The secrets of photographic perfection

The Online Scum is gratified by the surge of interest in photography evidenced in recent posts here. In our effort to further serve the hashing community we have therefore asked the eminent photographer Henri Cartier-Beaver for his tips on taking the perfect photograph. Here, after some copy editing (he seems to have problems with certain letters of the alphabet), is his response.

There are three basic requirements to a good photograph: the right subject, the right light, and right moment.

Your subject of course is the key to your photograph. It might be something of singular beauty, or joy or pathos, or deep mystery. It might be something from ordinary life, but seen in an extraordinary way. Find a great subject and you are halfway to a great photograph.

Next, light. "Photography" of course means to write with light, and without good light there are no good photographs. Cameras see differently than the human eye, and much of a photographer's education has to do with learning to recognize good photographic light. The recent photos here posted by my esteemed colleague Mr. Egghead are textbook examples of, shall we say, less than optimal photographic light. Show me a superb photograph and odds are that the photographer had (or created) superb light.

Finally, the moment. It can be a gesture, a glance, a ray of sunlight breaking out of a cloud -- anything that makes one instant stand out from all the others, and makes it worthy of being frozen in time. You might even call it, er, the decisive moment.  

So there you have it: subject, light, and moment. Put them together and, voila, the perfect photograph.