God in Art or Visio Divina

Rublev's icon depicts the Trinity at a table together.

Art is a powerful communication tool that often transcends words. Luckily God and the bible have inspired art throughout the centuries.

The Orthodox tradition uses icons to help focus prayer through a practice called Visio Divina or "divine seeing." It is a counterpart to the practice of Lectio Divina which uses scripture as a source of meditation and contemplation.

I like connecting the body back to ancient ways of looking at the bible and it's a helpful way to find applicable visuals for preaching through a passage.

For example, recently I preached about the woman caught in adultery in John 8. I found several paintings depicting the scene and was able to use one of them to start some conversation in the church on the topic.

Another benefit to using paintings is that they are often public domain images. When projecting an image in church we need to be aware of the copyright situation and only use works for which we have the copyright. Public domain and creative commons images have an open license that allows you to use them without having to pay royalties. You can also find royalty free stock photos (both free and paid).

You can use Google's Image search to sort the images by license type.

Typically I'll start with Google Images and look for the passage I'm preaching through. Then I'll start to narrow things down by using the name of the pericope (like "woman caught in adultery" rather than just "John 8"). Then I might need to add the word "painting" to the search string to refine the results.

Usually I'll come across a great renaissance painting of the passage that will serve as an illustration for my text. I'll often use this as the title image for my sermon. It give the audience a chance to get into the passage without giving away too much of my sermon.

This image uses dark and light to illustrate the conflict of John 8:1-11

Connecting my preaching with classic paintings helps to keep the visual people connected, reminds the church that we're part of a great cloud of witnesses who have been thinking about these passages for millennia, and gives me high-quality visuals that are public domain for no cost. 

That's pretty cool to me.

Simple Visuals

Notice how the text and the image work together to make a point. 

When presenting it can be intimidating to add visuals, especially if you don't know a lot about design. I'm working on my skills, but I'm still far from being a professional. My profession is putting words together, not images, but I can't afford to spend lots of money on design work nor can I afford to ignore the visual aspect of communication.

So, I work from a stance of simplicity.

In many sermons I'll have one slide per major point. I do that so I can still move and flow within the sermon and have something visual to help connect my ideas for the people who learn best that way.

If you're just starting out take your three point sermon and turn it into a five slide deck.

Slide 1: Title Slide - this is the title of your sermon. This slide will be up while you introduce things, read scripture, etc. It should be mostly the title of your sermon and an enticing image that invites people into your text without giving away your point.

Slide 2: Point 1 - This should be a full-bleed image (it takes up the whole slide) with one or two words that define your first point.

Slide 3: Point 2

Slide 4: Point 3

Slide 5: Title Slide - Return to your title slide for your closing remarks (and so you don't have the black screen with "End of Slideshow" at the top). Ideally there should be a sort of ah-ha moment as the image you chose clicks for the audience.

You can find some good sources for images here.

You can find some good tutorials on using PowerPoint here.

Google Image Search by License

I'm a fan of using Google Image Search to find pictures for my PowerPoint presentations. But there are legal limits to what I can use -- defined by the license on the photo -- so I need to be careful. For a long time Google just slapped a generic warning on the search results that alerted you to copyright issues. Caveat Emptor, or something like that.

Bing -- Microsoft's most recent search engine attempt to dethrone Google -- has had the ability to search images and filter the results by license since December, but now you can do the same thing in Google.

When you do an image search in Google you can filter the results by clicking on the "Search Tools" button above the results. From there you can filter by image size, color, type, time and now license type.

If you aren't getting paid for the use of the image you can use the least restrictive license type: Labeled for Reuse. From there the restrictions add up, you can have something labeled for reuse with modification, for commercial reuse or for commercial reuse with modification.

So if you want to edit a photo to use in selling your next book, you'll need the images licensed for commercial reuse with modification, but if you're giving a presentation at a non-profit and you don't plan to edit the picture you can use the images licensed for reuse.

Here are some other presentation resources that might be helpful.

What you see affects your moral judgement

Moral judgements are affected by mental images, according to an article published by NPR.

"Emotional responses don't just pop out of nowhere," Greene said. "They have to be triggered by something. And one possibility is that you hear the words describing some event, you picture that event in your mind, and then you respond emotionally to that picture."
That's the key: Some dilemmas produce vivid images in our heads. And we're wired to respond emotionally to pictures. Take away the pictures — the brain goes into rational, calculation mode.

So when a verbal description is visually stimulating - that is, it causes the hearer to imagine the situation - the moral judgement becomes emotionally driven rather than rationally driven. The dilemmas used in the study asked participants to choose if one person died or five people died. In one scenario the participant was asked to flip a switch to make the decision. In the other, they were asked to push someone off a bridge.

The physical description and the activity of pushing someone off a bridge evoked a mental image and an emotional moral response, so the participants refused to kill one person to save five. However, when all it would take is the flip of a switch and the people were not vividly described, participants chose to sacrifice one person to save five.

I believe the application can be expanded beyond picture laden words to the quality of images.

Different images provide varying levels of emotional engagement and will evoke different moral responses. Take, for example, the image at the top of this post. It shows the different legal status of human trafficking around the world. From this perspective things don't look so bad in the US. We're nowhere near as bad Asia, Africa and South America.

But look at these next images which show real people dealing with the horror of human trafficking. The first is a mix of an airline baggage tag and bound female hands. It's stark because it shows a person being imported to the US from Mexico.

What's the difference in your emotional response from the map to this picture?

This last picture is a Vietnamese woman immediately after being rescued from human trafficking. She's bruised, bloody and barely clothed. You can't see her eyes, but her demeanor is one of resignation and defeat. She's been so abused and beaten that she doesn't seem happy to be free from slavery.

What's your emotional reaction to this image?

Which image do you think would be more effective in working to stop human trafficking?

Why do you think we are so driven by emotions when a vivid image is involved?

Draw to Search for Images

My rendition of the Earth from space.

What Google thinks my rendition looks like.

 If you're looking for that perfect image, sometimes you can imagine it, but you can't find it online. Along comes the "Unofficial Google Image Search by Drawing" site. It presents you with a palette and colors and you can draw what you want to find. It's a wonderful idea, in theory. When I tested it out, however, it didn't work so well. You can see my drawing of the planet on which we resided. Not bad for using a mouse and doing it in just a few minutes (I think). But Google thinks it looks like a pie chart or the Soviet sickle and hammer. Not very helpful.

However, you can also click the "Webcam" link on the page and snap a shot from your computer's camera. I did that of a picture of the planet and Google was able to interpret things much better. But that begs the question: if I can take a picture of it, why do I need to search for a picture of it?

Webcam picture of the Earth from space
(note, it's of another picture, my computer wasn't in space).

Since this is a proof-of-concept, I think it's OK to cut them some slack. It's a cool idea and as it gets better this could offer great ways to search for images.

How would you like to search Google?

What makes it easier for you to find just the right picture?

How Google interprets the webcam picture (much better). 

Google Images

Over at Google they've made some changes to the way that Google Images handles requests. You can still enter a search request and get the most relevant images returned to you. But now they've added a new way to sort the results you get. Instead of sorting by relevance, you can sort by subject.

Click on the "Sort by Subject" link to the left of the images after you start a search and you will see the different subject for that search. For example, if you search for "Church" you'll get a categories for "Catholic Church" "Baptist Church" and "Inside Church" among others. Then you can click on the subject title to see all the images from that subject. On many of the image searches you can keep following the subject trail down to continue refining your search. If you chose the "Inside Church" subject you could get more subjects underneath that, like "People Inside Church" and "Inside Old Church."

Check out the video below to see more about the new searching features.

Fotolia

Fotolia © juanjo tugores

A couple weeks ago I was invited to review the stock photo site Fotolia. I was given a limited subscription to use trying out the service. You can see some of the images that I've used on this blog by clicking here. The value of the subscription given to me is approximately $40 per month.

Quality
The quality of the images is phenomenal. Each shot is thoroughly professional. Many of the images have a plain white or black background making them ideal for inserting into a presentation. There are many images that have already been edited (like the one appearing to the right for example) to produce some nice effects. I bet you can't guess why I liked this one.

Quantity

The number of images available is huge. I haven't run out in the short time that I've been searching through the database. It's obvious that the main focus for Fotolia is the business sector. You'll find the majority of the images are people in business suits or other business-type images. It's not bad, but if you want something else you may need to dig a bit deeper to find the right fit.

There is a good selection of religiously themed images available as well as images that appropriate for illustrating Biblical passages. I found the image to the left when searching for images to go with Psalm 23.

Searching
I found that searching was tolerable. The images are labeled with tags which then give you keywords to search with the ever-present search box. That's fine and par for the course, but the keywords are applied liberally to pictures so you might get some odd results when searching. One trick I found was to use some search modifiers. So I could search for "happy" but that might bring up to many babies for what I'm wanting so I would add "-babies" to the end then re-search. Using the minus sign and words I wanted to exclude helped. However they don't support wildcards (* and ?) so you will have to exclude each keyword specifically (e.g. "-babies" "-baby").

Browsing
I'm including this as a separate section from searching since finding the right picture will always require looking at them. Fotolia has a nice feature that allows you to see a thumbnail for the images but then if you hover your mouse over the image for a moment a larger preview will pop up. You can scan to see the pictures that you like then pause on them to get a better view. It makes browsing through lots of pictures much easier. One glitch in this feature shows up in the Google Chrome web browser. If the pop-up goes off the edge of the web browser area to the right then a side-to-side scroll bar will appear at the bottom, but then it doesn't go away when you move on. It doesn't interfere with future previews, but the thumbnails under the scroll bar are obscured. Annoying but not a deal-breaker.

Downloading
Grabbing the images is a multi-step process. First click the image, then click the download link. If you're not using a subscription you will choose the size of the image here. Then check-out from the next page before you're ready to click the download link to get your photo. I understand the need for all the steps since they serve both subscribers and ala carte customers, but when downloading multiple images the process feels a little clumsy and protracted. Again, a mild annoyance, but nothing the keep you away from the service.

Pricing
Subscription plans start at $199 a month for one user to download up to 25 images a day. That's not bad if you're grabbing tons of photos. But if you just need one or two images it might be a better deal to buy them one at a time. You can buy the images for as little a $0.75 apiece. That size would be OK for a blog post, but wouldn't be great for a PowerPoint presentation. Grab something in the $3.75 to $7.50 range for projecting. The sizes are labeled with the size in XS - extra small through XXL - double-extra large. Don't drop below a medium (M) for PowerPoint.

Overall

Fotolia provides a huge amount of images, videos and illustrations. It may take a while to find them based on the tagging and searching, but when you do find them they will be extremely high quality. To my eye, some of the images were a bit too staged looking. I was looking for a gritty image of a firefighter with dirt and ash on his sweaty face. It wasn't to be found. I had to settle for something a bit less personal, but still very good.

I used the images from Fotolia to put together this presentation, which I could not have done without the excellent images they provided. I would recommend Fotolia as a place to go when you need the perfect image to make your point. It may not be a daily driver for most preachers due to the cost, however.

Eye Flow

Yesterday I mentioned "eye flow" when talking about images and frames. The heat map pictures show what that means. These are taken with a special eye-tracking camera that plots where on the screen the test subjects look. Advertisers like to test their work by having people look over it. They can then see what draws people's attention and the flow of eyes over the area. So the heaviest red spot is the place where people look first. It's labeled as "1" then the line goes down and to the right to 2, down again to 3 and 4, then sharply up and to the left for 5. The sweeping pattern repeats all the way through the  map.

When you're placing images you want to think about how people will naturally see it. Notice the Apple home screen has one main picture that grabs attention and one main block of text that is closely associated with the picture. There's no doubt that the cat is a snow leopard. That association gives the OS X version all the attributes of the cat that you see, tough, confident, beautiful, mysterious. Eye flow is hugely important to making text and image work together.

Look at the heat map of this next ad that appeared in print. The purse and skirt get a lot of attention, then the legs of the girl, but there is no attention going to the brand name, Diesel. It's out of the eye flow. The slogan gets a lot of eye time, but the brand gets zero.

When you put your images in to your presentation, most of the eye-time is going to be focused on them. Make them good images that support your message and the point that you're trying to make. When you have text it needs to be in the eye-flow path and it needs to support and be supported by the image.

Look at the sweeping ovals from the Apple homepage. Think about where you would want to put text so that it will be along a line like that. Usually the eye will start in the upper right and move down and to the left, then sweep back up to the right. You want to arrange your images and text to work with this (like Apple did) not against this (like Diesel).

How can you arrange your slide to use eye-flow best?

February - How to Get Things into PowerPoint

Getting a picture into PowerPoint is fairly straightforward, there's even a button for it. But it still takes a bit of effort to get the picture lined up just right in the presentation. It's more difficulty (and sometimes impossible) to get the perfect audio or video clip to play in PowerPoint.

February's theme will highlight some of these challenges and help to find solutions so you can present images, audio and video with ease.

What questions do you have about inserting media in PowerPoint?

What tips do you have?

Beautiful Evidence by Edward Tufte

I just read the book Beautiful Evidence by professor and author Edward Tufte. He is one of the experts in the world on presenting information in a visual format. I felt way out of my depth.

In one sense, the levels and amounts of information that Tufte is describing really don't come into the realm of a preacher's world, except maybe during a budget presentation. I don't have to think about how to map the comparative gains and losses of a dozen stocks over the course of a month, or to indicate the mass of brains as compared to the mass of bodies in various animals.

On the other hand, the process of working through and looking at ways of presenting information visually is incredibly important. How could we show the outline of Scripture visually in a way that captures detail and provides a big picture all at once.

One example that Tufte uses is that of the French engineer Charles Joseph Minard who graphed the route and losses of the French army during its invasion (brown line) and retreat (black line) from Russia in 1812-1813. The width of the line depicts the number of French troops lost.

At a glance you can see that the once huge army was decimated by the campaign, but then you can perceive more detail, such as the frigid temperatures during the march.

How could we do something similar for biblical information?

(Note: The book link earns me a small commission on any sales.)

Peace

Here I sit in the north park blocks of Portland. I'm surrounded by the noises of the city: construction, shouting, traffic, and leaf blowers. I feel peace here.

Where do you feel peace?

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.4

Think Visually

Remember back when you were learning how to add and they would show you a picture of three apples next to two more apples and from that you could see that there were five apples total? We are visual thinkers - words and numbers fill in for complicated concepts, but ultimately our brains default to thinking visually. Wired has an article about using this visual thinking to help process complex decisions.

Sometimes we can share a complicated concept with a few images and it's clear.

How can you use visual thinking to share a complicated concept?

Ethnic Maps and Visual Communication

The picture below is of Portland, Oregon - the city I claim as my home (though I've been in exile for over a year). This map shows the ethno-geographic breakdown of the 2000 census data. Every dot is 25 people. Red dots are Caucasian, blue dots African-American, green dots Asian, and yellow dots Hispanic.

This is a fascinating and compelling way to share the information. It is at once compelling and convicting. Check out the Flickr page for Eric Ficher, the creator of these images.

Below Portland is Memphis (where I lived for three years while in seminary).

Portland, Oregon

Memphis, Tennessee

Hover Zoom - How to Preview Pictures Quickly and Easily

Google Chrome just got an extension called Hover Zoom that allows you to see a full size image from a thumbnail without having to click through. It requires a direct link from the thumbnail to the source image to work, so some sites' code won't be compatible. I've been test running this for a little bit and so far I like it.

I've set a key to turn the feature on, so when I hold down the SHIFT key and hover over a picture it pops up the full size image. That way if I don't want to see a preview it's not constantly putting things in my way. This is a great tool for searching images on sites like Amazon.com or Flickr.com. However it's speed depends on the speed of the server, so it can be slow at times.

I'm happy to have this tool in my toolbox, but a lot of the image searching I do is through Stock Exchange and Google Images which already provide a feature like this.

Engage, don't Offend

Over at Slides that Stick they pointed out that some images may be too emotionally charged to use. I pointed out that you should be wary of unintended emotional connections, but you should also be careful with intended emotional connections.

The image to the right is of the former World Trade Center towers with two planes flying over with the caption "Learn to Anticipate" below. This is a powerful, and emotional issue, and should only be used for a point that is equally powerful and emotional. I'm not opposed to using strong imagery, but it needs to be appropriate. For example, I might be willing to show a picture of a concentration camp during the holocaust in order to illustrate the deep emotions of Lamentations. But something like that shouldn't be used in any way that could be perceived as flippant or joking.

How would you use strong, emotional imagery?

Juxtaposition: The Power of Position

Slashdot highlighted a great photographic experiment recently: "Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov has taken old World War II photos and photoshopped them over the locations in present day. The scenes from places like Prague, Vienna, and Moscow are incredibly well done and a neat way to appreciate history." I'm very impressed with the way that the images powerfully compare life now with life 65 years ago.

How would you show the changes in the life of your church?

Don't Just Clean, Organize

Sometimes simple, recognizable images can convey a message more powerfully than words. When Jesus talks about the evil spirit coming back to find the home clean and well swept, that's a good image. But seeing a mess that has been cleaned is powerful. Then, if we take what Jesus said to be advice we see that he's telling us to not just avoid evil, but to replace evil with good in our lives. Don't just clean up the mess, organize it and make it work for good.

"When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation." Matthew 12:43-45

Bearing Fruit

I like the effect of the background being out of focus. I think it adds emphasis and drama to a still shot.

The Way Out

Sometimes we need a sign to point the way.

Go Toward the Light

This images is a powerful communicator all on its own. What sermon would you preach based on this image?