How to Make a Video With Photos: the Ultimate Guide

From creators to viewers, everyone loves slideshows. And they’ve been around for years now. Whether it’s creating birthday picture slideshows or companies creating professional-looking event recap videos, slideshow videos have come far.

For content creators, especially in-house ones — they’re easy to make and a great way to highlight and summarize special moments in events. Videos also yield high ROI and encourage engagement.

Afterall, 93% of marketers who use video say that it's an important part of their marketing strategy — an increase from 92% in 2020.

Wondering how you can get more out of those professional pictures from a company event? Just turn them into a slideshow and voilà: you’ve got a video to present to your stakeholders and social media audience, too.

For viewers, they’re an easy way to grasp important information and a lot more entertaining to watch than mere photos. According to Wyzowl, 86% of people want more videos from brands.

However, slideshows aren’t perfect solutions.

Not being able to upload a PowerPoint presentation to YouTube or post it on social media directly. You can end up missing out on SEO opportunities and making your post go viral.

That’s where a video compiled from photos comes in handy.

6 prerequisites to creating a great slideshow video

Creating a successful slideshow is not all fun and games. It might be easy, but there’s a process that needs to be followed and certain things you need to consider before you actually create the video.

Step 1: Define the theme or topic

What kind of slideshow video are you creating? What’s the theme and topic?

Are you creating a slideshow video to launch your new digital product in front of your social media audience, or one to display your virtual event to stakeholders?

Your slideshow video depends greatly on the theme and topic of your slideshow.

Step 2: Determine your video goal

Next, why are you creating this video? What’s your marketing or sales goal behind it? Do you want to increase signups for your next event? Boost leads? Get more followers on social media and increase engagement?

Set SMART goals.

SMART goals are…

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Timely

SMART goals help you track and determine if you’re meeting your business goals or not. And that is essential when using video marketing for your business.

Step 3: Choose the platform you will post it to

Choosing the right platform prior to creating the video is essential.

Depending on the platform you choose (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube…), your video will differ. Different platforms have different specifications that you need to take care of when creating the video.

For example, recommended video dimensions for Facebook videos is 1280 x 720 for landscape and portrait and minimum width is 1200 pixels.

While on the other hand, YouTube’s recommended dimensions are:

• 1280 x 720 (720p)
• 1920 x 1080 (1080p)
• 2560 x 1440 (1440p)
• And 3840 x 2160 (2160p)

Step 4: Define approximately the length of video

Now determine how long you’d like your video to be.

According to Vidyard, the optimal video length is less than 2 minutes. And 58% of viewers watch a business-related video all the way through if it’s less than 60 seconds.

So try keeping your videos under 2 minutes if possible.

It also varies from social media platform to platform. So while shorter, snackable videos are preferred on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, you can go for slightly longer videos on YouTube. Similarly, if you’re presenting in front of stakeholders, you can opt for a slightly longer video too.

Step 5: Choose the right photos and good quality videos

Make sure the pictures you choose are of high-quality, whether they're your own photos or royalty-free images. You can edit photos via photo and video editing programs to further make them shine.

The better quality of your photos, the better your video quality.

And if you’re uploading videos and adding them to your slideshow video, make sure they’re of the highest quality too.

Discover PlayPlay's video maker and easily transform your photos into professional videos. Have you ever wondered how to create a video from photos? Look no further, with PlayPlay, you can effortlessly bring your images to life!

Step 6: Choose the music

Choose music that not only goes with the theme of your video, platform you’re posting on, and the audience you’re presenting it to, but is also of high quality.

How to create a video from photos: your guide

Once you’ve taken care of the prerequisites, it’s time to start creating a marketing video with photos.

Choose an intuitive video creation tool

The easiest way to turn multiple pictures and media files into an awe-inspiring video is by using one of the many video creation tools available like iMovie, PlayPlay, etc.

Using a intuitive video creation platform like PlayPlay has many benefits for in-house marketing and comms teams, including,

• Tons of beautiful templates to choose from
• Drag-and-drop editing
• High-quality stock media library
• Advanced motion graphics
• Easy to collaborate

Choose a template

Templates make everyone’s job a lot easier. And there’s a plethora of different templates for different types of videos available on PlayPlay, so choose one that goes best with your theme and topic.

For example, if you’re creating an employee slideshow video for your social media audience, this template works great:

Or if you’re creating an event recap video, you can try this template which also includes the possibility of adding in some clips:

Import your photos

Now import all your pictures to the tool you’re using.

If you’re using PlayPlay, you can easily import your high-quality photos by going to the Library and clicking ‘Upload Files’.

Add text or jazz it up with motion graphics

Next, decide on the text you’d like to add. Make sure to:

• Add text in the introductory screen to explain what your video is about
• Add captions and subtitles if possible
• Add main points to screens - for example, highlight numbers
• Add concluding text at the end of the video. This can include your brand information, a call-to-action, and information on how to connect with you. You can also make use of transitions and motion graphics to further amp up your video. Like in this product advertisement video. Visual effects in this simple slideshow video make it very interesting to watch.

Add photos to your screens

Next is uploading photos to your video.

Click ‘Add a new screen’, choose the type of screen you want, and then drag and drop media from your library to your screen.

You can also add short video clips and GIFs to your video.

Add music

According to Biteable, 81% of marketers say their videos perform better with music.

And it’s true. Would you rather watch a video with music or without?

You can choose music from PlayPlay’s music library or upload your own.

You can also add audio files like a podcast to your video!

Generate the video and share

Generate the video and you’re done!

Share it on your social media platforms, with your team, and use the power of video to meet your business goals. On PlayPlay you can adapt the format of your video — in just a click — to optimize it for different social media platforms.

Video is not going anywhere

Video is here to stay. If you still haven’t jumped on the video bandwagon, now’s the time to do so. Start off small — just take a couple of pictures, turn them into a high-quality video and share it with your audience!

Use a video creation tool and slideshow creator like PlayPlay to get started right away! There are a number of tutorials to make the entire process super easy for you.