How to Create Your Own Photo Slideshow

[TPF Staff]

By terri at Mon, 2006-10-09 20:52

How to Create Your Own Photo Slideshow

by Eric Brown (aka EBphotography)


A photo slideshow is meant to take all of the emotions and memories that can be captured in a photograph and transform them into a powerful collection. Creating a slideshow that is effective and memorable can be a challenge. The slideshow has to be appropriate for the setting, and all of the elements within the show must be coherent to each other. If all elements are fitting to both the setting and the theme, then the result will be powerful!

Where to begin?

The first thing you need is slideshow software. When shopping for slideshow software, be sure to pick one that gives you a lot of flexibility. People will be fussy about what it looks like, and so should you when creating your own! ProShow Gold is a great choice, I use it for my work. Sony Vegas Movie Studio is also one that I’ve heard is good. Vegas apparently has more options as far as implementing video, while ProShow is more focused on photos. Both are capable of photo and video, however. ProShow also enables you to host your videos online through them for free, and provides many different options for format. ProShow Gold runs at around 70 USD, where as Vegas Movie Studio costs 90. Vegas provides editing options for video as well. Check out their websites for more information on both, but I recommend ProShow Gold.

To create a slideshow, you obviously need photos first. This step in the process varies from show to show, depending on who it is for. If the slideshow is for yourself or your own family, you should go through all of your photos and pull out all of the ones that you think would mean something to the audience. If you plan on playing the show at a family reunion, be sure to ask other members of the family to share their photos as well. Chances are if you get photos from all corners of the family, more people in the audience will understand and appreciate the photos. If the slideshow is for someone outside the family, they will have to give you the photos. They could do this one of two ways. They could either give you a box with all of the photos they have, and ask you to go through them, or they could give you just the photos they want in the show. The second is obviously the easiest for you. It helps if they pick out the photos, because they know what they mean, who’s in them, etc.

Details, details

Once you have all of the photos, you will need to put them in order. Chronological order is a great way to organize family photos. Once again, if the show is for someone else, asking them to help you with the order is a wise choice. It takes someone who understands the photos to know what order will be most effective. For example, if you were doing a slideshow for your parents' anniversary, you would most likely put them as children first, work up to their marriage, then start with your generation, then move on to your kids, nephews, etc. If the slideshow is acting as your portfolio, then I would recommend grouping the photos both by subject and by quality. The same rule applies to photos as it does to writing: finish with your strongest. So put what you consider your weakest set first, and finish with the strongest set. The end is what people remember the best!

Music matters

Music is the next step. Music in a slideshow should never be so overbearing that it takes away from the slideshow, it should complement it. For example, if your grandparents asked you to make a slideshow, would you put the Black Eyed Peas in it? No, you wouldn’t. I am personally fond of a piano playing in the background of a slideshow. Soft music is a must, and if it does have words, they should be something reflective. Some of Five for Fighting’s music sounds good with a slideshow, and Snow Patrol has a couple, but lots of things work. I’m not a big music listener, so ask someone else if you can’t find the right music!

Once you have your photos and video in place, with music, you are on to the last details! Your next step is transitions. Transitions should be simple, smooth, and quick. Anything else will be distracting and is at high risk of appearing tacky. That’s all I have to say on that issue!

Final touches

The last task is producing a final product. With most programs, you have several options to choose from. You could make a Video CD, which works in almost all DVD players on the market. You could make an executable slideshow, which is ideal for projecting from a laptop, because it can be placed on any windows computer and runs by itself. You can make a DVD, which obviously requires a DVD player, but offers the convenience of playing on all DVD players and most PC’s. Simply hosting it online and accessing it from wherever you present is always an option as well. It’s up to you and your needs! You can even make screensavers from your shows with ProShow Gold.

An extra touch, which I urge you to consider if selling this show on a disc, is applying labels. Memorex sells a great kit for about 10 USD that has the software, paper, and the CD stomper to apply the label. This addition adds a level of professionalism, in my opinion.

If you have any questions or there is information I failed to cover in this article, you can PM me at The Photo Forum, email me at ebphotography@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!