Bring family memories into one photo slideshow

Group the people and chapters

Pick one organizing rule before adding photos. Follow time when the story is about how the family grew. Follow family branches when the audience needs help connecting cousins and generations. You can use both, but keep dates in order within each branch and introduce the next branch clearly.

For a reunion, try an early family photo, introductions to each household, shared moments and a recent group picture. A year-in-review sequence is another option. The Family preset provides warm styling and a starting pace; you choose the relatives and photo order. It does not identify faces or divide an album into family chapters.

Identify a person by name before relying on a family nickname. “Rosa, David's mother” gives viewers a stable relationship; “Grandma” can mean different people to different generations. In a large family, decide whose relationship each label describes and use that convention consistently. Keep a separate name list while you collect photos.

Ask households for a few representative photos and the names of the people in them. Make room for different branches, then remove repeated poses from the same event. A picture connecting generations can do more work in this short story than several similar individual shots. When one branch has few photos, ask for a missing picture or use a confirmed older one; do not fill the gap with an uncertain identity.

Choose Add photos in the family workbench. Use JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 20 MB per photo and 100 MB in total. Drag pictures into your sequence or use the earlier/later arrows. Add the reunion name to the opening text card and a message to the closing card. Within the photo sequence, a short Caption can introduce a household, such as “The cousins · Summer 2026.” Names and relationships come from you.

Preserve old and new photos

Ask relatives to send scans of older prints, keeping the original scan separately from any copy you prepare for the video. Ask who is shown, where the scene belongs in the story and how certain the date is. Choose the clearest available file; this editor scales and arranges photos but does not repair missing detail in a damaged or blurred print.

Set Photo fit to Whole photo to keep everyone visible, and start with Gentle photo movement off. Fill frame can crop people at the sides or top. Photo fit and movement apply across the slideshow, so inspect every group after changing either setting or Video format.

For captions that identify several people, state the order explicitly: for example, “Left to right: Rosa, David, Maya.” Add “front row” or “back row” when needed, and have someone point to each face while checking the names. A list of names without positions can leave the viewer guessing. Avoid squeezing a whole reunion guest list into the 120-character Caption field; use a short household label and keep the full list in your separate notes.

The caption is drawn near the bottom of the picture. Whole photo preserves the source image but does not prevent text from covering it. If a front-row face disappears behind the words, reduce the wording, remove the caption or replace the photo. Caption position and font size are not adjustable controls.

Review the details as a family

Keep one person responsible for the editor and ask knowledgeable relatives to review the parts they recognize. The workbench has one draft for the current account or guest in this browser. A private server project can also be saved, but it does not provide simultaneous family editing. Send a review MP4 through your chosen private channel and collect corrections outside the site.

1. Make a named review copy. Choose Export free 720p for a watermarked copy without an account, or Export 1080p for a paid project without a watermark. Download when it is ready. Rename the downloaded file, for example “family-reunion-review-01.mp4,” so everyone checks the same version.
2. Ask focused questions. Have a relative check names, relationships and the order of people in group captions. Ask whoever holds the old album to check years. Ask the people shown whether those photos suit the intended audience.
3. Request a location and a correction. A useful note is “Photo 8, around 00:35: front row is Maya, not Lena; year should be 1998.” A photo number, approximate playback time and visible description make the request easier to find.
4. Resolve and recheck. Compare conflicting memories with the print, album notes or another record. If only an approximate period is confirmed, label it as approximate; leave unresolved names or years out. Edit the Caption, export a new copy and ask the reviewer to check the corrected moment again.

Check the pictures as well as the text: a correctly spelled name can still be attached to the wrong photo. Finish with one uninterrupted viewing of the revised file so a late reorder has not separated a chapter label from the household it introduces. Keep the approved wording in your notes in case you need to rebuild the video later.

Prepare a reunion or private copy

For a short reunion story, 24 photos at five seconds each plus two three-second cards make 126 seconds and require a paid project. A Free version could use twelve photos at 4.5 seconds each plus those cards for 60 seconds. Use automatic timing for a first edit and lengthen a complicated group photo with Duration. Cards count toward the 60- or 180-second video limit, without using photo slots. A longer family history needs an editor with that running time.

• Reunion playback: choose 16:9 under Video format for a landscape display. The output is 1280 × 720 on Free or 1920 × 1080 for a paid project. Use brief labels, introduce people unfamiliar to some guests, and test the downloaded MP4 on the actual display and sound system. Follow the TV guide for the playback checks.
• A private keepsake: keep the landscape version if it best preserves group photos. If relatives mainly watch upright on phones, try 9:16, which outputs 720 × 1280 on Free or 1080 × 1920 for a paid project, and inspect the wide photos again. Include only the names and personal details agreed for those recipients.

For photos of children, check with their parents before sharing and leave out identifying locations or unnecessary personal details, as advised by the eSafety Commissioner. For a narrated reunion, you can leave the video silent or use Remove music for a silent export. Mute preview only silences listening in the editor. Otherwise, choose the bundled Warm Days, Quiet Light or Small Celebrations instrumental, or use Add your music for one MP3, WAV or M4A track up to 30 MB; use music you have permission to include. Listen through the ending and adjust Volume and, under Track options, Fade out at the end if needed.

Download and rename the approved reunion copy before adapting the private version. Changing the current draft does not update files already downloaded. One credit unlocks one paid project, with up to three successful versions in seven days from the first successful export. Failed exports use no successful version and release any first-export credit reservation; repeat downloads use no credit or version. See pricing; paid checkout is not open yet. Save the original scans, the name/date notes and the final MP4 files in your own archive with a backup.

To keep a private server copy, sign in and choose Save project. Each unused credit provides one unexported draft slot. Manage your saved work in My projects; server files expire 30 days from the first cloud save. Your local guest draft can be continued after signing in, but local storage alone does not move it to another device.

If you need to stop an export, choose Cancel export; your photos and settings remain. If Draft not saved appears, keep the tab open and download a completed video before leaving. A saved draft can be restored in the same browser on the same device, but it is not an archive. If export is unavailable in that browser, keep the source files and notes before trying a current desktop Chrome browser. Test its output rather than assuming every family device will play it.

The collection and theme suggestions build on SmartSHOW's family slideshow guide, adapted here to a short photo video. If the story becomes mainly one child's development, use the baby guide; if it centers on one person's birthday wishes, use the birthday guide.