirds, the vertical middle grids hold the main focal points of
this photo, which are the soldiers and also the flag going up. The bottom grids
are the foundation that the soldiers are standing on, showing that it could
represent that it is a tough war, and it is hard to stand during the war because
a various number of tough events are occurring, breaking apart cities,
communities and families and people.
The meaning of this photo can mean a lot of things. It can mean that the
soldiers are conquering a fortress, or they are putting the flag up to represent
their country, showing pride. This is a propaganda picture because the
photographer Robert Capa, missed the first time they put it up, so he told
them to take it down and to put it up again so he can take a photograph.
Photography Analysis – War Photography: Robert Capa

6. This war photograph is of an American soldier smiling and walking hand in hand with
three British orphans who were adopted by his unit. The focal points of this photo are
the soldier and the three kids. This can have different representations on what is going
on in this picture, depending on the audience’s perspective. It could be a soldier telling a
story to his three kids on what its like in the war, or three little kids walking with the
soldier after the war to return them to their parents. But unfortunately the second
perspective does not relate to the picture, as the kids are orphans.
The lighting of the picture is very bright, but however the photo is only black and white
because of how long ago it was taken, which is about from 60-90 years ago. The
clothing of the soldier represents the war, and also maybe the history behind his
experience being in the war. Also, the clothing of the orphans is dark representing their
experience during the war and also losing both of their parents during the war.
Using the rule of thirds, the focal points of this photograph land in the middle grids of
the photo, showing that the audience who views this photo focuses on the subjects of
this photo. The rest of the grids do not have any focal points in the frame, and are
blurred out.