Impact - the 1st element

Impact is the feeling that an image gives you as soon as you see it. That impact can be a simple calm that comes over you as you view a serene image. It can be a WOW that makes you take a longer look. Any emotion evoked by an image is a result of it's impact.

The 2 images above have a completely different type of impact on the viewer.

"Ariel" the photograph by Jessica Vogel of a High School Senior makes you go WOW! The pose, lighting, clothing, expression, everything about this images gives it impact. That impact was why this image won several awards and was selected for the PPA Loan Collection.

"Winter in the Bluegrass" by Dave Huntsman gives you the sense of cold, isolation, beauty and peace. Major impact but so very different from the senior portrait. This image won Best of Show in KY and won the Kodak Gallery Elite Award in 2005.

The initial impact is what makes us take a second or longer look at an image but an image also must maintain that impact. How many times have you seen the judges immediately lean forward or get up to look at image only to have it score very poorly. The image had something that made the judges excited but most likely the image didn't have lasting impact due to a problem of some sort.