How to make a memorial slideshow

1. Gather and choose the photographs

Start by asking the family for photographs, and ask one person to collect them in a shared album or a single folder, so that nothing arrives twice or goes missing. Old prints can be copied with a phone in daylight. There is more on both in choosing the photos for a funeral program.

Then choose. A few strong photographs will do more than a great many ordinary ones. Look for:

• sharp photographs, with faces you can see clearly
• a spread of years, from childhood to the later years
• the people they loved, and the places and things that were part of their days, such as the kitchen, the garden or the boat
• one picture of each moment: from a run of near-identical shots, keep the best

Keep the person at the center. Pictures with family and friends belong, but the person should be in most of them.

A screen is wider than it is tall, so an upright photograph shows with space on either side. That is fine, and there is no need to leave out a good portrait for that reason.

If you make the slideshow here, the same photographs make the program as well: the first becomes the cover and every one after it is printed inside, so a longer slideshow means a longer program.

2. Put them in order

There are two usual orders. By time, from childhood to the later years, is the easiest to follow, especially for guests who knew only one part of the life. By theme, such as family, work and the things they loved, suits a life with distinct chapters.

Whichever you choose, give thought to the beginning and the end. Open with a clear portrait, so that everyone knows at once whose life this is. End on a warm photograph, such as a smile or a family gathering, rather than one taken during an illness.

3. Decide how long it should run

First find out where it will play. During the service, a slideshow has its own place in the order, and the officiant or the funeral director can tell you how long it should be. Suggestions from funeral and slideshow services range from about three to eight minutes.

At a reception, it can play on a loop while people talk, so its length matters much less.

The length decides the number of photographs. At about seven seconds a photograph, five minutes holds about 42. There is a table for other lengths, and a count for each song, in how many photos for a memorial slideshow.

4. Choose the music, or none

Whether to have music at all. Music sets the tone, but a slideshow does not need it. At a reception, a slideshow can play without sound under the conversation. If the venue plays its own music, or a musician is playing, a silent slideshow sits well beside it.

At the service, and online. A slideshow shown at the service is seen by the people in the room. A video posted online can be seen by anyone, and the large sites check what is uploaded. YouTube's Content ID can block a video that matches a recording someone else owns, and Meta's music guidelines say a video on Facebook with music owned by someone else may be blocked, muted or removed if that use is not authorized.

For anything posted online, use music you have the right to use, or no music. For the service itself, ask the funeral home or venue what it allows. One simple way is for the venue to play the song on its own sound system while the slideshow runs without sound.

A gentle ending. If the music is longer than the slideshow, let it fade out over the last few seconds rather than stop in the middle of a phrase. If it is shorter, add a second song, or let the last photographs play in silence.

If you make the slideshow here, you can choose no music, which suits a venue that plays its own, or add up to three of your own songs, in the order they should play, for the slideshow played at the service. Your songs are used only in the files you download, never on the memorial web page, and adding them asks you to confirm that you have the right to use them for this private memorial.

5. Add a title and a closing slide

A title slide tells everyone whose life they are about to see. The name people knew them by and the years are enough:

• Walter Hale
• 1941 – 2026

A heading such as "In Loving Memory" can sit above the name. If the slideshow will loop at a reception, the title slide also tells people who arrive partway through what they are watching.

A closing slide ends it gently: a line of thanks such as "Thank you for being here", or a line that sounds like the person.

Keep times and addresses off the slides. A slideshow may be shared after the service, and anything that only makes sense on the day will read oddly afterward.

6. Make it in the format the venue needs

Ask the venue what it can play before you make the final file. The usual choices are a file that plays on a laptop connected to the screen, an MP4 video on a USB stick, a PowerPoint for the venue's own computer, or a folder of images for a digital photo frame.

If you can, bring it in more than one format. If one will not play, another may. The questions to ask the venue, and how to set each option up, are in playing a slideshow at the service.

7. Watch it through once

Before the day, watch the whole slideshow once from start to finish, on the screen it will play on if you can, or on a television at home if you cannot. Watch for:

• a photograph that is sideways or upside down
• the same photograph appearing twice
• a name or a date spelled wrong on the title slide
• music that is too loud, too quiet or cut off
• how it ends, and whether it starts again on its own if it needs to loop

If you can, ask someone who has not been involved to watch it with you. A fresh pair of eyes notices what yours have stopped seeing.