Most businesses have a selection of photographs of their work, or of them at work. Those who are trying to build a reputation via social media will quickly build up a stock of images. I want to talk you through how to make a video from a slide-show of your still images. I want to talk you through this because a surprising number of people ask me how it’s done. The thing is, it’s very easy. At least it’s very easy to use one of the myriad free pieces of software or websites to make a mediocre one. I’m going to give you some insight into making something a little better.
[bctt tweet=”Slide-show videos are cheap, simple and can be effective. Find out how.” username=”yellbusiness”]
Why Should You Make A Slide-Show?
Good first question. There are several reasons. Firstly, even a simple business video is better than no business video. We know how effective video is. The simple act of catching the eye with a moving image on a webpage is so much more powerful than using a still image. So why not move to a full video production? You should. A full video production will be much more effective than any slide-show. But you may not be ready to invest in a full video production. That is one of the main reasons to start with a slide-show, it’s cheap. The reason it’s cheap is that they are simple to make. That doesn’t mean they don’t require any thought.
How To Start
The first step is to assemble and review all of the still images you have relating to your business. You are looking for images that effectively showcase your business in the best light possible. What is the core service or product you provide? How do you solve problems for your customers? Among the images you select you need to find some that demonstrate these specific things. While we’re thinking about this let’s ask how many images you need. The answer depends upon how long you want your finished video to be. Don’t make it too long because no matter how skilled your slide-show it’s just moving still images and viewers will lose interest quickly. I would suggest that a slide-show should be limited to between thirty and forty five seconds. This means that our initial selection of images should be around forty. We won’t use all of those but it will give us options later.
How To Use Your Images
There are two elements to how we use our images in our slide-show video. First is the order we use them in and the second is how we move them on the screen.
Ordering Our Images
Even with a slide-show we are still trying to tell a story. The story we need to tell potential customers is that we can solve a problem for them. Select an order that shows before and after. Or select images that show a client’s journey. The order should lead the viewer through a chain of thought that shows them how much benefit they will get from using your business.
Moving The Images
When we move our still images across the screen we need to consider the movement onto and off the screen, and where they are positioned to hold the viewer’s attention. Each image in our slide-show will move into a position where the viewer can see what we want them to see and then move away. This can be done against a coloured background where the images are elements on the screen or this can be done where the images fill the screen and we transition between them. The position of the images could result in several images at once showing what you want them to see or it could be a single image. Or it could be that we zoom in to fill the screen with a portion of the complete image.
Example
An image of a tired living room with cracked plaster slides across the screen left to right. It does not pause but moves slowly enough to be seen. It is on screen for three seconds in total. We move three images, one after the other, to fill a portion of the screen each showing the progress of the room’s transformation. These images hold position for a second to allow the viewer to see them all then they spiral off to be replaced by an image of the re-plastering, now complete. This cross fades into the room newly decorated.
How To Make Your Slide-Show
There are several free platforms that will make your video for you. Animoto, FlixTime, Slide.ly and Roxio Slideshow to name a few. For our purposes we need to be able to have control over positioning. Most free platforms won’t offer this. We also need to be able to select music to enhance the viewer experience and the video’s impact. Some of this functionality is available but usually within limits. However, a professional video producer will be able to create a very effective slide-show video while still offering costings that are very much lower than a full video production. So the question to ask is should you attempt to use an app or free website to produce your video or should you employ a professional. I know which I would choose but in the end it is up to you. The important point is that your video gets you the results you need.
