Properly enlarge photos during presentations without loss of quality
Description of the technology
With the advancement of digital photography, presentations increasingly incorporate photos on a wide range of topics. These photos or graphics are often quite large, requiring manual resizing on the slide. Frequently, these images are then individually enlarged during the presentation using the zoom effect (Zoom In/Zoom Out) . As a rule, the result is blurry despite high megapixel counts. However, there's a trick to achieve optimal image quality. A basic trick: Don't resize the photo yourself; let PowerPoint do it automatically. Internally, PowerPoint will then calculate the megapixel count differently. In this example, you see the same photo twice.
Both images are now enlarged by 250%. Although they are identical originals, clear differences in sharpness are visible in the details.
The left photo was edited in the conventional manner as follows:
- Insert graphic from hard drive onto slide
- Interactively, it was resized to the desired size using the mouse and placed in the intended location.
- Using the "Insert Image" function from the hard drive, it was also placed on the slide.
- Now, the photo is placed where it should later be positioned, and the mouse is used ONLY to resize it to the size the image should have after being enlarged.
- Now apply the highlight effect to this photo > Reduce > 40% (or a similar value. Unfortunately, you will need to experiment a bit to find the right value. This will also vary depending on the megapixel count of the photo, its size, and the desired enlargement).
- You specify the duration of this reduction as 0.01 seconds.
- To make this reduction completely invisible to the viewer, place a white rectangle over this part of the slide.
- Then apply the highlight effect to BOTH photos > Zoom In / Zoom Out > 250% .
- You will surely notice the difference immediately.
This technique is also useful when you need to enlarge sections of maps or similar images. Here, a high level of detail is particularly important to clearly identify local features, and blurriness looks very unfortunate. An enlargement can look much better even if it's slightly blurry (left) or even blurry (right).
The more you enlarge a photo or similar image, the more indistinct and blurry the content becomes. If you want to display a graphic much larger, always position it at its final size and let PowerPoint do the work. If a single reduction isn't sufficient, simply perform several steps in succession!
Another example will make the difference and the technique even clearer. A section of the head of the saint's figure was cut out from an original photograph (see above).
This section was then duplicated. The left image was then resized to its original size using the mouse (shown on the left in the next image), while the right image was also manually enlarged to the desired size using the mouse (shown on the right in the image).
Now apply the effect > Reduce > 25% to the right image.
Repeat this process and apply the effect > Reduce > 25% to the right image again.
After that, both sections are the same size.
Now, in the Effect Options menu, apply the effect > Zoom In > 1500% to BOTH cropped areas.
The difference is even more pronounced in this case!
At first, this method seems somewhat cumbersome, but after a few attempts you will understand the procedure and the result will reward the effort!
The problem with foreground and background when animating multiple photos on one slide
Notes on the layer concept in PowerPoint
If you've typically used relatively few objects on a slide in the past, then you're probably not yet familiar with the different positions of objects in animations. This doesn't refer to placement in the sense of a bird's-eye view (view from above), but rather that each object also lies on top of another object (view from the side). Objects 1-5 appear to be next to each other on the slide – if you move them slightly, you'll see that the objects are also layered on top of each other.
One tool that many users aren't familiar with is the Selection Pane. You can access it via > Drawing Tools > Format > Selection Pane . This menu shows you all (!) objects on the slide. In the next image, object 3 is selected, and the gray bar in the menu shows its position in the layers, i.e., ABOVE objects 1 and 2, and BELOW objects 4 and 5.
The eye-like buttons on the right-hand side allow you to hide individual objects. This is very helpful. Sometimes you have many objects on the slide and need to change one object (e.g., text) from the bottom layer – then you can hide all other objects and thus have the option of easily correcting the single object.
By the way: If you click on an object in this menu twice in succession, you can easily rename the object here.
Now imagine that each of the five objects moves towards the center, enlarging, and then retreats again. However, due to the objects' positions, a different object is obscured each time.
To avoid this unsightly appearance, work with two identical objects positioned directly on top of each other. When the animation is about to play, the lower object disappears and the object with the effect appears simultaneously – without the viewer noticing. Apply the effects to the other objects in the same way.
Then the animation looks as desired, and the moving object is always in the foreground.
You then work with digital images in a similar way.
Variation of this solution
Do you have enough space on the slide? If so, you might be able to work around this problem. Simply place the endpoint of a (perhaps curved) animation path far enough away from the other photos so that the images don't overlap.Animations with photos
Some tips for animation with photos/graphics
Starting with version 2010, moving graphics or photos appear jerky (this wasn't the case in version 2007). However, the slower the animations, the less jerky they appear! Sometimes the following also helps:- Compress graphics
- Try a different image format
- Graphic not wider than slide page
- Solve with a different animation
- Sometimes the location of the graphic plays a role.
- Turn hardware accelerator on or off
A visual highlight is the use of the "Lights" feature. To achieve a visually correct separation, place the identical photo again within the shape (here, a rounded rectangle). For the image to fit precisely, you must adjust the orientation so that the crop is exactly correct.
Panoramic images
The excessive width of panoramic photos makes them difficult to display and animate. Many users use an animation path to slowly slide them across the slide.- Make sure that in the path's effect options, under > Glide Start > Glide End, no times have been set and the slider is on the left. Only then will the glide be smooth and even.
- Often it is better to place the panoramic photo outside the slide and then use the entrance effect > Fly In to move it over the slide.
Printout of slides
Photos, and especially scientific graphics, are often used to emphasize the content of a topic. However, these can be distracting when printed, and printing costs increase with large print runs. You can avoid this. Place the graphics outside the slide and use an animation path to bring them in and out of the slide when clicked. Have fun and good luck trying it out!An overview of our "Image Editing in PowerPoint" series:
- Image editing in PowerPoint – Knowledge level 1 (inserting & editing images, cropping, resolution, image effects, etc.)
- Image editing in PowerPoint – Knowledge level 2 (creating photo clip art, combining photos with shapes)
- Image editing in PowerPoint – Knowledge level 3 (Animations with images)
- Image editing in PowerPoint – Knowledge level 4 (Inserting images into SmartArt graphics, PowerPoint photo album)
- Image editing in PowerPoint – Knowledge level 5 (Creating visually unusual images, inserting maps, extra tips)