8 Simple Steps to Creating a Video on your iPhone.
How To Make A Video with Pictures & Music.
Also Known As A Slideshow
The 8 steps on how to make a slideshow video with pictures and music.
Why then, do so many people struggle with this?
First of all because they get stuck on the topic of which app to use.
This is actually a superficial problem.
You can use just about any video editing app out there to make a slideshow.
BUT some are easier than others.
In this article we are going to show you, step by step, how to make a slideshow video on an iPhone without an editing app. Yes that's right, you can do this with only your iPhone.
Then we're going to show you how to do it in iMovie as well. You can decide which method better suits what you want to achieve.
Watch our Video Tutorial
STEP 1. Slideshow Video on iPhone
First you will need to get some pictures on your phone that you want to make into a short slideshow video.
There is a super easy way to view your photos as a slideshow with music on an iPhone just using the photos app.
Simply open your photos app.
Select all the images you want to include in your slideshow.
Tap at the bottom left to see the menu and scroll down to the slideshow option.
Automatically your iPhone will create a video with music. You can see multiple images randomly grouped together, with unique transitions between the slides.
Under options you can change the theme, the music, whether it should repeat and the overall speed.
This is a really fast way to create a cool slideshow.
You can airplay this to your TV and show friends if you want, but that is sadly where it ends.
This slideshow function does not allow you to export this as a video (save your slideshow), so that you can share it with friends and family..
Don't worry, there is an easy workaround.
All you need to do is a screen recording.
STEP 2. Make a Slideshow Video
When you slide up on your screen it opens your control centre.
Here you should have a record screen button next to your flashlight. (A circle within a circle.)
If you do not see it, then you need to customize your control centre.
- Go to iPhone settings.
- Search for a Control Centre.
- Select customise controls
- Look for the screen recording option.
- You need to tap the little green plus button to add it.
Now when you slide to open your control centre you will see the button.
When you tap on this have 3 seconds to set up your screen and record your slideshow.
This will automatically save to your recent folder in the photos app.
If you are interested in taking more control of your edits then we want to show you how to make a video with images and music in a 3rd party editing app as well.
STEP 3. How to use iMovie
Using an editing app for making a video with images and music gives you more control to make the video look the way you want it to look.
For creating slideshows with music we use iMovie for iOS, for 3 reasons:
It is Free.
Easy to use Ken Burns Effect.
It comes with your iPhone, no need to install anything.
Tap to open iMovie.
Start a new project.
Next you have two options.
Movie & Trailer.
Movie allows you to create a video from scratch whereas the trailer is a pre-templated video.
For our slideshow we want to select Movie.
Select the images for your video.
Hit create.
You will see if you push play the first image takes way too long to get through. And all the others will be the same.
You need to shorten the image duration by trimming it the way you would a video clip.
Before we start trimming though, you want to add in the music.
The music will have an impact on the length of the clips.
STEP 4. How to add Music to your Slideshow
Select the plus over under the preview window (left side) to open the media library. From here you can import media.
Choose the audio section.
Your options are Soundtracks, My Music and Sound FX.
The Soundtracks is a built-in music library in iMovie.
If like us, you prefer to bring in your own music you can go to My Music option and either bring in songs from iTunes or from Youtube.
Under imported you will see some the tracks that are sourced from a free music channel on Youtube. (This is what we usually do)
Add in this track and have a listen.
Now you can shorten the clips to match the feel of the music.
To change clip duration you will need to trim the clip.
STEP 5. Change the Slideshow Duration
Tap on the image to select it.
Once it is selected it will get a yellow border.
In the preview screen:
- At the top you can see the current duration which is 6.6 seconds
- And below are the ken burns controls.
To trim, grab the yellow handle and drag the clip to a shorter length.
Bring your clip all the way down to around 1 second. Flip through all of them to quickly bring down the duration to a suitable length. I'm aiming for around 0,8 to 1.1 seconds. You don't need to be super accurate.
Let's have a look at the ken burns effect now.
STEP 6. Add the Ken Burns Effect
Ken Burns is an effect to animate the image to get some movements.
You have the option to change the front of the clip to a “beginning state” and at the end of the clip to an “end state”.
As the video plays it will transition between these two states.
If you turn Ken Burns off the images remain static. This is quite boring.
Make sure to mix up the direction and angles of movement. The more energetic the music, the more radical you can make the transitions.
STEP 7. Editing Transitions on a iPhone
The next thing you want to consider is looking at the transitions. By default iMovie places a crossfade between all clips.
You can choose between a whole bunch of different transitions. The theme button actually comes with sound effects.
You can change the direction of the slide transition if you like. There are 4 states you can choose from. Just tap on it again to choose another direction.
If you give your video a watch now transitions might still look a little lame.
The main reason for this is because they are two slow.
At the bottom here you can speed it up by choosing the .5 of a second option.
Again this will depend on your music speed and energy.
STEP 8. Save Your Slideshow Video
You need to basically just watch your video from the start and adjust the Image duration/length, Ken Burns & transitions on each of the clips. Keep going through this till you've shortened everything enough to keep the video interesting.
When you are finished.
Hit done. Top left corner.
Make sure to name your project.
You can now hit the share button and share this video with whoever you want.
Got any questions? Hit us up in the comments below.
Watch our Video Tutorial
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