Best Photo-Slideshow Software

June 18, 2023 1:21 PM

Help me find an easy, visually-pleasing photo-slideshow software.

I'm hunting for the best photo-slideshow software for making videos out of a collection of photos. iMovie is almost perfect, in that I can dump in a load of photos, add transitions to the entire set with one click, and it adds a nice pan/zoom effect to the images that only requires minor adjustments. The whole process takes minutes. Easy and aesthetically pleasing is the goal, but for a variety of reasons I would like to be able to move away from iMovie.

I've experimented with doing this in Premiere Pro and After Effects, but even when using plugins or templates it is more work than I would like to put into it. I've seen tutorials for using PowerPoint or Google Slides, but the final product is visually pretty static.

Ideally the program would be:

Free or a one-time payment (not looking for another subscription)
Easy to use with a medium to large amount fo photos (50-100)
Can easily add transitions and motion effects.

Thanks!

posted by Nightman to Technology (3 answers total)

Try DaVinci Resolve from Blackmagic Design. There are free fully functional downloads for Mac, Windows, and Linux including previous releases for older operating systems. Many many YouTube tutorials about making slide shows. Resolve is powerful and can edit, color-grade, animate images and motion graphics, and composite video as well as equalize audio.

Bit of a learning curve but a few tutorials and you can make slide shows with dozens of images with transitions in minutes.
posted by conscious matter at 8:55 PM on June 18, 2023

Best answer: Does your avoidance of iMovie extend to Apple Photos? I just did this today for a family member’s memorial and it took about 5 minutes:
1. Create New Slideshow from Album (I had about 300 in there)
2. Edit photos as necessary
3. Export to video

Saved many hours of time and effort over using iMovie.
posted by oxisos at 3:51 PM on June 19, 2023

I read this question when you posted it, and made a mental note to look up the one I used to build my Mom's memorial slideshow because I spent a lot of time trying out different ones trying to replicate what I used to use MemoriesOnTV for (Loved that program, used it for slideshows of my kids every year that we gifted to the grandparents)

I wound up using NCH Software's PhotoStage Professional. One time payment, it has a lot of power but also automates a lot of things. I did my mom's slideshow in a couple of hours (because I am picky on the speed and direction of the pans and zooms, and how they work together)

I won't link it because I don't want to look like a spammer, if someone else comes across this later and is looking for a solution on Windows, that's the one I had luck with.
posted by Nodecam at 9:42 AM on July 20, 2023