One of the current design crazes is the subtle mirrored reflection of an image. With PowerPoint 2007 you can be a hip and trendy designer effortlessly with its built in reflection features!
There are a number of preset reflections which vary the intensity of the reflection as well as the distance between the bottom edge and start of reflection.
– Troy @ TLC
Here again, is a great feature that eliminates time spent in Photoshop prepping images! A variety of bevel effects can be applied to any image – here are two:
A variety of bevel effects can instantly be applied with the presets:
I am going to cover the advanced settings in detail a bit later, but the bevel feature really lends itself to using the advanced settings, which is the menu opened when the “3D Options” is selected. It offers lots of customization options:
– Troy @ TLC
A glow is similiar to a drop shadow – soft feathered edge, any color, etc. The difference is a glow uniformly goes around the entire image vs. offset on 1 or 2 sides. Here is our sample image with a blue glow applied.
– Troy @ TLC
One of the great decisions on the Microsoft design team was to make most features have a set of presets – the most common ways to use that feature (of course the better would be to allow the user to also develop and add their own creations to the presets).
To access the shadow presets:
Select an image >> go to the FORMAT tab >> PICTURE EFFECTS >> SHADOW
– Troy @ TLC
As shown a few posts ago on text, PowerPoint 2007 has vastily improved drop shadows! Now we are able to create a nice “photoshop” feathered shadow. Here is our sample image with drop shadow applied:
This is a true soft feathered edge shadow:
With this one feature I have eliminated lots of time preparing images in PhotoShop!
– Troy @ TLC
Just like a shape, an image can be used for the fill on text. Here is an example where I selected the text desired and filled with an abstract image that becomes further abstract by being stretched across the width of the selected text and compressed to just the height of the text.
Just like previous examples, this remains editable text and is applied to select text within one text box.
– Troy @ TLC
Many years ago for images in our projects we relied on $300-500 per disk photo CDs and for vector art things like the 20 CD ClickArt 1 Million collection. Well, ClickArt is back – and now online.
Although it features lots of photo images, they are relatively small at 800px wide and 72 dpi. The offering is wide, with many having those same 80/90’s fashions I remember from use years ago. But many are ultra new and even the same images I have pulled from sources like Photos.com (of course much smaller file size here).
And if you need vector art (aka: clip art or line art), having a searchable database and unlimited downloads for a year is worth the price!
As for price, they are currently offering a 1 year, unlimited download for only $40.00!!
Click here to check out all the details.
– Troy @ TLC
If you have bunch of images to insert into a presentation, but some are rotated (ie. taken in vertical layout with a digital camera) they can easily be rotated BEFORE inserting into the presentation.
1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Set View to thumbnail or filmstrip
3. Select image(s) to rotate
4. Right-click and choose the rotation (clockwise or counter clockwise) needed
– Troy @ TLC
This free application from Microsoft has some great uses. Basically it does exactly what the name implies, it adds the ability to resize images. But this one is accessible from a right-click on any image.
It is a limited use application, in that it offers only four preset image sizes. If you click the ‘Advanced’ button it also offers the ability to set a custom size. Another nice feature is you can select multiple image files and convert all to a new size as a batch process.
You can get more info and download from here.
– Troy @ TLC
This is a nifty online (and free) application. I recently used it for an awards show image where the first photo of the recipient was a mosaic and then the ‘real’ photo faded in to reveal who won the award. I did this sample of my daughter for the blog.
Here is a close-up that shows how the original image is converted to 1,000s of images that recreate the photo as a mosaic.
Give it a try at the “Image Mosaic Generator” here.
– Troy @ TLC