Chapter 6 Outline

How to make pictures that inform

I. Photos in information design must be clear, this includes:

1. be in focus
2. have a focus with the correct amount of detail
3. have meaning
4. show what you're telling
5. tell what you're showing
6. appear close to where you talk about them
7. point readers into the text

II. Photos must be in focus:

1. Informative pictures are shot well, crisp, and produced in high resolution. 
2. There must be contrast that supports the focal point.

III. Photos must have a focus:

1. Edit the photo to include no more or less than the reader needs.
2. Limit the information so the reader can quickly understand without being bombarded with information.
3. Make sure the photo keeps its story, cropping out what is needed to help get the point across without the reader becoming distracted.
4. Do not include elements in the foreground or background to compete with the focal point.
5. Make it a strong focal point!

IV. Photos must mean something:

1. Puffed-up documents hide the lack of good ideas. 
2. It is safer to go with a structured proposal with clear and meaningful images and tightly edited text.
3. If this is not done, than it can plague the intended message you're trying to get across.

V. Photos must show what you're telling:

1. Because all western languages look alike, it would be beneficial to use a picture that can illustrate meaning in a glance to speed things up.

VI. Photos must tell what you're showing:

1. Include captions, labels, and titles that connect the picture, and the reader, to the text.
2. Instead of just writing a name under a photo of someone, tell why the reader is looking at that person and why they are important. 
3. Most pictures and photos need captions because of their high visibility, get peoples attention, and tell the story.

VII. Connecting the dots is tougher than it should be:

1. Include no illustration that doesn't extend the information in print and no print unless it further explains an illustration. 
2. Pictures have to extend words, nothing is just illustrated.

VIII. Pictures must show up close to where you talk about them:

1. Place connecting issues on the same spread so the reader can connect related info.
2. If unable to, provide enough info in the caption to satisfy readers where they happen to be, and point to the text's location.

IX. Pictures must point readers into text (if they point at all):

1. Some photos and drawings have an inherent direction, favoring one side.
2. Place directional photos so they point toward the text, not off the page. The eye tends to follow the direction to its natural conclusion.
3. Two Gestalt principles that apply are: Common fate and Good continuation.
4. Common fate - people see elements going in the same direction as being related. That suggests enough awareness of a perceived direction to follow it.
5. Good continuation - people see elements that are arranged in a line as a group, even if the line contains gaps. That suggests they'll mentally fill in the gap between a direction and its object. 

X. To flop or not to flop:

1. Flop - turning the negative around to make it point in the opposite direction.
2. Some photos cannot be flopped from reasons of organizations' strict photo-accuracy policies or those that suffer from a direction chance such as a military insignia, police badge or anything with type.