iMovie Photo Slideshows

You can use iMovie to create a slideshow video from a series of photos. All of the iMovie tools, like effects, transitions and titles, can be used in a slideshow to make it more interesting than slideshows created in some other tools. You can also easily share your slideshow video from iMovie.

Comments: 22 Responses to “iMovie Photo Slideshows”

    Anna
    10 years ago

    The iMovie Photo Slideshow lesson is great. I had no idea I had the tool right in front of me. Now I can create a family slide show using the scans of old family photos to share with the family and add some music as well. Thank you so much Gary for your posting.

    Frank
    10 years ago

    Thanks for the lesson. I've made many movies but maybe just one including pictures and music so I'm going to expand on that. Question on importing movies and pictures to the MacPro from the iPhone: my method is 1) open iMovie and import, but now it no longer asks me to delete my videos on the iPhone to make room. Then 2) go to iPhoto and import (but now it wants to import the videos as well so I have to manually select only the pictures. Allows deletion after though. What is your method?! Thks.

      10 years ago

      I save personal photos and videos to iPhoto. So if they are personal videos, I start by importing them into iPhoto and use them from there. If they are work or professional videos, I use Image Capture and import them to a folder. I then import them from that folder to iMovie.

    Bill
    10 years ago

    Great lesson. I have just begun to create slideshows in iPhoto and exporting them as video. Is it better to export into iTunes or iMovie Theater as I want to view them via Apple TV? Thanks for all you do.

    Barbara Hooper
    10 years ago

    Is there any way to import photos with captions from iPhoto into iMovie?

      10 years ago

      No, but you can always build the slideshow in iPhoto using those captions and then import that video into iMovie for further editing.

    John C Stires
    10 years ago

    Selecting the Finder Option went by too fast for me to pick it up... would you pls explain how/where you grabbed that? Thanks Gary.

      10 years ago

      It is just a Finder window. I grabbed it from my second screen. Or, if iMovie is only using part of the screen you can grab it from the other part. Or, you can switch to the Finder using any number of methods (Command+Tab, for instance).

    Kevin Brown
    10 years ago

    Great video, thanks so much really helped the wife get a good start.....

    Al Jenkins
    10 years ago

    I am working on a slide / clip show to be posted on tube.
    When importing photos from an album, some blur badly. Is there any way to prevent this to allow the original clarity to be imported in the movie?

      10 years ago

      If your video is, say 720p (1280x720), and your image is less than that, like 640x480, then iMovie scales it up to fit. There's no way to get more resolution from a low resolution image. The information just isn't there.
      However, if your image is 1280x720 or higher, then what may be the problem is you are mistaking the "preview" in iMovie with the final product. Remember, the preview is a preview -- literally. It is a fast render of the video frame in real time to help you edit. Try exporting the video to see a final product and how the images will really look. It doesn't hurt to export before you are done to see how it looks.

        Al Jenkins
        10 years ago

        Yes some photos have been reincarnated from old photos and slides.
        the bulk of the 30 minute video consists of iPhone photos, clips, and better quality canon 12 mgp photos.
        What resulted from the export to file, (which took four hours), is truly amazing.
        The entire video is usable!
        Thank you very much.

    Tab Baldwin
    10 years ago

    Making first slideshow. Created 6 in iPhoto w/ music and imported into iMovie '11. I have 6 "chapters"--now to "export". This will play at my mom's memorial service on a projector (connected to both DVD player and a pc). I've experimented with a couple of different settings and saved to iDVD and to a flash drive (and it played on my old pc). The DVD quality is crappy as is the QT movie on flash drive. How else can I do this--to Dropbox and access on the funeral home's computer?
    Thanks!

      10 years ago

      Really hard to say as there as so many factors involved. You'll need to review the settings you used to export from iPhoto, and the settings used in iMovie. I would just export from iMovie to a file, confirm that this looks good and if it doesn't try higher quality settings. Seek out the first-hand help of someone with expertise in this area as there are too many variables to guess where you could be going wrong. Either that, or keep experimenting.

        Tab Baldwin
        10 years ago

        Thank you for the reply! I exported from iPhoto into iMovie with settings as good as I could do (from info gathered online). The slideshow looks great on my iMac--just wish there was a way to share it in that "condition". I accept, even if I don't fully understand, the quality limits of burning to DVD, but was hoping there was another way. Maybe take my iMac with me (but I'll be flying) and hook it to the projector?
        Thanks again. LOVE your tutorials. I'd be lost on my Mac without them.

          10 years ago

          Take that file that you like and put it on a USB flash drive, formatted for PC. Then test it locally on a PC (friend, library, etc). Then bring that with and play that on the PC available. You can't control what that PC is/does so be prepared for the case where that PC isn't up to playing high resolution video by making a DVD anyway. The DVD may no look great on your high resolution screen on your Mac, but may look fine on a low resolution projector.

            Tab Baldwin
            10 years ago

            Thanks, Gary. I will try the flash drive too, but I think the DVD will work just fine. I played with the settings, and I now think it looks pretty darn good. I exported with high settings and quality from iMovie to desktop before importing into iDVD. From there, I used "professional" (or whatever the choice was) and burned at 1x. Made a world of difference from my first attempt.
            I appreciate your helpful website!!!

    Roberta
    10 years ago

    Hello Gary, I need to make up a slideshow using pictures and a few short videos that I took from my reg. cell along with music. I take pictures every year for the Varsity HS basketball team, but this year I had to get a new PC so I went with a iMac and have no idea if I can do this. I also will need to burn the final unto DVD's for each player.

      10 years ago

      You can certainly use iMovie for this. Just mix videos and photos. Practice. There's a lot to learn and it can be fun to learn. Burning DVDs will be tough since if you got a new Mac you don't have a DVD burner. You'll need to get some equipment and some software -- and perhaps some help there. Or, just forget about DVDs and post it online, privately if need be.

    Kristy
    10 years ago

    Hi Gary - Is there a way to create your own "Ken Burns" push in on a picture? Some of the default cropping choices do not capture everything on old pictures. I'd like to just pick crop and then add a slow push in as an effect. I had done this before in Microsoft Movie Maker and think that there has got to be a way to do this in iMovie.

    Thanks,

      10 years ago

      Hard to tell what you are looking to do but you can always crop the images in an image editor (Preview will do, if you have nothing else) and use the new cropped versions. Sticking with 16:9 ratio is best for iMovie. Making the rest of the image transparent (with Photoshop or the like) will work for odd sizes.

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