After taking many photos with a digital camera or even with your smartphone, perhaps those of your summer holidays, the best way to organize them and show them to friends is to create a video showing a photo slideshow. It must therefore create a real movie in which the images flow one after the other at regular intervals of a few seconds, possibly using transition effects between one photo and another, with the background accompaniment of a soundtrack. The video can then be shared with friends or burned to a CD and watched on a computer or TV using a common DVD or MP4 player.There are several free programs for Windows PC and Mac to create a movie made of images in transition of this genus, which reproduces the sequence of your photos using background music and in this article we see which are the best, both from the point of view of simplicity and for speed of use and completeness.
App to create photo videos, music and slideshows
1) Video editor Windows 10
The Video Editor in Windows 10 allows you to create customized videos in a super simple way and with results that can be customized by choosing filters, animations, music, titles and duration. The app, already included in Windows 10, is the true heir to Windows Movie Maker and is worth a try first because it is really well done and satisfying for most purposes.2) MovieMaker di Minitool
MovieMaker di Minitool is a program released in 2019 with the same name as the old Microsoft Movie Maker. He would therefore like to be a clone, which makes it easy to create videos with photos, music and various effects. With a very simple and modern interface, it is one of the best on this list.
3) Windows Movie Maker
The most popular and easiest to use free program in Windows has been, for years, Windows Movie Maker. This program has now been retired by Microsoft, but it is still freely downloadable and usable on PC, so you can create photo and music videos quickly and easily.
In another article the guide to edit videos with Movie Maker, which also works very well to apply effects to photos, although creating a slideshow movie may not be as convenient and fast as with other programs.
4) FlexClip
Another very effective program that we can use to create photo videos and slideshows is XNUMX features you , which facilitates the task with a modern and easy-to-use interface even for beginners in the sector.
We talked about this program in the dedicated guide FlexClip App to edit videos and photos with music and text, where we saw that it is already one of the best free solutions that you can currently use on your computer to create slideshows.
5) Openshot
Openshot, free full video editor program for Windows and Mac, of which I wrote a dedicated article, is the best alternative to Windows Movie Maker and also allows you to create a photo video with music in a rather simple way.
This is a software that comes with a professional-level interface and features but is offered completely free (in addition to having an open source license): this program can be used to create animations between photos, special effects and writings with preview in real time.
6) PhotoFilmStrip
PhotoFilmStrip is the program derived from the old Photostory, available for free (except the version as an app for Windows 10). PhotoFilmStrip creates movies starting from the images in just 3 steps: select your photos, customize the effects and get the video by choosing the final format depending on whether you want to keep it as a VCD, SVCD, DVD or even in FULL-HD. You can also add an mp3 audio file or background music.
I also talked about Photofilmstrip in the article on how to create transition effects with motion-zoom and with Face Movie.
7) PhotoStage Slideshow Software
PhotoStage Slideshow Software is a commercial program that can be downloaded in a free version for Windows and Mac with some limitations (nothing shocking, but some filters will not be usable). The program in your language allows you to create videos with photos, with music, with effects, animations and writings, giving many options to customize the various elements and a timeline and a preview box to manage times and viewing.
You can eventually save the video in different formats and resolutions, even in Full HD. Slideshows obtained with this software can be burned directly to DVD or exported to formats for PCs and portable devices.
8) 4K Slideshow Maker
4K slideshow maker is a program for Windows, Mac and Linux that allows you to easily create slideshows with PC photos or even Instagram photos. This program, also available in a portable version, is really basic and only allows you to add photos and then music to create the final video with different formats depending on where you intend to see it.
9) DVD Slideshow
DVD Slideshow seems to be the best compromise between free programs and those, more powerful, paid, to create videos with photos in slideshows, music and writings, also available in your language, unfortunately no longer updated since 2013. The strengths are the transition effects between one photo and another that you can choose from a hundred possibilities. The presentation of photographs can be accompanied by music and you can add borders and frames in which to incorporate the video. Just select the photos from the Add menu, then insert an MP3 music that acts as a background, subtile and written captions possibly to appear on the movie and, finally, save the file as a video to be copied to a DVD or uploaded to YouTube.
At the end there is the option to burn a DVD or CD so that you can watch the video with the photos passing one after the other, on a television via DVD or Divx player.
10) Bolide Slideshow Creator
Bolide Slideshow Creator is a much more feature-rich free program, ideal for creating video slideshows from images and photos, with transition effects, audio or background music. The program is very easy to use, supports images of the type JPEG, JPG, BMP, ICO, EMF and WMF, allows you to save the video even in high resolution Full HD with AVI, MKV, WMV, MP4, FLV format. There are many transition effects to choose from that are beautiful to look at: cross fader, fade out, left to right, slide right to left, top to bottom, and many more.
11) ffDiaporama
ffDiaporama is an open source program for Windows, Linux and Mac, to edit videos and photos and turn them into slideshow movies. ffDiaporama works more or less like Windows Live Movie Maker and simply requires you to import images and / or videos to start editing and merging them. The video can be saved in several different formats, for mobile phones, for iPhone and iPad, for Youtube, in flash and in Divx (AVI and MKV).
12) Movie Maker - FREE
Only for Windows 10 we can download the app Movie Maker - FREE which allows you to create video presentations with photos, in the form of slideshows, using more than 30 transition effects. You can also add overlay text, background music, and some effects that make photos look like they are hanging.
This app is a candidate to be the true heir of Windowd Movie Maker, tracing its style and simplicity (as well as the name).
13) Microsoft Photo Story 3.0
Microsoft Photo Story 3.0 has been the fastest and easiest photo slideshow maker for years. In Photostory you just need to select the desired photos, put one or more music in mp3 format and then let the video be created made up of beautiful transition effects between the photos. The limitation of the program is that you can create a movie only for 300 photographs.
14) iMovie per Mac
iMovie per Mac is a free application that should already be present in the applications folder or that you can also download for free from the Apple website. With iMovie it is very easy to edit videos and create videos from photos and music.
Essential guides for slideshows
To be sure to be able to see the videos made or the movies created, remember to get the video codecs to see any video file or to use a handyman program such as VLC Media Player.
For programs that accept only one track in MP3 format, it might be useful to create a file with different music in it, joining several mp3s together. To copy videos to CD or DVD you can use i programs for burning CDs and DVDs.
As an alternative to creating a movie with photos, another article describes the best online services for create photo albums and photo collages also to print.
Conclusions
By choosing one of the programs seen above we will be able to create photo videos, music, effects such as image slideshows starting from the photo collection of a particular event and using custom music and transitions to generate very beautiful photo videos, to share with friends or with the people we love most.
Without using programs, it is also possible create movies and slideshows of photos and images using video montage web applications to edit and create videos. Alternatively we can get the same results by reading our guides upload photos to Youtube and create a video slideshow e best apps to create video with photos on android and iphone.
