From the course: Digital Imaging for Business Professionals

Welcome

- Hi, my name's Rich Harrington, and welcome to this course on Digital Imaging for Business Professionals. We're going to explore several related topics that'll make it easier for you to use digital images and illustrations with Microsoft Office tools or other business software. We've got a lot of things to cover in this course. First up, we're going to take a look at the Essential Technical Knowledge that you're going to need. This will include some of the key topics like, understanding resolution, color space, what file formats really matter when using Office software, and how transparency is stored inside a digital file. We'll then explore Essential File Types. Taking a look at common raster graphics like jpeg, png and others. As well as vector formats like EPS and illustrator files. We'll also explore how to use Adobe software and other conversion tools to easily switch between different file formats. We'll explore how to resize an image, talking about the impact on the resolution and the actual display size, or print size as well as how to determine the size that you need for using inside of applications, like Word and PowerPoint. And we'll talk about how to handle images that are already inside of an Office document, as well as things like, cropping, masking, and resizing when you save. We'll talk about some Essential Photographic Concepts that will help you choose better images. This will include some of the rules of composition, as well as the impact of perspective, matching visual style between images and looking at color temperature. We'll then take a look at three different software applications. I'll give you a quick overview of using tools like Photoshop Elements, as well as how to take advantage of common tools inside of Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint, and there also inside of Excel, in case you need to adjust imagery. We'll also talk about a handful of online image editors that make it easy to adjust files using a web browser. Once that's done, we'll take a very quick look at working with PDF source files, in case you need to make a small adjustment using a tool like Acrobat Pro or you need to convert something from a PDF file back into an Office document to make it easier to edit. Once we're done with that, we'll take a final look at exploring some of the intellectual property rights that you need to be familiar with. How does things like copyright as well as licenses for stock photography affect you? There are important things that you need to understand so you stay compliant with the law and are a good digital citizen. Now, we've got a lot of different things to cover, but I want to take just a quick moment to give you a little bit about my own professional background. I consider myself a visual storyteller, and I run a visual communications company in Washington D.C. called Red Pixel. The type of work we do is pretty diverse and my personal background includes working in many different areas. I've authored more than 40 books on digital imaging topics and Office software. I've also put together more than 150 online video courses. I publish two websites regularly, and have been an adjunct professor for two universities as well as a conference speaker and a business owner, as well as a photographer. I guess you could say I feel pretty qualified to share this information with you. I regularly need to use Office software in my day to day work for my company, but I have a background in photography and enjoy digital imaging quite a bit. If you'd like to stay in touch you can find me on social media, and I invite you to feel free to reach out and connect on LinkedIn. Essentially, with my background I've had to work to keep both sides in check and to make sure that I'm maximizing what I do for my clients. So, on the logical side, this includes being a Project Management Professional, a business owner, as well as a Technical Consultant to several companies, as well as spending some time as an instructor and lecturer, and a book and website publisher. Now, past projects have been diverse but I've worked with many different associations, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and broadcast entities. My job has to been to help them put together more efficient plans for communication. Whether that's been content or technical work flow, I've worked on both sides, and I find that it's been quite helpful and diverse. Now on the creative side I regularly work as a Director and an Executive Producer for video content and online content. I spend time as a photographer, shooting both for clients and myself. I work with film and video regularly, as well as motion graphics a lot in the past, and I've also been employed as a Journalist and a Podcaster through the years. This lets me be quite effective at communication. Now, on the photography side, I really enjoy digital imaging, and I'm going to help convey some of these skills to you today. Now, we're not going to talk about shooting pictures, but rules of composition, color, tonality, how to put together compelling slide layouts that really help express information. And I'll walk you through a variety of ways of working with digital image content in your presentations and your documents. Now, these are just a few of my own pictures, but I really do enjoy photography and I find that this is a good balance. Now, these skills really come out in many different ways, but I do find that being a business professional takes both the technical and the creative side. So, in this course you too are going to need to think with both sides of your brain. You're going to learn some technical information as well as aesthetics, and if you could put both of these into balance you're on your way to using graphics and illustrations more effectively in your business communications.

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