The Image of Success

The quality of documents and PowerPoint presentations is rising all the time. One feature that is continuously improving is the use of photographs. Everyone used to use clipart, but that is now old hat. But how do you source good quality photos? 

Many of you may already know one of the best sources of free pictures – Google Images – but it can be easy to overlook. Have you ever noticed the word ‘Images’ above the main search box? (You’ll also find it in a similar place on MSN). All you need to do is click on the word and then enter the name of the subject matter in the search box.

You may be amazed by the choice of pictures available. However, be aware that many images on the web have quite a low resolution. All of the images show sizes: below 10kb may be okay if you only need small pictures, but look for larger ones if you want to expand the picture at all. It’s often a straightforward case of trial and error. 

If Google doesn’t have what you want, or you need better quality images, try www.istockphoto.com or www.gettyimages.co.uk. With these, you will unfortunately have to pay – but iStockPhotos works out at less than US$1 per download for the lowest resolution images. These are typically 250kb jpegs, so they should be fine for presentation purposes. 

A very useful website that contains links to a vast array of images is ‘Finding Images Online’ (www.berinsteinresearch.com/fiolinks.htm). This was set up this year by Paula Berinstein, and provides an alphabetical guide to a host of different collections of images, covering a huge range of subjects.