The Decisive Moment

Hello Again My Friends !

I hope you enjoyed my first post on "the rule of the thirds".

I would like to talk today on the subject of "The Decisive Moment" in photography.

The above term is used to describe that exact perfect moment that defines the photograph.

we all take numerous pictures of action or street scenes, but what makes a particular
photo a good one?

 in my opinion it's capturing the precise second when all the elements are coming together  to a completeness. 

in order to do so it's necessary first to compose the picture in your mind, and then to be patient until the right moment comes and to be ready to shot it  with the correct camera settings. 

It will be easy to demonstrate the matter with some photos i took along the way :

As you can see i used a fast shutter speed (1/1000) to freeze the moment. the photo was in my mind before i shot it and i took my time to take several pictures before finding the right one.

     

Another example for a decisive moment is the photo above. you can see the exact moment of the player hitting the ball and the tension on the faces of the other players. i believe that the unique angle that was chosen to the photo added to the overall outcome.

the above photo is not a regular action picture but even so it is recording a split of a second moment of a drunk guy sitting on the railing of a pool and helplessly lining back. this is in my opinion a "decisive moment".  i waited a moment or so to take the shot and i glad that the guy didn't fell into the water afterwards.

 the above street portrait is also a good example of the right moment in photography. the old man raising his eyes in the exact moment makes this one a unique portrait.

 I saved one of my favorites to the end of the post. the secret of the picture is that i saw the rider in advance and then aimed my camera to the middle of the pipe focusing on the pavement beyond. the shutter speed was set to 1/500.
The moment i saw the rider entering the frame i took the shot, and the result -  true decisive moment.

That all for this post.

for more articles  you are  invited to check out Roie Galitz photography web site (an israeli photography school ).

I hope you enjoyed it.

 I'll be very pleased to get a response from you guy's.

see you soon

Guy Atar  

 

Let there be light.

Welcome friends and photography lovers to my new blog named "straightforward basic photography".

Every week or so I'll talk shortly about a different aspect of photography In a simple (and hopefully interesting) manner.

My goal is to cast light on some of the most important factors in "how to take a good picture" or how to be a "better photographer" if you like.

Along the way I'll write on slightly different subjects like the history of photography or vintage Cameras. You could suggest future topics as well.

The first topic I would like to talk about is how to compose an intense and dynamic photo using a basic composition "thumb rule" known as  "rule of the thirds".

It's very common for beginners to center their object in the middle of the frame in order to produce a well balances picture. The photos composed in that manner tend to be boring and to lack dynamic tension you can find in a good photo. 

Try to imagine that your frame (in the viewfinder or in the LCD display that you use to frame your shot) is divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. Then, compose your object at one the intersections between the lines.

You can see in the samples below that you're able to choose every one of the four intersections depending on the overall scenery and still the final outcome is more interesting as if the object was in the middle of the frame.

When I take pictures of people or even animals I compose the eyes of my object using the "rule of the thirds" because we as viewers  are always drawn to the eyes first as we examine a photo - a practice that enhance the affectivity of the said rule .

That's all for this time folks.

See you soon at my next posting