How to Make a Picture Slideshow

If you’re old enough to remember slideshows given with actual slides, you know that they turned photo-viewing into a group activity. Sure, there were hassles, like ordering your pictures as slides and loading them into a slide carrousel, but the payoffs were worth it.

Slideshows are still around today, even if slides are ancient history for most people. Today, you create slideshows on your computer, and you can show them there, too, or else on a TV or projected on a screen.

The nice thing about slideshows is that they work well in any occasion. You can use one as the main focal point for a visit, and have everyone gather around to watch, or just put one on in the background. They’re fun at wedding receptions (you can show pictures of the happy couple as kids growing up, or show pictures from their courtship), confirmations or bar or bat mitzvahs (embarrass the celebrant by showing some baby pictures), or a wedding anniversary (show off pictures from the couple’s marriage). Or you can just make a slideshow of vacation pictures to share with friends. Their uses are as varied as the photos themselves.

Software Requirements

Transitions

Transitions allow you to control the way that one slide blends into another. You can have the new slide appear slowly as the old one dissolves, have it slide in from one side, or have it spin into place. Most programs have an abundance of transition options, so you’ll be able to find ones you like. Try not to overuse them, though. Using the same transition throughout a slideshow is easier for the audience to watch than if you use many different kinds of transitions.

Music

You can use any songs on your computer for a slideshow soundtrack, as long as they’re in common formats like MP3, AAC, or WMA. While some programs will automatically adjust the length of time each slide is shown so that the slideshow ends as the song does, others will simply end the song early or repeat the song to match up with the slideshow length. Also, some programs give you the option of creating multi-song slideshows, while others let you use only one song. Experiment with your program to see what works best for you.

Ken Burns Effect

One man has done so much for creating interesting slideshows that they’ve named an effect after him. Ken Burns’s award-winning documentaries often make static images dramatic by panning the camera across them, which makes them almost seem like animated images. If your software offers a Ken Burns Effect, you can set how an image will first appear and how it will end up. This lets the slideshow program zoom in on an important detail, pull back to reveal more of the action, or follow a movement from one side of the image to the other.

Troy Dreier is a freelance tech writer based in the New York City area.