FILWP Presenting Tip #003: Your background matters
FILWP PRESENTING TIP #003: WHEN IT COMES TO PRESENTING, YOUR BACKGROUND MATTERS
FILWP Presenting Tip #003 is, like Tip #002, related to getting snapped at your event.
If you followed Tip #002, then you got a professional photographer (or Uncle Bob) to take some action shots of your presentation. And now, after it’s all over, you can’t wait to get those snazzy pics of you uploaded and out into the world, except…
HEY, DILDO!
And, as you’re about to hit the ‘upload’ button … there it is, the sign, pointing to you …
Now even if you’re in the sex-toy industry, you’d probably not want people to think of you as a dildo, right? Exactly!
Even in this video … see how, on cue, a big truck appears at 17 seconds in. Even thought it’s supporting my point (that backgrounds are important), can you also see that it is distracting?
IT HAPPENED TO ME
This happened to me on my first Fall in Love with Presenting course in Cape Town, South Africa.
I had asked a professional photographer to come in on the last day to take ‘action’ shots of me. (Don’t worry, no dildo’s were involved or got hurt during this experience.)
When I started sharing the pictures, quite a few people told me that something in the background created a ‘airy fairy’ image of me and the course. As you might guess, that was the last impression I wanted to convey as it does not accurately represent the course in any way, shape or form.
Even though I could (and did) use technology to edit that particular item it out, there are still some pictures that I now cannot use because I did not pay attention to the background. (Truth? I did actually notice that particular item at the time but decided to ignore my gut sense that told me to move it out of the main focus. So you learn, heh?)
TAKE THE TIME, LOOK AROUND, MOVE STUFF AROUND, AND ASK FOR HELP
When you go through the trouble of having pictures taken, make sure that you’re happy with the background.
If you’re not (happy), either move somewhere else, move stuff around, or cover it up.
If there is a photographer to hand, ask their advice on how to make you look the most powerful; they’re the professionals after all, and (most likely) you’re paying them. Remember that it’s also in their interest to make you (and your pictures) look good because if they do, you’re more likely to recommend them and/or use them again yourself.
If you don’t have access to a professional photographer, ask whoever is there what they think of the background, and then you simply make do, the best way you can, with what you have. (just like life!)