Steve McCurry's works consist highly of portrait photos, and people as his main subjects. He does however have varying styles. His website has 57 different categories, some being different places such as Japan or New York, and others being different themes such as "recent" or after dark, some of which overlap too. Some of my favorites are his portraits. The amount of detail is mind boggling, some look impossibly crystal clear.
This image was taken in Tibet. His photos are extremely vivid, full of detail, and almost cinematic looking. This one in particular has a very basic background, which helps keep the viewer interested and focused on the main subject. One thing I noticed in most of his portraits is something about the eyes. They pierce your soul as they stare back at you in some images. The clarity is almost more than the human eye could process. Settings wise, I have a feeling McCurry used a very small aperture. There is also a visible vignette which could be a result of the low aperture, or an after effect. I also think he probably used a zoom of around 30-50 mm as it seems slightly zoomed in. The clarity of the photo may show the use of a full frame camera, as well as an extremely low ISO. I don't know that for sure but knowing what those full frame cameras are capable of, I believe there is strong reason to suspect this.
This second photo shows McCurry's more action oriented side. The way he captures all the movement in one still frame looks something similar you'd see to a photograph of a Michael Jordan or Lebron James. Still, in the moment. McCurry also uses an interesting choice of what to add to the background of this image, either the man who is blurred is watching and happened to get in the way, or McCurry placed him there, sort of giving the image the feeling of an out of body experience for the viewer, as if they are the blurry man. He clearly used a high shutter speed in this image to capture such a quick action in such a still manor. Both of the images shown so far put the subject right in the middle too, something some would say is "incorrect composition" but I think it draws the viewer's eye more this way than using rule of thirds in this instance.
This last photo is of McCurry himself in the 1983 monsoon in India. This photo is in here to show to what extent he went to take his pictures. He is ruthless. Risking his equipment as well as his own health all for some images. Just to capture a moment in time. Seeing photos like this sort of reminds me how important it is to put yourself in dangerous or uncomfortable positions, just to get the perfect shot. It makes me realize how annoying or uncomfortable or even scary it may be to capture such amazing photos, and I know for sure I'll think twice about complaining when I need to lay down on the ground for a few seconds to angle a shot correctly.
Technical Difficulties Note:
(McCurry's website seems to lock up and not let me view images. I have literally tried to grab an image for an hour from his website and I cannot even view it. I know this an unnecessary comment, but it is extremely aggravating, and I can imagine it would upset customers of his as well who want to view his works, but cannot due to his website not being able to run properly.) This is the message I got while on his website while trying to view basically any photo other than the first photo of an album:
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