Photo Tips San Diego Underwater Photographic Society

Monthly Photo Tip

5 Steps to a Better Slide Show Presentation by Judith Garfield Creating a slide show demands the wearing of many hats. Focusing a little extra effort on each aspect will in the end mean a presentation that goes beyond just okay to one that's really great and memorable: 1. Speaking: Use a tape recorder to hear how you speak so you can avoid a monotone voice, use of ahhhs and other filler words, speaking to fast, etc. Memorize your introduction. When you look at your audience--and not your notes--you make a warm connection and increase your credibility as well. 2. Writing: For your intro, use Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How to organize your thoughts. Make every sentence count. Show enthusiasm through description. Avoid speaking about subjects not in your show. The audience will spend the whole time wondering when pictures of them will appear. If speaking during slide viewing, avoid stating the obvious but feel free to give the audience new information (e.g., viewers can see a nudibranch is yellow but they may not know it's half the size of their little finger). 3. Music: Using a musical piece just because you like it is not a good enough reason. The music should help carry your message and create a mood. Go to UCSD library and use the headsets to listen to different kinds of music and music made with various instruments to determine what best mimics the feeling of your show and your message. 4. Story: 1.) Have an angle. Why did you choose to dive a particular place? Seems obvious but if you don't know, your audience won't get it either, and you won't have a compelling show.

"My trip to Fiji" is not a story line. "Searching for sunken treasure in Fuji" is...so is "Stalking the spotted butterflyfish in Fiji." 2.) Maintain a thread throughout your show. Premise: "Dreaming of what the u/w world was like when I was a kid." Treatment: Show a couple of slides of a child coloring pictures of local marine scenes; drop a bunch of u/w slides in the carousel; end the slide show with a picture of the little kid still coloring. The premise is not maintained, and the audience is lost. Audiences need to be reminded what the show's premise is DURING the presentation--not just in the beginning and at the end (e.g., midway, show the child coloring a garibaldi, then segue into a real garibaldi; Show the child coloring a kelp scenic and segue into the same--but real-life scenic). For an excellent example of an angle and a maintained premise, rent the video "Endless Summer." The angle is not "surfing around the world" but "searching for the perfect wave." However, they searched VIA surfing around the word. The "perfect wave" premise is carried THROUGHOUT the film. 5. Photography: Don't forget sense of place and sense of scale. Show people where you are going with wide-angle images. Demonstrating scale can be accomplished many ways: If you show a diver with a garibaldi, then show a nudibranch with a garibaldi, the audience with appreciate the size relationship. You don't need to speak like Martin Luther King, write like Rachel Carson, or understand music like Mozart. However, if you choose to improve each part of your presentation by just a few percent, your overall show will improve 100%--and your confidence will soar along with it! Stumped on an angle for your upcoming presentation? Send me an email, and let's brainstorm: judith@garfield.org

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