One of the most time-consuming parts of creating an effective and impactful PowerPoint presentation is sourcing visuals. You know the feeling, you’ve slaved over the key messages and a Hollywood-perfect story arc, only for Google image search to bring up terrible clichés, shockingly naff stock photography and graphical devices that should have been left in the 90s.
One option is to use a decent photography site in the first place. Many have great integrations with PowerPoint, and others offer regular free images which should be saved so you build up a library of useful shots yourself.
The second option is to use your own photography. Since everyone has a pretty powerful camera on their phone, and a very simple way of getting that digital image into PowerPoint, there really are no excuses. Product shots, event photography and team images are best captured by professionals, but for many presentations there’s no photography budget or, more likely, no time – you need something now. Creating it yourself is often the fastest solution.
Plus, there’s also a certain charm with using images that are clearly “The Presenter’s Own” – but please not the holiday photos…
However, now there’s a third way – Prisma.
If you’ve not seen Prisma, you must be taking a summer social media detox, since it’s all over our feeds on Facebook, Instagram and occasionally Twitter. It’s become a smash hit by giving users an extensive and completely free range of filters which turn regular snaps into something resembling a work of art. Think Lichtenstein, Munch or Mondrian.
And it does it really, REALLY well.
Suddenly your entire back catalogue of photos has the potential to be beautiful image, which is great for your Facebook feed, but even better for your presentations.
Take this stock image – exactly the sort of thing I try to avoid in my slide decks.
Now look at what a few of the Prisma filters can do – suddenly it’s not quite so cringeworthy. Perhaps even usable. Imagine what you could do with a great image in the first place.
Plus, the consistent use of a single filter across an entire presentation does a great job at creating a consistent look and feel, even if the source photos are wildly different.
So, no more excuses for bad images in PowerPoint presentations. And please, no more lightbulbs to represent ‘innovation’, with or without Prisma!
