Pictures and presentations are a great combination. Pictures transfer emotions and have a great role in persuading and inspiring the audience.
But how to use them effectively? How to make great visual effect with them?
There are a couple of things you need to remember:
- Insert only pictures of high definition in order to avoid the effect of blurred view.
- If it’s possible, spread the picture into the whole slide or pull the picture to the side edges of the slide. The panoramic picture composed in such way will have much stronger influence on a recipient.
- Look for pictures with little elements. If there are too many of them, they can distract a recipient. When inserting such photo, try to crop it so that there is only a particularly interesting part of it visible in the slide.
- If it’s possible, use pictures with large blank spaces which you can fill with text. The slide composed in such way will be neat and tidy.
- If you want to depict particularly difficult and abstract matters, use pictures showing specific issues and objects, and try to avoid the ones which show a sheer abstraction. Specific objects can be as follows: a big rock (that can be a symbol of “difficult task”), a galloping horse (“dynamism”), a smiling baby (“happiness”), specific people (“target group”). Abstraction: diagrams, icons, vectorial illustrations of people).
- Avoid stock pictures showing models with fake, posed smiles. They are extremely unauthentic.
- Remember to get permission for using pictures. Recommended stocks of pictures: istockphoto.com, gettyimages.com, corbis.com.
- Are you looking for free pictures with a possibility to use them legally in your presentations? Search for “cc search” and go onto Creative Commons website. By using a couple of filters, you will be able to find pictures from the Internet that are marked as appropriate for commercial use.
Recommended sources for free pictures:
- www.pexels.com
- www.pixabay.com
- www.unsplahs.com