Making an attractive and effective PowerPoint presentation requires careful attention to design elements like colors, fonts, and imagery. The background of your slides is a key aspect that can greatly enhance visual appeal. Here are tips for adding both pictures and background images in PowerPoint.

Choose Appropriate Pictures

Relevance – Select images that clearly illustrate key points and connect to your overall message. Irrelevant pictures will only distract.
Quality – Use high resolution photos that will project well and not appear blurry or pixelated. Consider stock photo sites for professional images.

Consistency – Maintain a consistent style for all photos, with similar tones and aesthetic. This creates unity.

Insert and Format a Picture

To insert a picture:

Click the Insert tab

Select Pictures
Navigate to the desired picture file and insert

To format the picture:

Click the picture and select the Picture Format tab
Adjust settings for:
Brightness and contrast

Cropping
Picture styles and effects
Set text wrapping style

Resize and position as needed

Add a Background Picture

Adding a background picture can make your slides more visually compelling. Here is how:

Step 1: Select the slide to add a background picture to

Step 2: Navigate to Design > Format Background

Step 3: Select Picture or Texture Fill

Step 4: Choose background picture from File, Clipboard, or Online Sources

Step 5: Adjust transparency, tiling, and offset as needed

Step 6: Select Apply to All to add background picture to all slides

Design an Effective Background

Use a subtle image that does not distract from slide content

Make text stand out clearly against the background
Apply background consistently to tie presentation together
Change background pictures between major sections for variation

Enhance Slides Visually

Use shapes, icons, charts, SmartArt, and other visuals
Animate images and other elements
Add borders, shadows, 3D effects, and depth with shapes

Use slide transitions between slides

By following these tips you can create PowerPoint presentations with polished, professional design that effectively communicate your ideas to any audience. Paying attention to details like imagery and backgrounds makes a big difference.