Whether you’re shooting on a high-quality DSLR camera, a smartphone, or an iPad, you’ve probably taken more photos than you know how to use.

One of the best ways to put them to use is in a video slideshow.

When to create a picture slideshow video

Videos made with your best pictures are a great way to show off memorable moments and to share those photos with your friends and family. Here are a few great opportunities to turn your photos to video. 

• Trip pictures: Create a video from photos taken during your vacation; it’s a great way to relive the memories. 
• Wedding pictures: Create stunning videos of your wedding to remember the magical day. Or create a video using pictures of your or your partner’s childhood photos to show at your reception. 
• Birthday or anniversary pictures: Show your friends or loved ones how much you care with a video slideshow of special moments shared over the past year or over your time together.  
• Marketing photos: Use your best product photos to create a dynamic advertisement, perfect for social media, trade shows, or for display in your office or store. 

How to create a video with pictures with Descript

Descript makes it easy to turn your favorite photos into a powerful video. Here’s how:

• Create a project. To create a new project, open the Descript app or online editor and select “New”, then “New Project”. Give your video a title, hit “Create Project”, and you have a new project to start. 
• Add your photos. After choosing the photos you’d like to include in your video, upload them to your project by clicking choose file and browsing your device. Or, you can simply drag and drop files into the Descript. You can also add any additional animations or video clips the same way, by dragging and dropping. If you need to add more images later in the editing process, just hit the insert (+) icon and choose them from your computer.
• Organize your photos. To save yourself time, you can name the photo files alphabetically in the order you’d like them to appear before uploading. Or, simply rearrange them once they’ve been imported, which can be done with a simple drag and drop in the video timeline.
• Set a photo length. To choose how long each photo stays on screen, you can adjust the duration from the clip inspector (where you can also change layout, opacity, and more) or simply use the range tool directly on your timeline. 
• Add transition styles. Once you’ve got your photos and video clips in the order and duration you want them, you can begin to add transitions between them. Open the transitions options by clicking the vertical rectangles (which represent transitions) on the clip inspector. You’ll have the option to toggle both audio transitions and video transitions on or off. To create transitions between your photos, turn video transitions on, select fade, and adjust the in and out durations to your liking. Or, choose the crossfade option, which will require you to place one of the clips on a new layer, so that they overlap.
• Add a soundtrack. Whether you want to add music or a voiceover recording to your video with photos, uploading audio on the Descript video editor is easy. Hit the insert (or plus) icon and select voice file (or audio recording if you want to tape something on the spot). From there, Descript will automatically transcribe your audio, which takes just a few minutes. Once that’s done, you can easily edit and trim audio straight from the script. 
• Add titles. To add text to your video (that is not related to the audio), hit the insert (or plus) icon and select title. This will generate a new layer on your timeline for your title. You can edit your text and choose its placement directly on the video preview. On the clip inspector, you can change the font style, size, color, alignment, and more. And just like your photo or video clips, you can adjust the duration of your title text from the clip inspector, or by using the range tool in the timeline. 
• Put in some captions. Whether you want to include stylized lyrics or a voice-over transcription, adding closed captions to your Descript video is easy. Make sure your audio is uploaded. Then, hit the insert (or plus) icon and select fancy captions. Just like titles, you can change font and duration on the clip inspector. You can also drag and trim on the timeline to ensure your fancy caption lines up with your audio. ‍
• Publish and share. Once you’re done creating your video from photos, you’ll need to export it to publish and share. To do this, go to File and select Export. There will be several options, including a cloud export to YouTube and timeline export to Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere. In most cases (like if you want to share your video on social media) you’ll want to do a file export. Save the video, and it’ll download to your computer as an mp4 file. From there, you’re ready to upload and share.