Creating a funeral slideshow for a memorial service and reception is a wonderful way to remember a loved one that has passed away. Photos of the person are gathered from all stages of their life and each photo is shown for a few seconds at a time on a large TV or projector. Background music often accompanies the slideshow. These pictures can bring a smile to those in attendance, on an otherwise somber day. The slideshow can also be shared with family, friends, and loved ones after the memorial is over. Creating a funeral slideshow is easy. Here are the steps.
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Gather Pictures
Gather your pictures. This can be one of the more difficult parts. Makes sure each one is in focus, with good lighting, and is of high quality. Exclude any that don’t meet that criteria. This goes without saying, but make sure the photo is in good taste. Not everyone has the same sense of humor.
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Scan Non-Digital Photos
It’s likely that many of your pictures are not in digital form, which means they will require scanning. If you don’t have a scanner, many local drugstores and department stores have photo departments that can scan pictures for you, or even offer machines where you can do it yourself. There are are also apps that can use your phone’s camera to scan photos. Look for pictures that are at least 3×5″ in size. Photos smaller than that, especially wallet size, may not be of sufficient size to display without pixilation. Make sure to scan your picture at 300dpi or higher if possible. Remember, you will showing your pictures on a large screen TV or projector. The higher the quality of your scans, the less likely they are to look jagged and pixelated.
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Family and Friends Can Help
Gather all the scanned photos from your family and friends in one place. A file sharing service like Dropbox works great for this. It makes collaborating with other family in the picture gathering process much easier than trying to email or text pictures. The greater the variety of pictures, the better your funeral slideshow video will be.
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Determining the Slideshow Length
Aim for a 4-5 minute slideshow. A good rule of thumb is to show each picture for 3 seconds with a 1/2 second transition, so that works out to around 85 pictures for a 5 minute video. If you’d like a slightly longer time on screen for each picture of say, 5 seconds, that would be 55 pictures for a 5 minute video. You can obviously go longer or shorter on this. We have another guide 5 Steps For Creating a Perfect Slideshow Video that goes into greater detail on these considerations.
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Talk to the Funeral Home About Their Video Capabilities
Talk to the funeral home about the slideshow formats that they support. Almost universally, they will have the ability to play a slideshow video in MP4 format. There are a number of ways to create a slideshow video in MP4 format. Some require downloading software or an app, while others can be done completely online with a browser in a few minutes. Be sure to pick the best option for your needs. Take a look at our guide on Choosing a Slideshow Maker for tips on what to look for BEFORE you get started.
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Creating Your Funeral Slideshow Video
It’s time to create your funeral slideshow video. Upload your pictures and arrange them in chronological (age) order. That will help your audience better follow the life of the subject. Rotate the pictures as necessary. Delete duplicates. Double check that all the pictures are unique and arranged (as best you can) in chronological order.
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Selecting Background Music for Your Funeral Slideshow
‣ Pick the music to accompany your slideshow video. This sets the mood for your audience. As a general rule, look for music that is more mellow and with a slower tempo. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
‣ Music with a slower beat and a lower octave is generally considered more somber and may be a better choice for a funeral slideshow video.
‣ If possible, ensure you’ve selected enough individual songs to cover the entire length of your slideshow video. Don’t repeat the same song within the same video if at all possible.
‣ Avoid organizing songs in such a way as that there is a huge shift in beat or octave from one song to the next. This can be jarring to your audience and take them out of the moment.
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Screen Your Video for Potential Problems
Create your slideshow video and then watch it from beginning to end. Look for duplicates, upside down pictures, or pictures that are dark, out of focus, or low quality. Now is the time to ensure your video is perfect and to make any changes necessary. Be aware that it might take some time to create the video, so be sure to allow enough time for this step.
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Download Your Completed Video
Download your slideshow video to your computer. The importance of using a photo slideshow service that allows you to download your completed video cannot be overstated. You want a physical copy, on your device, that helps ensure an internet outage won’t spoil your video being shown at the funeral. Always ensure you have a copy available available to you without having to rely on an internet connection. A thumbdrive is an easy way to transport your video and does not require an internet connection.
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Send the Completed Video to the Funeral Home
Send a copy of the slideshow to the funeral home and let them do a test. It’s always a good idea to ensure they have a physical copy on one of their computers as opposed to relying on streaming from Youtube or another online service. Internet connections go down and as a general rule, the physical file is of higher quality than what a Youtube video will provide.
Video files are often big and depending on length, can be several hundred megabytes in size. Often, that is too large to email. Consider uploading the file to the file sharing service you used to gather the photos in Step 3, and sharing the file with the funeral home.
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Carry a Backup Copy of Your Video
Always carry a backup copy of your slideshow video with you to the memorial. Copy the video to a thumb-drive and keep it in a pocket, just in case a problem occurs. Computers crash. Files can become corrupt or get deleted accidentally. Internet connections can go down at the worst times. Always be prepared with a backup of the file just in case you need it.