Where to Find the Right Images for Your Next Presentation
I do a lot of presenting. Some people tell me that’s all I should do. I enjoy it. And with lots and lots of practice and training (debate in college, Toastmasters, media training from Edelman Worldwide, etc.), I guess I have gotten good at it.
One thing that I have found to really help a presentation is great images. They can infuse humor, creativity, and personality into an otherwise dry subject matter. They can engage the audience, and they can serve as great speaking cues for those of us who prefer fewer words on our slides whenever possible.
I’ll often spend more time on selecting and modifying my imagery than I do on the words on the slide. After all – isn’t a picture worth a thousand words?
So where do you go to find that perfect image? I get that question a lot, so I have provided here a list of my favorite resources and a few more that come highly recommended by others.I hope you find it helpful. I would be very interested to learn of other resources that you may have used successfully that aren’t mentioned below.
Pretty inexpensive – but good
iStockphoto.com: $1USD for low-resolution images; $2-3 for high-resolution images. I use this one most often.
Creative Express: (Getty Images). With Getty’s Creative Express you can buy one-month or one-year subscriptions and download up to 50 images a day. The Express catalog has 75,000 Getty images.
Fotolia : $1-3USD per image. (A great assortment of images related to money).
Dreams Time: $1USD or so for high-resolution images if you are a member
Shutterstock : 750 royalty-free downloads per month for a $139USD subscription.
Stockxpert: Great pricing and wonderful images in a very usable site. Uses a credit system.
ShutterMap: $1- $4USD for high-resolution images
Free - but still not bad at all
Stock.xchng: Almost 200,000 photos with some great ones for those willing to dig a little
Everystockphoto: Over 280,000 free photos
Morgue File
Flickr’s Creative Commons pool
ImageAfter
Studio25: Digital Resource Bank
