You've heard it a million times.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
And that's not wrong.
Your images can make or break your presentation.
In this video, a few do's and don'ts for images and media in your presentations.
First, a big don't don't use pixelated or blurry images.
Physically, small images spread across the slide can pixelate.
Make sure your images have sufficient resolution to display without pixels zation.
Typically, a slide presentation is made for screen size approximately 1920 by 10 80 pixels.
I try to size my images for that screen size so they won't pixelated blurry photos or fatiguing for
the viewer and reflects poorly on your presentation overall.
Don't use them.
Do use large images, don't use tiny images in your presentations.
Your audience isn't carrying binoculars with them.
Make sure your images are large enough on the slide to be visible to everyone.
I like to allocate at least half the slide to my images.
Tiny images may also take longer for the viewer to interpret, and it can compete with your vocal delivery
for cognitive processing power.
And now don't don't overuse visuals.
Multiple images on a page or competing images take the viewer longer to process and are likely not as
impactful as a singular, dramatic image on a page.
I recommend you choose one high quality image that sums up the main theme of the slide.
If you have multiple goals and objectives, you should consider making multiple images and multiple
slides.
Remember, pixels are free, and it doesn't cost you anything to make more slides to better get your
point across.
Another don't, and I expect some hate mail for this one.
Don't use clip art.
Check your watch.
What year is this clip?
Part is tacky, dated and adds no value to your presentation.
What I see clip on I think 1995, when we didn't have the bandwidth to use photos efficiently.
Now we do so dispense with the crappy clip art and go with photos that make an emotional connection
with your viewers.
All right, here's a do do use media that you own the rights to or have a license for.
It amazes me how many people simply copy images off the web regardless of ownership and include them
in presentations.
This is illegal and can even get you in trouble if you pick the wrong image.
Some stock photo libraries aggressively try to collect when you use an image they own without permission.
Don't use images that cause headaches.
Images that are too busy, use too many colors or have weird headache inducing patterns are a no no.
Not only do viewers hate this type of image, but it also makes your text hard to read.
Instead, choose an impressive visual that covers your whole slide, darken it for contrast with the
text and use it consistently.
This can be a lot more impressive than some 1970s swirly pattern that causes migraines.
Do keep images natural height to width ratio intact.
Don't stretch images horizontally or vertically.
To do so versus amateurish and just looks plain weird.
Be aware when resizing images that you want to keep the initial aspect ratio.
So the image doesn't become distended.
Don't use heavy borders around your images.
Thick outlines give an unpleasant look and feel to the slide when the frame is too heavy around an image,
the viewer might wonder what's more important the border or the image itself.
I actually almost never use borders unless the slide has a similar background color to the image, causing
the image in the background to kind of bleed together.
Also, don't amputate arms and hands in photos.
It can be difficult to resize an image and composite it with text on the screen.
It's good advice not to crop hands and images at the joints.
You want to crop the image without having it look awkward.
Avoid cutting off feet, fingers or dissecting any body part.
Use a picture that's well composed so the crop looks intentional.
If you can't find a way to crop, intentionally, take another picture.
And while we're at it, let's avoid the disembodied heads and floating bodies on your slide.
This presentation can look awkward or even downright disturbing.
Make sure there's context for the images by using intentional crops and anchoring images to part of
your slide design.