The decisive moment was a phrase first coined by the late Henri Cartier-Bresson to describe the precise moment when everything in a scene comes together. In his own words “Inside movement there is one moment in which the elements are in balance. Photography must seize the importance of this moment and hold immobile the equilibrium of it.” There are various ways of capturing that decisive moment. One way is to just keep shooting a scene over and over trying different compositions and working with the subjects until you feel you have your shot, sometimes only realising which one was the decisive moment when you look back through the images after the event. Another involves having quick reactions and an intuition about what will happen next. Any sort of social reportage photography involves an element of psychology. Understanding human behaviour definitely goes some way to helping predict when these moments might present themselves.
Personally I combine both these approaches depending on the scene I am capturing but I always prefer the latter. Just watching a scene unfolding without the camera to my eye often enables me to see the shot clearer. I’m able to decide which elements from outside the frame I may wish to include, and which I can opt to exclude to best tell the story.
This picture from a wedding earlier in the year is everything I look for in a wedding photograph. It tells a story, has context, bags of emotion and that all important decisive moment. I actually took 4 shots during this sequence because I knew collectively they would make for a great page in the wedding album. But this was the shot I was aiming for. The position of the bouquet is near perfect. The boys expression is priceless. The grandfather on the right hand side not quite keeping up with the action. This picture will be going into my portfolio for 2013 because I believe it sums up my style perfectly. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
I absolutely LOVE this shot! I agree, it’s got everything in this, great narrative, get expressions. It’s a brilliant piece of photojournalism and great use of the wide angle 🙂
I’m in love with this blog post, more importantly ‘ the decisive moment ‘.. Coming from a street photography background and now venturing into weddings. I feel what you have written is extremely important for any photographer. Not only about the vision, the psycology, and being aware of your surroundings. I try to ‘hear’ the moment aswell as ‘see’ the moment. Its all about being in the zone whilst shooting. Being in ones element..
P.s Excellent photo Steven. Definitely a decisive moment
Great photo of a decisive moment. The connection between psychology and photography is very interesting. As far as I can see good people photographers are good people themselves, they love life and love people. They approach photography through people and vice versa, none of the two exists for them without the other. If there is no one to take photos of, they are lost or not interested. The more we love life the more we love people and the more we love people the more we know people. The more we know people the better we photograph them. And the easier we find the decisive moment.
To capture it, I too prefer the latter way. At least that is what I can enjoy. The camera is necessary to record the image but ideally we should ‘take the photo’ in our mind first and use the camera to not loose it, so we get it written into a file or onto the film by the help of the camera. If we have to depend on the camera to find it for us by taking chances, it is a bit less of a photography and more of a playing around with a gadget. The result might be very similar or even identical, but we as photographers learn and grow much faster if we don’t expect the camera to do it for us. It should be like a hammer when driving nails in. We don’t expect the hammer to find the nail head, we know we do it, and the hammer is the tool we need for that, it is made to work for us, not replace us.
I need to stop writing, sorry Steven for the long rambling. On this picture I like how the grandfather is pointing the camera slightly off direction suggesting that he is going to miss the moment when someone catches the flowers. It is funny but we are not laughing. We are smiling because we love him instantly. Sorry again Steven for the lengthy comment.
Hi Steven, stunning image. Wow you can hear the laughter. I love photos when you can imagine the moments before and after the shot was taken. Amazing photo.
I dont think I have ever seen a better interpretation of Cartier-Bresson’s ‘Decisive Moment’ in a wedding photograph. Your work transcends the traditional approach to wedding photography. Bravo.
Really good catch both for the girl and for you 🙂
Great capture here! well done!
Awesome photo. Personally I don’t take much black & white photos, but this one looks perfect.