Charles G. Goldman, Executive Vice President of Schwab Institutional, leads the opening general session of the Charles Schwab conference for independent financial advisers.
“There can be no words without images.“
– Aristotle
More than any other technological innovation, computers are responsible for the explosion in images. Today, 20 percent of the U.S. population can use a computer. But 80 percent of school-age children have learned to become computer literate. By the turn of the century, Sculley predicts that 98 percent of all the words and pictures created worldwide will be computer-mediated.
By then, virtual reality—the ultimate fusion of computer and television technologies in which viewers become active users of the medium—will be inexpensive and accessible. Educational psychologist Jerome Bruner of New York University cites studies showing that people only remember ten percent of what they hear, 30 percent of what they read, and about 80 percent of what they see and do.
When all members of society, whether at home, in school, or on the job, learn to use computers for word and picture processing, the switch will be from passive watching to active using. There will no longer be a barrier between the two symbolic structures. Words and pictures will become a powerful, memorable mode of communication.
Visual forms of communication grab the attention of today’s audiences. Graphic representations such as diagrams, charts, tables, illustrations, and photographs catch the eye and draw the viewer into the presented information. Corporate communication departments that took advantage of this visual revolution early on are today’s leaders in the communication field. They saw this “explosion in images” coming and jumped aboard.
Endless, long blocks of type spread across pages are rarely read. Early editors discovered a visual tool that cured this ill: they broke the copy into short, more manageable paragraphs that didn’t intimidate or bore their audience.
Today, many no longer read traditional text. Just taking brochures from the past and posting them to the web will not get the message out. Okay, if it’s true that skilled use of visuals improves communication, and if expertise in this area seems like a foreign language… what then? We’d probably take classes to learn a foreign language, so to become proficient in using visuals, perhaps we should study art, photography, or theater at the local community college. This is one way to learn how the masters in these fields used visuals.
Mr. Bean was a British comedy television series starring Rowan Atkinson. Bean, an almost totally silent character, used physical comedy to entertain. The series did well internationally because words were not crucial to its success. Instead of brainstorming an idea, try playing a game of Charades to express what needs to be communicated about that idea—the game forces thinking in visual terms. Pictionary is a board game where teams try to guess specific words from their teammates’ drawings. More than Charades, Pictionary requires forming mental pictures. Both games provide a fun way to practice visualization.
Here are Ten Tips to consider when using images:
1. Humanize—Illustrate how products affect people. For example, to show how small something is, put it in someone’s hand rather than using a ruler. If something improves lives, show it doing just that. Today, the trend is to use a more photojournalistic approach or, at least, to make it look photojournalistic. To ensure the expressions are genuine, set up a situation, give it enough time, and it can become real.
2. Good Lighting—Sometimes, natural light is perfect. Cut the flash off and use a higher ISO for the available light. Remember that whatever has the most light on it will become the main subject.
2008 Charles Schwab conference for independent financial advisers
3. Try Black and white. Some war photographers feel that color may make even war look pretty. Black and white is a good way to focus attention on faces and graphics.
4. Get Closer – Almost any photo will be better closer up.
5. Watch the background – Look around the subject. Be sure nothing is growing out of the head or sticking in from the edge of the frame. Use a shallow depth-of-field like ƒ/2 versus using ƒ/16 to make your subject stand out from the background. If the background helps tell the story, increase the depth-of-field using f16 or f22, or vary the background between fuzzy and sharp.
6. Consider a worm’s eye view or a bird’s eye view. Shoot really low or high above the subject. Change the height of the camera in relation to the subject; avoid taking all the photos from a standing position.
7. Turn off the date stamp—Digital cameras embed the time and date in the photo information, so printing them on the photo is unnecessary.
8. Variety—Take plenty of photos from different angles. In addition to using the zoom, get closer and farther away from the subject. Take wide-angle and close-up images. Try some without flash, some with direct flash, and bounced flash.
9. Give it time—Take a few photos, then stop for a few minutes. Let the subject get used to being photographed. After a while, they’ll relax, and the incredible images will start happening.
10. Action and posed –Show the subject doing what they do. Let them do their job and make lots of pictures. Pose them for a good portrait, not just a headshot, but do an environmental portrait showing their work environment, or signage of the place they work in the background or foreground.
11. File Size Matters – You can always downsize an image but can’t do much to upsize the image. Many think they can get more images on their SD or CF card by changing the file size, and you can. The problem is that unless you use the photo for more than an avatar or profile picture on Facebook, you cannot make prints or use it in printed pieces. Use RAW or at least the highest JPEG at the finest setting possible for your camera. You might have to find the owner’s manual to do this for your camera.
Many other ways than these can improve visual communication. Like everything worth doing, visual skills come from doing… from practice.
Think about it this way: Who will SEE your message today?