 The secret between a great photograph and just a good photograph is so often down to timing. This is one of those secret photography skills that hardly anybody ever really tells you about. Much like a baseball player who steps up to the plate, the batter has to choose the exact moment to achieve immortality or to be simply a footnote in history. Henry Cartier-Bresson named this the decisive moment. Do you want to keep taking big swings and missing in your photography or do you want to start knocking it out of the park? How's it? How's it? Some would say that in this day and age of digital manipulation and conceptually staged photography that the idea of a decisive moment is somewhat old-fashioned that it's applicable only to documentary and street photographers. However, I believe the idea is at the core of capturing these little moments, the watching, the waiting, and being aware of what is occurring around you are those elements that any photographer, irrespective of the genre that they work in, should be injecting into their photography to make it a richer and more rewarding experience, both for them and for the viewer. The key to unlocking this ability to see those decisive moments isn't going to be found in your camera or running around taking thousands of frames of everything the passes you buy, but being aware of what's going on on the edges of your photographs. When people talk about the decisive moment, this is usually the photograph that is used. It was taken in 1932 by Henry Cartier-Bresson and it's called, and if you're excused by pronunciations, behind the Gar Saint-Lazare. A man is captured mid-leap above a puddle, forever about to fall short of a safe landing. It's a moment frozen in time which in real life was probably swept away with the ebb and flow of life which constantly passes a spy. How lucky Cartier-Bresson must have been to capture this once in a lifetime moment and why can't we be that lucky and have all of the stars aligned for us as well, not just once, but again and again and again and again. Henry Cartier-Bresson himself said that his photography, that it was all luck, but was it really or did he really lay down the stage on which luck could dance? Look a little bit closer in the photograph. The man is like a dancer. He's almost ballet-like as he springs from the makeshift walkway, but look a little bit closer. Now how many times have you seen this photograph and never actually noticed the posters on the wall? What can you see there echoing that hurrying man? It's no coincidence or stroke of luck that not only is there this poster, but it's in a prominent place in the frame. Indeed the main subject, the man himself, is almost out of the frame. This is very much possibly because this is one of the few images Cartier-Bresson ever cropped and apparently in this case it's because there's some planking apparently being all in the way, but the point remains that those posters are in a prominent position. They draw to our eye just as much as the man himself does. Now can all of this be really the result of somebody simply looking through a gap in the fence and seeing this scene magically occurring? Or is it the outcome of a master photographer recognizing the potential in a scene and he's waiting for that moment when a tiny element emerges which creates this photograph of a pure genius? It's probably safe to assume that this man wasn't leaping and you know just the only person leaping that day. So no doubt Cartier-Bresson had seen a few others do something similar and had recognized the wider image potential. He'd composed the shot and he'd waited. Waited for the water to be still like a mirror for a single figure to just step gingerly across the planks and then to spring like a dancer trying to reach the safety of dry land. So no, I don't really believe that there was magic at play. Obviously there was the ability to see a great image and that the right person came along and jumped in just the right way. But more so it was doubtless someone, Cartier-Bresson, using their ability to observe and to plan to recognize that moment, that decisive moment. A lot of people watching the videos on this channel have thanked the algorithm for bringing him. Now despite what people tend to think, this isn't purely down to luck and happen chance. It's because YouTube wants to show people videos that they think they will enjoy. Now please take a moment to leave a comment on this video even if it's just to say hi from wherever you are in the world because YouTube, the algorithm takes this as a signal to help suggest this video to other people like yourselves whom it thinks would also enjoy it. It's such a quick and simple way of showing your appreciation of this video and other videos and it means that you're helping photographers like yourself to discover useful ways of improving their own photography. Now that you have a better understanding of what timing looks like, how are we going to incorporate that into your own photography? Most people tend to think of the decisive moment in terms simply of sort of street photography but it can be quite happily applied to portraiture, to landscape photography and to macro photography. Indeed, most genres of photography have capacity to give you a decisive moment. When you look at street photography, Henry Cartier-Bresson's photography is carefully composed and it has almost a sort of impersonal feel to it, especially when you compare it to the likes of somebody like Gary Winogrand or Joel Mayovitz. I don't know why am I stripping over that one. Anyway, their photography is about walking and seeking out these moments of convergence rather than a meticulously crafted composition on which elements dance. Of course, all of these approaches are totally valid and at the heart of them is this ability to recognize those moments when they show themselves to you. You can start by not bringing up your camera to your eye all the time. When you think about those landscapes that you're looking at, is the sun constantly disappearing and reappearing behind the clouds. When you're talking to a person before you take a portrait of them, and if you do do portrait, I certainly hope that you take the time to talk to people before you photograph them, are you noticing how their face changes depending on what it is that they're talking about, that fleet and expression that goes just across their face? The flower that you want to photograph, that beautiful lovely macro look, are there bees that dance on the surface from time to time? Watch, wait, anticipate and you're going to start to tap into what Cartier Brisson was a genius at. Be aware of what might change in your frame and that is going to make your photograph come alive. It's not a specific thing, you're not something that you can put your finger on, it's just a shift in the vibe of the image that elevates it. Be open to the idea that unexpected can and will happen and that's what is going to make the photo. The more that you use your eyes and also quite importantly your ears, you can start to feel when something special is going to happen. Set yourself up for it and the words of Henry Cartier Brisson, your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. Try this for yourself, stay in one spot that intrigues you as a photographer, compose your image. Now wait, watch what is happening around you in that scene. Things will start to reveal themselves to you if you just let them do so. Perhaps you'll be like that batter we saw earlier who had practiced for hours in the nets, who was aware of what options that hurtling ball could take and he trusted himself enough to go with his intuition and he timed swinging that bat so that struck the ball true and out of the park. If you've enjoyed this episode, Alex Webb is a fantastic photographer who is not only a master of seeing a decisive moment but also uses layering within his photographs to create a rich and meaningful image. I highly recommend looking at his photography which I've linked for you here on the right. Click there and you'll go straight to the next video. Thank you ever so much for watching.