Making a Funeral Slideshow: Honor a Loved One's Legacy

Gabrielle is an experienced freelance writer and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with experience using equine-assisted therapy.

Creating a funeral slideshow is a wonderful way to honor a loved one and share some of their favorite memories. Funeral slideshows may be shown at the service or during the repast afterwards.

Funeral Slideshow

When creating your funeral slideshow, it's important to think about the context in which it will be shown. You can:

• Play the slideshow quietly in the background of the funeral service
• Play the slideshow as the main feature post funeral service or at the repast

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How to Make a Funeral Slideshow

Breaking down the steps to making a funeral slideshow may help you stay organized. In general:

1. Begin by deciding where the slideshow will play.
2. Decide how long you'd like the slideshow to be (60 to 100 pictures is around five to seven minutes long).
3. Gather and organize pictures; these can be hard copies or from the deceased individual's social media pages (make sure you've narrowed down your image selections and only organize the ones you'll be using).
4. Scan and save all images to a cloud service.
5. Select a service for creating the slideshow (Powerpoint, Canva, Smilebox, etc.)
6. In an already created order, add your photos to the slideshow slides.
7. Make sure the first and last photo represents the deceased individual's personality and add a note from the family (In memory of, Forever missed, We love you, etc.)
8. Add text to some photos if you feel they need context (names of others in the photo and/or dates), or at the beginning of a cluster of photos (Family Vacations, Wedding Day, Having Fun).
9. Select your song or songs to add to the slideshow
10. Do a run-through of the slideshow with trusted loved ones who can give you feedback.
11. Be sure your slideshow is saved on a cloud service so you don't lose any work.

What Goes Into a Funeral Slideshow?

When selecting images for a funeral slideshow, it's best to focus on key life memories, as well as images that represent the deceased individual's personality. You may consider including:

• Baby pictures of the deceased individual
• Childhood photos
• Images of graduation and award ceremonies
• Vacation photos
• Pictures of major life events
• Images from their social media
• Images of the deceased individual and their loved ones
• Images of their favorite hobbies
• Images of their pets
• Video clips that capture their personality
• Music that amplifies the emotional tone you are going for
• Quotes that were meaningful to them
• A note from the family at the end of the slideshow and/or at the beginning of the slideshow

How Many Pictures Should a Funeral Slideshow Have?

The amount of images in a slideshow will vary depending on when and where the slideshow is played. For example, if you play the slideshow in the background on a loop at the funeral service or during the repast, but do not make the slideshow a feature, you can pick as many images as you'd like since it will play on repeat. You may:

• Select 20 to 100 photos to play on a loop if the slideshow is not being featured
• Select 30 to 100 photos to be used in a slideshow that will be featured- this will give you around five minutes of slideshow material

Once you have selected the images, you will need to scan them and upload them to your computer. You can download an app to scan the images via your phone, or use an actual scanner. Make sure you save the photos on a cloud storage service so you can work on this project over time.

How to Make a Funeral Slideshow With Music?

Prior to selecting the music, it's important to come up with the concept you'd like to use for the funeral slideshow.

• Consider the story of your slideshow- Do you want to tell their life story chronologically, or grouped together by major life events?
• Once you've organized your photos, you may consider adding short captions that give the viewer some context (dates, names of others in the photo, type of life event).
• You may select one song to play for short slideshow or a few to play throughout a longer slideshow.

When selecting a song or songs, be sure to use the deceased individual's personality to help guide you. You may pick a more upbeat or lighthearted song to play during their childhood or special life events. Towards the end of the slideshow, you may select a song that harkens back to the emotional intensity of the funeral and how much everyone will miss them.