Photography

Your Photos vs. Stock Photos

- Joel Heffner

You can buy or download free photos of everything…almost. If you are a speaker and use photos during your talk it is easy to search for ‘just the right photo’ for your PowerPoint slide. It makes sense…or does it. Actually, I don’t think so.

I’d rather use a photo that I have taken over a stock photo every time. Here’s an example.

There are thousands of photos of Pugs online. If I were speaking about Pugs, I would only use one like this. Why? I can talk about this one on a very personal level. Camille posed for this photo. She lived with my family. You may notice that the photo isn’t perfect. Her tail is partially covered by the greenery. A “professional” photographer would have Photoshopped it out. Would a perfect photo that I couldn’t talk about personally be better than Camille. Never!

Whenever possible, use your own photo…so you can make it personal.

5 Photography Tips for Speakers

- Joel Heffner

If you get up to speak at a meeting, workshop or conference, you probably will be using some form of visual. By following some basic photography tips you can make your pictures more effective. Here are 5 photography tips for public speaking:

  1. The most unique photos you can use is one you took yourself. Your iPhone or other smartphone has a camera that can and should be used to take pictures. Use it.
  2. Move in, zoom in, or crop your pictures to avoid distracting backgrounds.
  3. An advantage of using digital cameras is that you can take pictures without worrying about the expense of developing film. However, the problem with digital images is how easy it is to loose track of them. Important images should be copied and re-named. For example, the (scanned version) of the photo of P.J. is named PJ_Polaroid.jpg. If it were called 229945.jpg it would be much more difficult to find in my computer.
  4. Using a Polaroid picture, like the picture of P.J.,  makes it a bit more personal and unique. Although Polaroid stopped making film for their cameras, The Impossible Project does make film for your old Polaroid camera.
  5. If you use a photo on a PowerPoint or Keynote slide, use little or any text with it. You want the audience to look at the picture, listen to you, or read what is on a slide…one at a time.

Used wisely, pictures are great aids to making an effective speech or presentation.