Abstract Due to America’s leadership in the photography industry, American wars have been repeatedly brought to the screen. The American photographer’s attitude of excellence in this kind of photography has also forged the classics of the film industry. After the contemporary era, with the advent of the consumer and picture-reading era, a clearer narrative strategy has emerged in cinema that differs from the earlier film adaptations of war literature. In order to explore the aesthetic implications and ethical values inherent in American war photography, as well as to correct some previous biases, we aim to provide a comprehensive interpretation of American war photography from a more objective and rational perspective, and to provide references for the appreciation and creation of other film and television works. This paper analyzes the narrative strategies of contemporary American war literature film adaptations through three aspects of respect for literariness in narrative and compromise with commerciality. Meanwhile, this paper will explain the connotation of big data in photography, analyze the application of big data in photography, and elaborate the development of big data in photography. The ultimate goal is to promote the joint growth of big data and photography industry, and to advance the flourishing of photography business. In the context of new media, photojournalists can no longer follow the original mode of work, but should recognize the current plight of the industry and seize the opportunity to transform in time in order to better meet the new requirements of the development of the field of news communication.