How to do it, step by step
- Gather the photos into one album Make an album and put every candidate in it. Working from a single album rather than scrolling the whole camera roll is what stops a slideshow taking an entire evening.
- Cut the set to the strongest images Aim for one image per three to four seconds of finished video. A two minute slideshow needs about thirty photos, and thirty good ones is a high bar.
- Order them so something changes Alternate wide and close, and separate photos that look alike. Chronological order is the default but rarely the most watchable one.
- Choose the music before you set the timing The track sets the pace. Picking it afterwards means retiming every image, which is the most avoidable work in this whole process.
- Set the per-image duration, then adjust Start with a uniform duration of two to three seconds, then lengthen the images that deserve a look and shorten the ones that are just connective tissue.
- Export once, at the right shape Vertical for a phone feed, horizontal for a television or a laptop. Export at 1080p unless it is going to a large screen, and play it back before you send it anywhere.
The fastest free route
Most people do not need a video editor for this, and Apple Photos will do it in about a minute.
Select the photos you want, or open an album, and use the memory movie feature. Photos assembles them into a video with transitions, offers a set of Apple soundtracks or lets you pick music from your own library, and gives you a length to choose from. The result saves and shares as an ordinary video file.
What you get: speed, free music that is cleared for the purpose, and a reasonable automatic pace. What you give up: precise control. The order is largely Apple's choice, the timing is not yours to set image by image, and the transitions are the ones it likes. For a family slideshow, a birthday, or a set of holiday photos that somebody will watch once, that trade is almost always worth making.
One thing worth knowing: music from a streaming subscription is protected and cannot be exported inside a video. Apple's own soundtracks work, and so does music you own as files. This catches people out at the export step, after all the selection work is done.
Four routes compared
| Route | Cost | Control | Best for | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Photos memory movie | Free, built in | Low | A family slideshow in one minute | Order and per-image timing are not really yours |
| iMovie | Free | Medium | A longer slideshow for a television | Dated titles and thin audio control |
| CapCut or VN | Free tiers | High | Beat-matched changes and per-image timing | An hour to learn, and in-app music does not travel |
| Canva | Free tier | Medium to high | Anything with a lot of text or branding | One premium asset watermarks the export |
If the slideshow is destined for TikTok specifically, build it in TikTok instead, for the reasons set out on our TikTok photo slideshow page.
Choosing and ordering the photos
The selection is the slideshow. Everything after it is presentation.
Work out the count from the length. At roughly three seconds each, a ninety second slideshow is thirty images. Decide the length first, then cut to that number, rather than including everything and ending up with six minutes nobody will sit through.
Cut duplicates ruthlessly. Four near-identical frames of the same moment become one. This is where most sets are won, and it is the same discipline as our guide to picking photos for a photo dump.
Alternate distance. Wide, close, detail, person, wide. A run of photos taken from the same distance flattens out even when each one is good, because nothing changes between them.
Separate lookalikes. Two similar photos next to each other invite comparison and the weaker one loses. Put five images between them and both survive.
Make the colours agree. Across a slideshow, a warm image next to a cold one is the most noticeable inconsistency there is. A quick white balance pass over the set does more than any transition. Our guide on making your photos look consistent covers the method.
Open and close deliberately. The first image sets the tone and the last one is what people remember. Neither should be chosen by chronology.
Pace, transitions and the beat
Pace is what separates a slideshow that holds people from one that is politely endured.
Two to four seconds per image is the working range. Under two seconds, a viewer cannot take in a detailed photo. Over four, a simple one has been exhausted. Vary it: give a complex group photo four seconds and a simple detail shot one and a half.
Change on the beat. Even a hard cut feels designed when it lands with the music. In CapCut and VN you can tap out beat markers against the waveform and snap each image change to one. This single technique does more than every transition effect combined.
Use one transition, or none. A cut is fine. A short crossfade is fine. Using a different transition between every pair of images is the clearest sign that a slideshow was made in 2004.
A slow drift beats a still frame. Give each image a very slow zoom or pan, in alternating directions, and a static photo becomes something that holds attention. Keep the movement small enough that nobody notices it as an effect.
Do not put text on every image. Names, dates and captions on all thirty photos turns a slideshow into a slide deck. Use text for a title, a couple of chapter markers, and the end.
Music, export and where it is going
Two decisions at the end, both of which are easy to get wrong.
Music first, timing second. Choose the track before you set any durations. It decides the pace, the length and where the natural breaks fall. A slideshow that ends mid-chorus feels unfinished no matter how good the photos are, so cut the audio at a musical point or fade it deliberately.
The licence matters if it leaves the app. In-app music libraries are generally cleared for that company's own platforms, not for a file uploaded elsewhere. For anything going to YouTube, a website, a client or a wedding screen, use music you are licensed to use. Our page on adding music to photos goes through this in detail.
Match the shape to the screen. Vertical at 1080 by 1920 for a phone feed, horizontal at 1920 by 1080 for a television, laptop or projector. A vertical slideshow played on a television sits in a narrow strip with black either side, which is a sad way to end an hour of work.
Export once, then watch it. Play the finished file end to end on the device it is for, with the sound at normal volume. Almost every problem worth fixing, including photos that are too dark on a bright screen and music that is too loud, only shows up there.
Where ShutterAI fits
Disclosure, and a short one: this is our own app, it has not been released, and it does not make slideshows. There is no timeline, no transitions and no music library, and for the job on this page you want CapCut, VN or Apple Photos.
The one part that touches this is Photo Dump curation, which cuts a large camera roll down to a set that works together, and Best Face, which picks the frame from a burst where nobody blinked. Choosing the photos is the hard half of a slideshow, and that is the half we work on. It comes to iPhone this fall, free to start, and the waitlist is here.
Questions people ask
How do I make a photo slideshow?
On an iPhone, the fastest free way is Apple Photos: select the photos, create a memory movie, pick a soundtrack and save the result as a video. For control over order and timing, import the photos into CapCut, VN or iMovie, set a duration for each and match the changes to the beat.
How long should each photo be on screen?
Two to four seconds. Under two, a detailed photo cannot be taken in. Over four, a simple one is exhausted. Vary it by image: a busy group photo earns four seconds and a simple detail shot needs about one and a half.
How many photos should a slideshow have?
Work backwards from the length at roughly three seconds each, so a ninety second slideshow is about thirty images. Cut duplicates ruthlessly and separate photos that look alike, because a set is judged on its weakest run rather than its best photo.
What is the best free app for a photo slideshow with music?
Apple Photos for speed, iMovie for a longer slideshow with more control, and CapCut or VN when you want the image changes to land on the beat. All four are free for this job, and only CapCut limits free export resolution.
Can I use any song in my slideshow?
Not if it is leaving the app. In-app music libraries are licensed for that company's platforms, and streaming subscription tracks cannot be exported into a video at all. For anything public or commercial, use a properly licensed library.