A client of mine needed images of people to make his presentation come alive. But he couldn’t find the diversity he needed. And he’s in the field of education, which has more females than males. So I came up with 4 ways to find the people images presenters need.
1) Take Your Own Photos
Go around your office and ask people if you can photograph them. That way, you’ll get a representative group. Usually, people are happy to oblige, but give them time to spruce themselves up!
2) Use Silhouettes
Silhouettes are great when you don’t want too much detail. In this way, the audience can imagine the diversity. If you search PowerPoint’s image library for “silhouette,” you’ll find an excellent selection if you’re willing to scroll through all the sports silhouettes.
You can break up some of the images (crop them down to one person) and use the Remove Background feature to leave only the silhouette.
Geetesh Bajaj at Indezine.com also has a great selection of silhouettes. Use the search box on Geetesh’s website to search for “silhouette” and you’ll discover a great resource.
3) Create Icons
You can create your own modern icons that can be gender and color neutral. I have a blog post showing one idea here.
4) Buy Photos
If you’re willing to spend some money, you can usually find a wide range of photos that suit your purposes. I like BigStockPhoto for its great selection and reasonable prices.
About the Author:
Ellen Finkelstein is a noted presentation design consultant and trainer, a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP and author of top-selling books in the presentations field. For more information, visit http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/
