Four Slides on Stock vs. Authentic Images
Well, I’ve posted up on Picking Up The Gauntlet at dy/dan and gotten no response. Perhaps folks really don’t want to weed though a 45-60 minute preso to see if my slides and audio go well together, so in the interest of getting feed back, here is a shorter bit:
These slides all come from a recent presentation on presentations I did for my district.
First up, the next two slides are part of a section on simplifying what you ask for from kids in their presentations and multi-media reports. I start with this image:
then this one as a contrast:
Now, the interesting thing is sometimes I get a response from folks indicating they prefer the second image. This could be that their taste is all in their mouth. There is a whole industry of lawn gnome sculpture built around this particular taste, but maybe they like an overgrown cottage garden, and loathe the symmetry and perfection of the single rose image. It’s just too slick for them. I realize this is an argument going back to the Romantic Movement, and has probably never ended.
So I think the first slide shows where I might have slipped up by being “too slick” Both slides were from flickr cc, and I think this was a pretty appropriate source for an image about the topic, I just might have made a better selection in the case of the first one.
Now, in the next pair, I took the opposite view, and “created” my own. I used this first image to show the “rule of thirds”:
This is from a picture of my son, Leroy. My poor family gets to be “subjects” for a lot of my work. Now, this is NOT a perfect rule of thirds photo, but it let me point out what would have made it perfect (his eye hitting that first “power point”, his mouth at the second), without intimidating the bejeezuz out of my audience. In comparison, we have this:
I was generously offered an example like this from Six Minutes Blog , but eschewed it. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was probably the right choice because it’s almost too perfect.
Links
Picking Up The Gauntlet
Dan’s post where volunteers put up their work
My examples offered for critique
Blogging in Elementary
Tech in Tutoring
On PowerPoint
Just One Example: Stock Photography
The post on Dy/Dan that got it started
I’m working on it. Give me a few days.
One quality vs quantity option which might be easier to pitch. I just picked a fairly gross looking option from cakewrecks, browse around there are lots that are worse.
I don’t find the first image of the rose particularly beautiful to represent quality. Perhaps a more natural looking picture of a rose on the vine would look better. The text is also a little fancy for my taste and I’m wondering if just using the words “quality” and “quantity” on the respective slides would make your point. As a matter of design, I also wonder if it’s acceptable to put all creative commons license on a final credit slide and keep them off of the presentation slides.
I think using your son to illustrate the rule of thirds is effective and engaging because it’s personal to you.
@mathew, I don’t think text will do it alone, BUT your echoing a sense I’ve had that the rose pic was not cutting it for the job asked. @tom The cake wrecks could be an option, or could run into the same problem. They are good for quantity not equating to quality, but what would be a good example?
On sharing photo of son, it is personal to me, but is it a good pic? I may not be objective about that.
What I was trying to do was show a really incredible single cupcake (quality – link 1) and then a large ugly cake for quantity (link 2).
Maybe it’s not obvious enough that it’s a cupcake. I’d probably take this version or some other single cupcake and make it small and in the corner and then switch to a large messy looking cake on the next slide.
What about something like a bonsai for quality? It’s something that people put a lot of work into, a little at a time (making your point about working hard on one thing), and can be quite beautiful without the symmetry inherent in a rose. My $0.02, anyway.
@tom: I hear ya now. I’ll try it…
@ianH: I’ll try that one too…
Then I’ll post it up with Mathew text only?
Thanks all!
I might not have been clear…I would keep the image e.g. a rose and just put the word “quantity” instead of the longer string of text. So I’m not saying text only…I’m just saying one image and one word.