First look at the two Cartier-Bresson images
above and try to identify why the photographer might have considered each one a
decisive moment. This is a difficult
thing to attempt but have a go. An important
point to note is that the decisive moment doesn’t have to be anything dramatic –
it can be something as simple as a facial expression or a fall of the light.
Now go out and photograph an event or
location for yourself. Look for and
include the decisive moment. Produce a
contact set of three scenes and analyse your reasons for selecting the image
that has the decisive moment. Your
scenes should all include at least one person.
Try to do one scene using as little camera
assistance as possible, ie, not on fully automatic and not with auto focus.
Approach the second and third scenes in
whatever way you wish.
Does the phrase ‘shutter lag time’ mean anything
to you after completing this exercise? If
you have a digital camera that generally functions well enough for your needs,
then you may have felt some small frustration with this exercise. If you shoot on a film-based camera and scan
then the phrase may mean nothing to you as there is no lag in the manual
system.
The image above shows a young boy walking along a street in Paris carrying two bottles of wine. Whilst there is not much of the street shown in this image there is enough of the buildings to indicate it's a shopping area. The boy has a very mischievous expression on his face making him seem defiant as to why he is carrying wine at such a young age. The whole picture is one of catching that special moment that lifts the whole image from one of being acceptable to one that has captured the punctum moment.
Barthes definition of Punctum: The punctum in a photograph are those (accidental) details (often in the background) that provides no explanation but instead creates questions on the surrounding people in those photographs.
On its own, without the addition of the moving cyclist this is an ordinary graphic image showing angles and curves made up from a set of stairs with railings, steps and curved pavement. The addition of a bicycle placed succinctly on the left hand third of the image and moving out of the image, adds a point of interest for your eye to focus on.
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| Rue Mouffetard 1954 Henri Cartier-Bresson |
The image above shows a young boy walking along a street in Paris carrying two bottles of wine. Whilst there is not much of the street shown in this image there is enough of the buildings to indicate it's a shopping area. The boy has a very mischievous expression on his face making him seem defiant as to why he is carrying wine at such a young age. The whole picture is one of catching that special moment that lifts the whole image from one of being acceptable to one that has captured the punctum moment.
Barthes definition of Punctum: The punctum in a photograph are those (accidental) details (often in the background) that provides no explanation but instead creates questions on the surrounding people in those photographs.
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| Hyeres 1932 Henri Cartier-Bresson |
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Now go out and photograph an event or
location for yourself. Look for and
include the decisive moment. Produce a
contact set of three scenes and analyse your reasons for selecting the image
that has the decisive moment. Your
scenes should all include at least one person.
Try to do one scene using as little camera
assistance as possible, ie, not on fully automatic and not with auto focus.
I saw this image one recently when I was walking along the beach front with friends. The thing that appealed to me was how all the parts of the image were looking one way. The handles of the wheelchair, the two women and the sign to the Cobb harbour. I know it's bad form to take a picture with everyone/thing looking to the right as it encourages your eye to travel out of the picture rather than being pushed back round, but the whole scenario came together in that 'way'.
I'd got the camera on Aperture mode, one that I usually use as it gives me control of the depth of field and what is in and not in focus. In this shot I had a fairly large aperture as I wanted the background of the rest of the beach to be slightly out of focus to bring all the attention to the items at the front.
The camera was set at f5.6 with a focal length of 45mm and shutter speed of 1/640 and ISO set at 200.
I call this picture 'Yellow Buckets' as there seem to be so many in the picture; that's what caught my eye in the first place. The family must have bought a job lot so that there were no arguments between the children. I took this with a wider viewpoint and cropped it down so that it just featured the family group.
The camera was set at f8 with a focal length of 60mm and shutter speed of 1/640 and ISO set at 200.
I set the camera to f5.3 with a focal length of 70mm and shutter speed of 1/500 and ISO set at 320. I was trying out my new Nikon lens 18-105mm f3.5 to see how well it adapted to street photography. I found I had trouble with when the lens was extended to 250-300mm as it made it fairly unstable with my Nikon 5200 camera body. On the whole, I was satisfied with its performance here and was pleased to have it with me on this expedition.
Does the phrase ‘shutter lag time’ mean anything to you after completing this exercise? If you have a digital camera that generally functions well enough for your needs, then you may have felt some small frustration with this exercise. If you shoot on a film-based camera and scan then the phrase may mean nothing to you as there is no lag in the manual system.
I am greatly aware of the shutter lag time as I find it affects my pictures time and again. If I see an picture coming together in front of me, even when I have my camera with me and switched on, it can be lost especially if the focus is on automatic and the camera can't focus quickly enough. If the image isn't in focus to the satisfaction of the focusing system then the shutter will not fire in time and the perfect shot is lost.
I have two main cameras, my main one mentioned above - that of a Nikon D5200 with a couple of lenses. Then I have a CSC camera - the Nikon 1 version 2 with 2 lens. They are a standard prime lens of 10mm and a zoom lens of 10-30mm. This is affected worse by shutter lag time as it has a feature in the zoom lens that allows you to put the camera to sleep by twisting the lens to the left when you have taken your picture. This can mean that it takes a few seconds to wake up before you can take your shot and those few seconds can mean the difference between success and failure.
 |
| To the Cobb |
I'd got the camera on Aperture mode, one that I usually use as it gives me control of the depth of field and what is in and not in focus. In this shot I had a fairly large aperture as I wanted the background of the rest of the beach to be slightly out of focus to bring all the attention to the items at the front.
The camera was set at f5.6 with a focal length of 45mm and shutter speed of 1/640 and ISO set at 200.
 |
| Yellow Buckets |
The camera was set at f8 with a focal length of 60mm and shutter speed of 1/640 and ISO set at 200.
 |
| Follow me please |
I set the camera to f5.3 with a focal length of 70mm and shutter speed of 1/500 and ISO set at 320. I was trying out my new Nikon lens 18-105mm f3.5 to see how well it adapted to street photography. I found I had trouble with when the lens was extended to 250-300mm as it made it fairly unstable with my Nikon 5200 camera body. On the whole, I was satisfied with its performance here and was pleased to have it with me on this expedition.
------------------------------------------------------------
Does the phrase ‘shutter lag time’ mean anything to you after completing this exercise? If you have a digital camera that generally functions well enough for your needs, then you may have felt some small frustration with this exercise. If you shoot on a film-based camera and scan then the phrase may mean nothing to you as there is no lag in the manual system.
I am greatly aware of the shutter lag time as I find it affects my pictures time and again. If I see an picture coming together in front of me, even when I have my camera with me and switched on, it can be lost especially if the focus is on automatic and the camera can't focus quickly enough. If the image isn't in focus to the satisfaction of the focusing system then the shutter will not fire in time and the perfect shot is lost.
I have two main cameras, my main one mentioned above - that of a Nikon D5200 with a couple of lenses. Then I have a CSC camera - the Nikon 1 version 2 with 2 lens. They are a standard prime lens of 10mm and a zoom lens of 10-30mm. This is affected worse by shutter lag time as it has a feature in the zoom lens that allows you to put the camera to sleep by twisting the lens to the left when you have taken your picture. This can mean that it takes a few seconds to wake up before you can take your shot and those few seconds can mean the difference between success and failure.
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