If you’ve read any recent book on improving your presentations, you’re probably already thinking that you need to get more photographs into your slides. Photos can add to your presentation’s message, connecting directly with your audience without having to wade through yet another slide of bullet points.

It’s compelling, and yet for so many presentation authors, a scary proposition.  Make no mistake, just inserting photographs in your slides is not a sure-fire cure for your presentation blues. And whether you’re creating or buying, eventually using photos as slide content is an art.

However, it’s not an art out of reach.

This episode we invite professional photographer and computer graphics expert Mark Jaremko to the mics for a roundtable conversation about the pitfalls of using photographs in presentations, and advice about how you can avoid them.  And as a bonus, we’re joined by Howard Cooperstein, another talented graphics professional and good friend who you may recall from our first episode!

Clockwise from left: Ric Bretschneider and Howard Cooperstein at the mics, and Mark Jaremko enjoying our pre-podcast dinner. Photo of Mark Jaremko by Ric Bretschneider. (Which is why it’s not as good as the other photos which are by Mark Jaremko.)

It’s great to sit down at the mics with a couple of friends, and we had a terrific time putting together one of the best roundtable recordings yet.

Hope you enjoy this episode.  -Ric

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And for those who’ve been paying attention, the outtakes for this episode start at 56:30. 

Photographs lend much to any presentation. Watch the room relax as the presenter moves from their fifth bulleted list in a row to a full screen photographic metaphor. Most any presentation expert will comment on how people learn and respond more positively to illustrations, especially photographs.

Great, so you’re convinced.  You’ve decided to jump into using photographs as a substantial part of your presentation content.  So how do you avoid creating a presentation reminiscent of the neighbor who tortured your parents with those carousel rings full of vacation slides from Indiana? (No offense intended to our Hoosier friends.)

Well, next episode we invite professional photographer and computer graphics expert Mark Jaremko to the mics for a roundtable conversation about the pitfalls of using photographs in presentations, and advice about how you can avoid them.  We’ll be joined by… well, that’s a surprise.  This episode features the return engagement by a Presentations Roundtable favorite contributor. 

Join us in a few days for this Picture Perfect Podcast.

Mark Jaremko shooting off Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay
Photograph by Ric Bretschneider