A Look Back at 2 of the Most Iconic Photos in Soccer History

With the World Cup in full swing, CNN Digital’s director of photographer, Simon Barnett, has his hands full. Each day of the cup, his job is to look through somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 images and decide which make the cut.

In this short video above, he explains what separates the amazing images from the great-but-not-good-enough crowd, and takes us through what it is that made two iconic soccer photographs so iconic.

Described as “an inside look into [Barnett’s] process for choosing the best photo” that includes “some soccer photography tips!” that’s not really what’s going on here. Barnett rifles through images at about 3 per second on average, so it’s a real treat to have him break down these two impressive shots based on the moment they captured, their composition, the expressions on the players faces and so on and so forth.

It’s a peek into the mind of a top-tier photo editor, and a look at two iconic photographs that you might not have ever laid eyes on — if you happen to glean some soccer photography tips from that, all the better.