Simply displaying digital photos can become quite boring during a presentation, depending on the number of photos. In this blog post, you'll learn about some ways to create visually appealing presentations of your photos that will capture your audience's attention.
It's important to remember that these design suggestions also depend on your company's corporate identity and the presentation style within your organization. Furthermore, the content and topic of the presentation play a crucial role in choosing a suitable photo layout.
The following examples will be shown to you:
- Put photos into a filmstrip
- Combination with isolated silhouettes
- Artistic photo design
- Working with transparency
- SmartArt and Photos
- Torn-out / cut-out photos
1) Put photos into a filmstrip
You can present photos impressively within a film strip. Even though this analog film technique no longer exists, everyone is familiar with this design.
Option 1:
Create a black rectangle and add smaller, white rectangles with rounded corners to the top and bottom edges to symbolize the filmstrip. Now all you have to do is insert your photos. The image format isn't crucial for the visual symbolism of the representation, so you can use both 4:3 and 16:9 photos. TIP: If you need to reposition the fully filled filmstrip later, group all the elements as a precaution.
Option 2:
If you insert the photos individually into a filmstrip, you can better distribute them across the film and also use them optimally in portrait format.
2) Combination with isolated silhouettes
Distinctive silhouettes create a striking design. Combining these silhouettes with photos results in appealing new graphics.
Option 1:
Combine a photo (in this case, of the Reichstag in Berlin) with a silhouette of some Berlin landmarks. The photo can be inserted via > Fill > File or > Clipboard . Depending on the color scheme of your slides, the silhouette can remain white or be color-matched to the rest of the presentation design.
A) The silhouette is white, thus creating a certain openness to the overall foil – however, due to the lack of a bottom edge, it also appears somewhat torn.
B) If the silhouette is given a color, the photo appears more cohesive overall.
As you can see, the visual impression can vary greatly, and the final choice of which design is preferred lies with the viewer.
Option 2:
A good effect is achieved if you also establish a spatial connection with the photo.
A) The finished graphic depicts a Berlin motif, and the outline of the Berlin city limits creates an additional spatial reference.
B) The surface was created as an individual shape based on a template.
C) This is what the original photo looks like. Depending on the size of the area, you need to make sure that the important part of the image is within that area. Therefore, choose a photo that completely fills the area and contains all the important elements.
Option 2:
Besides spatial reference, a metaphor can sometimes be suitable for relating photos. The keyword sequence 'head / brain / thinking' has been appropriately applied in the following illustration.
A simple silhouette of a head has been created here. Similar to the previous example, the photo can be inserted via > Fill > File or > Clipboard .
A) The pure silhouette designed as a free form (curve).
B) Visually appealing is the use of an animation. With the animation ( Exit Effect > Fade ), the yellow fill slowly disappears and
C) The photo appears.
Option 3:
Conversely, you can use the basic shape of the head for a different type of representation.
A) Create a rectangle the size of the photo (blue area). Select the rectangle and the head.
B) Using > Drawing Tools / Format > Merge Shapes > Subtract , you cut the head shape out of the rectangle. The head shape essentially represents a 'hole', a blank space.
A) After that, you just need to place the original photo behind this shape.
B) This head template has the advantage of being versatile and quick to reuse, as you only need to replace the underlying photo.
3) Artistic design of photos
Artistic manipulation or distortion of images can also be a means of capturing the viewer's attention. If the viewer sees something ambiguous or doesn't immediately understand what is depicted, they must look more closely and concentrate on the object! This effect can be achieved, for example, with the "fading" effect, in which the photograph appears gradually.
In the next example, six different photo display options have been selected. Select a photo and then go to > Picture Tools / Format > Artistic Effects to access the drop-down menu shown here. This will allow you to immediately see how the selected photo would look in each display mode.
This is how the six examples came about:
A) Luminous effect: Chalk sketch
B) Lighting effect: Glass
C) Glow effect: Pencil sketch
D) Lighting effect: Edges
E) Lighting effect: Silhouette
F) Lighting effect: Bright screen
In the next example, six different photo display options have been selected. Select a photo and then go to > Picture Tools / Format > Artistic Effects to access the drop-down menu shown here. This will allow you to immediately see how the selected photo would look in each display mode.
In the next example, six different photo display options have been selected. Select a photo and then go to > Picture Tools / Format > Artistic Effects to access the drop-down menu shown here. This will allow you to immediately see how the selected photo would look in each display mode.
Increase the suspense even further by using animation. Place your original image behind the artistically altered photo. Then, use the "artistic photo" function to slowly fade away > Exit Animation > Fade .
The next image shows what this can look like. Depending on how much you say about each photo in your presentation, you adjust the duration of the effect. (You can, of course, proceed in the same way with all the variations shown above.)
A) Initially, the viewer only sees the 'art image'.
B) Then it slowly disappears.
C) Shortly before the effect is complete, the 'art image' can only be vaguely discerned.
Another option is to work with the sketch-like variations. If you also fade these in slowly, you achieve a different, interesting effect, as the contrast between the black and white drawing and the colored detail is very appealing.
A) The photo uses the > glow effect: pencil sketch
B) Secondly, the > luminous effect: chalk sketch
C) During the animation, a portion of the original photo appears. This area has been selected using > Image Tools / Format > Crop . You can now decide whether to display the rest (entire) original image or leave it with this appealing rendering. Depending on the subject, this blended rendering can also look attractive without the animation.
You can proceed in the same way if you first blur the background image using > Blur .
A) First, the photo is shown completely blurred.
B) Then the detailed view of the central object appears. (It is of course possible to display the complete original photo afterwards.)
C) In this variant, the blurred background image is also changed in color (gray) in addition to being blurred.
Even with seemingly more extreme depictions, interesting effects can be achieved in combination with the original photo.
A) The original photo is modified with the > glow effect edges .
B) Nevertheless, the color tones can still be further edited. Here , > Gray, accent color 3 light was chosen.
C) You can lighten the previous version even further with > Light gray, background color 2 light .
D) The already familiar detail section of the original photo then refocuses on the essentials in the last image.
4) Working with transparency
Adding transparent areas to a photo isn't always straightforward. Often, it's more practical to overlay a suitably designed shape onto the photo. However, even this approach requires some experience with setting the gradient stop areas.
A) A rectangle of identical size was placed over the photo. Then a gradient was applied with a direction away from the center. While the respective gradient stops and settings are visible in the image, these values (quality, color, black and white, intensity, etc.) cannot be directly applied to every photo. The image properties and how you want to apply transparency or gradients are crucial for the settings.
B) Instead of black paint, white was used here.
C) Ring-shaped structures are also possible and increase (depending on the motif) the appeal of the image.
D) This is what the pure, separated form of example A) looks like without the original photo.
You can, of course, customize these color gradients individually with simple white gradations at the edges.
A) Route only from above.
B) Course from top to bottom.
C) Route only from the right side.
D) Route from the bottom left corner.
5) SmartArt and photos
There are, of course, many ways to present multiple photos. For example, you can arrange the photos freely on the slide according to your own wishes. But there is a recommended and time-saving alternative.
The easiest way is to integrate the photos into SmartArt. This is very quick, as you can continue working on the slide immediately after inserting the photos. Let's say you want to present three photos.
A) Mark all three photos.
B) Select a design that matches the theme or content of the slide via > Picture Tools / Format > Picture Layout .
Depending on which layout example you hover your mouse over in the drop-down menu, the three photos will be arranged accordingly. This allows you to make the right selection effortlessly.
A) Every design naturally has a specific name that roughly describes the presentation and can be archived for documentation purposes.
B) Then click on the design with the mouse button. The three photos will now be arranged in this way.
Don't be confused by the layouts displayed in the drop-down menu. If you've selected more photos than are shown in the preview, this template will be adjusted accordingly in the SmartArt layouts.
A) The same procedure was now carried out with four photos.
B) If the photos are too small after selecting the template, you can enlarge the SmartArt display. All standard editing options for SmartArt will then apply.
The next image shows further options for arranging your photos. The variations are already quite diverse, and by further processing them as a group, you can develop your own style. Below are three examples of interesting SmartArt layouts for photos and text:
A) Hexagon cluster
B) Broken image caption list
C) Wrapped semi-transparent image text
You can also use this approach via SmartArt to adjust or change photos (for example, in size).
A) On the left you see the SmartArt graphic. Select the graphic.
B) Via > SmartArt Tools / Design > Convert (top right of the ribbon) > Convert to Shapes, all elements are changed to standard shapes. A group is created automatically.
C) Now you can delete individual elements or resize/modify them as desired. You will see the group highlighted as a frame. For further processing, you can ungroup the elements. (This is useful, for example, if you have designed all photos as individual squares and want to remove the text boxes in order to then resize the square photos.)
6) Torn-out / cut-out photos
You can also give the photos a design that makes the images look as if they have been cut or torn out of a magazine.
For a rectangle shape, add more points via > Edit Points to symbolize the cutting edge. TIP: The finer you make these points, the more realistic it will look. Then, insert the photo as the fill. To ensure a precise fit, you can move and resize the image using > Picture Tools / Format > Crop > Fit .
A) This technique is very frequently used in the presentation of newspaper clippings, quotations, or project reports.
B) Instead of text, a photo has now been inserted.
C) If you add the jagged line to all four sides, the graphic will look more like it's been cut out. A shadow emphasizes the cutout.
You can achieve a much finer, jagged line by selecting > Shape > Sketch instead of the usual line or curve, and then freely drawing the contour with the mouse button pressed. This method comes even closer to the look of a torn-out section.
A) This shape was created with > sketch
B) Then, another example text was inserted.
C) The photo also appears much more 'torn out'. Furthermore, a shadow has been added again to achieve the paper look.
We hope you enjoy trying it out!