One of the most significant and moving moments in a funeral service is the photographic slideshow or video. Usually set to music that was important to your loved one, these photos show the person’s life from childhood to older age. It’s a lovely way to celebrate and remember them.
Here are some steps to help you create a memorable slideshow.
- CHECK THE FORMAT
Many churches and chapels in cemetery memorial parks will have the capacity to show a photo presentation at a funeral or memorial service. It is worth checking with them what format is required for those to be shown. There’s nothing more frustrating than to spend time putting something together, only to find out it is not in a format suitable for showing. Some will be happy to use a USB memory stick, but others will only accept mp3 and mp4 downloads.
There are a number of different computer programs that can be used to create a video slideshow, such as Clipchamp, Power Point, or others.
- SELECT THE PHOTOS
It is best to not overdo the photos! You want to create a meaningful and watchable snapshot of the person’s life, so don’t try to include everything. For a 5-6 minute presentation you will need about 70 photos. Each photo is viewed for about 5 seconds (this doesn’t sound long but it is about right).
There should be a good mixture of photos that reflect the person’s life, from childhood to adulthood and older age. Big occasions like weddings or children/grandchildren are great to show. Important occasions, holidays, pets, and favourite places can be included. Any funny or poignant moments captured in a picture are great too. Try to group the photos chronologically, if possible. The last photo should be a lovely one of the person, something that really shows who they were and how you would like people to remember them.
- CHOOSE THE MUSIC
For a six minute presentation, you will need two pieces of music. For example, in a recent photo presentation we used the very beautiful “Flower Duet”, a classical duet by Delibes, followed by Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”. This came to just over six minutes. Of course, a single, long piece of music running for five minutes or so, will be fine. Some of the photos then would need shorter viewing times and there may have to be a few less photos. Bear in mind, not all songs are useable for copyright reasons or simply are not available to download.
Need Help?
If you don’t have the technical know-how or computer equipment to create a photo presentation, Living Hope Funerals can do it all for you. All you need to do is get the photos you want, to us. You can either give us the originals, which we will look after and return to you, or you can scan or take photos of the photos and send that to us.
If you or someone you know can put together a Power Point, or similar program, with the photos you can always send us that instead. You will also need to let us know which pieces of music you’d like to accompany the photos. We will create a meaningful photo slideshow for the funeral service, and it will be one that you can keep and watch again and again.