![]() You can do this by using fast or slow shutter speeds.įast shutter speeds stop motion dead in its tracks, allowing for better focus to be placed on minute details, but using a slower shutter speed can show the range of movement, capturing it in slow-mo and letting us savor it. Play with Motion in Your Imagesīecause decisive moments are found in movement and action, I find that playing around with the portrayal of motion in images to be an amazing way of capturing the energy and pace of the subject. Everyday scenarios and emotional moments, like those at weddings, are a couple of examples. Meaning is everywhere, and with practice, we can anticipate where it can be found. You can consider what other people find meaningful, be it a stranger on the train or someone in a café. ![]() Even without my camera, I find myself studying the people and places around me to focus on what meanings I want to capture.Ĭonsider what you find meaningful in your own life and experience, as this can be the easiest to identify. Meaning is best found in actions, and meaningful action occurs all around us every day. Making sure that there is a meaningful element in your frame, one that makes a statement or inspires and expresses a core emotion, is the crux of the decisive moment. Meaning and EmotionĪt the core of any photograph, the meaning separates an amazing (but meaningless) image from a truly decisive moment. Studying scenes like this and practicing predicting what comes next builds your intuition for knowing when the moment will arrive and when you should take the shot. You might see the kindness of strangers, bravery, fear, anything that captures a perfect moment of expression and meaning. You will eventually witness many decisive moments, like how a couple looks at each other while holding hands, or a child’s bubbling fascination in something mundane. For example: You can wait near a busy intersection or sidewalk with the proper light exposure and background and watch pedestrians walk past. One technique that many photographers employ is setting themselves in an environment with the right composition, waiting for a subject to walk by. Think of this as being the frame for the decisive moment. Other elements in your scene are going to need to provide a focus towards the specific moment, movement, and general expression that is going to create the decisive moment. The scene has to have the correct light exposure, which is reliant on the time of day. You have to have found the right composition in your environment and background. Obviously, timing and anticipation alone are not enough. ![]() The more you practice this, the better your anticipation skills will become. Get to know your subjects, their movements, and their behaviours to anticipate and predict when a decisive moment is coming. If you see the decisive moment and you are not ready, it will be gone by the time you have adjusted yourself and pointed the camera. I would first recommend that photographers pay close attention to the timing of a scene and practice their anticipation skills. The following strategies and tips have been employed by Henri Cartier-Bresson as well as more recent photographers around the world. These decisive moments are always popping into existence before disappearing. With every movement and moment, be it someone walking down the street, a baseball being caught, or two lovers saying goodbye at an airport, there will always be a split-second that encapsulates the entire scene’s meaning. Throughout the 20th century, as smaller, more mobile cameras became available to photographers, the possibility of capturing real, unstaged, and genuinely honest pieces of life lead Henri Cartier-Bresson to build on the concept of the decisive moment.Īnd even though this concept has emerged from street photography, it can be employed in every other genre. The decisive moment is a concept popularized by the famed French street photographer and photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson. I want only to capture a minute part of reality”. ![]() “The photograph itself doesn’t interest me. When the decisive moment is captured in a picture, people tend to stop and study the image, extracting the wealth of information expressed in the art form. ![]() It is the difference between taking nice-looking pictures and perfectly capturing genuine moments of action, emotion, and meaning. This is where a visually pleasing image is combined with deeper meaning by capturing the very essence of what was happening when the shutter is pressed. Photography, particularly street photography, is an art form.Īnd like any art form, success is found by capturing something deeper, an essence, a meaning, something visceral and emotive, something real and complete.Ī photographer does not just point and shoot willy-nilly many of us aim to capture what is referred to as the decisive moment. ![]()
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