Afghan Girl

The above photo is the famous "Afghan Girl" picture which was featured in National Geographic 1985 publication.  The photo was taken by Steve McCurry.

The picture was of a orphaned afghan girl Sharbat Gula at Nasir Bagh refugee camp in 1984. Gula was a student in an informal school within the refugee camp and McCurry seized a rare opportunity to photograph her.

I was intrigued by this photo, the eyes of the girl was so intense with pain.  Her facial expression shows youth and innocence with deep sadness, lost and struggle. I wanted to capture that in my replica.

I began by hanging a green scarf which acted as the green wall in the background of the original picture.  My model which was my daughter wore a brown head scarf which was similar to the one the girl in the picture wore.  She was sat on a small stool so she could be relaxed and not look posed.

To take this picture, I used Canon 1100d camera.  My camera was set to Manual, f 5.6 at 1/160, ISO 200 with flash. Camera focal length was 44.0mm.  I also used a tripod and a remote shutter release to keep the camera steady and making easier to direct my model.

Though it was a bit difficult to get the facial expression right because I was working with a small child, I think the photo shoot was successfully. It took a few frames to get the right shot but the final shot was extremely identical to the original photo.

I did minimal retouching to this picture in Photoshop. I have achieved what I set out to do in this picture perfectly, from the expression of the face to the very subtle colours.