Whether at home or at work, I often have to quickly turn a bunch of photos into a video slideshow. Over the years, I have tried many different apps until I found the absolute best one. Now I create these videos and share them in no time, but if you don’t know what you are doing, it could take you ages. Let me show you how to make a photo slideshow and create a movie in minutes.
Create a Video Slideshow with Photos
Work Around Video Editing Software
Combining all your photos into a short movie shouldn’t take hours, and yet if you do not use the right tool, you may be in for a rather unpleasant surprise.
In fact, I do not use the usual video editing tools like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro to create my photo slideshows.
Even dedicated slideshow apps can produce results with a distinct 20th century look.
There are video editing apps that provide slightly faster workflows. iMovie does a decent job. It’s easy to import the photos and quickly add them to the timeline. But I find that the final layout of the photos is rather boring. Magix Movie Edit Pro can handle the task, but the results are also slightly underwhelming.
Photo Slideshow With Video Editing Software
Dedicated slideshow apps unfortunately do not fare much better. Magix’s companion app is specially built to make videos out of photos. Yet most of Magix Photostory Deluxe‘s templates create slideshows with a distinct 20th century look. Nevertheless on a Windows machine it might be your best bet.
The One Photo App That Rules Them All
This is why my goto app for slideshows is not a video editing software, but the Apple Photos app. It’s worth noting that I do not use it to handle my photos. In my opinion it does a horrible job of that. But when it comes to creating a beautiful slideshow, it is simply the best out there.
Video Slideshow with Photos
How To Make A Picture Slideshow
Here are the four simple steps required to make a slideshow in Photos.
STEP 1 • Import Your Photos
After you launch the Photos app on your Mac (sorry, this is only available in the Apple ecosystem, on other platforms you might want to look at one of the solutions suggested above) you will need to import your photos by click on File > Import.
Import Photos
STEP 2 • Create A Slideshow
Then go to the Photos tab in the Library and select all the photos you just imported.
Note: Photos organizes your pictures in chronological order, so in case your photos are not all neatly found in succession in the app, you can locate them in the sidebar at the Library > Imports tab.
Next, with all your photos selected, click on File > Create Slideshow.
Create Video
STEP 3 • Add Music and Styles
The Classic style which is the default one selected for your slideshow is very basic. It gets a lot more exciting once you change it by clicking on the Themes icon ( ) in the right sidebar. No offense to Ken Burns, my favorite themes are Origami, Sliding Panels and Magazine. Each of these produces a really cool montage of your photos by alternating full screen slides with only photo and collage of multiple images.
STEP 4 • Turn Your Picture Slideshow Into a Video
Once you’ve previewed your work and are happy with the results, you are ready to turn your slideshow into a video by clicking Export.
Pick high definition ( HD 1080p) and save the video on your computer. In a few minutes you will have a beautiful video ready to be shared with everyone.
Here’s an example of slideshow I created with Photos in 23 seconds:
Setup The Order Of Your Photos In Your Video Slideshow
A very cool feature which my friend Margo Carnahan and I discovered is how to keep your photos in order when you create a slideshow on your Mac. In the Photos app, you should first create an album with your photos. Select your photos and click on File > New Album With Selected Photos.
Next you can organize your photos in the order you choose.
Finally and this is the most important step, instead of clicking on File > Slideshow as we mentioned above, you need to go to Albums in the left sidebar, right click on the name of the album and select Create > Slideshow. It’s a bit strange, but this is the only way to keep your photos synced to your preference!
Mix Photos and Videos in Slideshow
Another way to obtain incredible results is to mix video clips into your photo slideshow. This is something the Photos app handles very well. You can very easily create a presentation which combines images and video clips. Select pics and vids, click on create slideshow and voila! the software takes care of the rest.
Make a Slideshow With a Mix of Photos and Videos
Also worth noting, if you add very wide photos like panoramas, the slideshow will pan across the entire photo. It’s magical.
I hope with this article you will find yourself on your way to making and sharing photos slideshows. Did you already make one? Do you use a different app to make videos with your photos? Share this with us in a comment below.