How to Make a Birthday Slideshow

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How to make a birthday slideshow: What better way is there to celebrate a first birthday than creating a slideshow celebrating the first year of a child’s life? Of course, I’m all about DIY (doing it yourself) and so I thought I’d offer a few tips to help make the creation process smoother (WHY didn’t anyone tell me this before I started????) Having things planned out before you start can cut creation time in half – or more! It leaves out the trial and error, and lets things go super smoothly once you start creating.

1. How to Make a Birthday Slideshow – Create a story line:

Start off by creating a story line. You can do this in your head, or you can write it down. This sounds super complicated, but really it just means planning the basic order of images. For example, we decided to transition through different “things” he did this past year. We started off by saying how he was real busy. Then we showed all the “growing” pictures (our monthly transitional photos we took). We went on to playing, eating, sleeping, etc. Creating a story out of the images makes it more interesting.

2. How to Make a Birthday Slideshow – Organize your photos:

Before you open any programs, organize your photos. Create a new folder on your computer titled “slideshow” or something similar, and place the photos you’d like to use inside. It’s best to split your story line into segments and organize that into separate folders within your slideshow folder.

3. How to Make a Birthday Slideshow – Find your music:

You’ll most likely want background music to keep things interesting. Make sure to have your music sitting in your “slideshow” folder BEFORE you start. This was the mistake I made that made my creation process difficult. After putting together my slideshow I decided I should add music and couldn’t decide what – the night before the party! Every clip I put into place was too short… So keep in mind, of course, how long you’ll be making your slideshow when finding your music.

4. How to Make a Birthday Slideshow – Choose a program:

Knowing which program you want to use will enable you to have things in place once you’re ready to start. I just went with Windows Live Movie Maker – simply because it  came pre-installed on my computer. You might prefer to use one on your smartphone on tablet if that’s where most of your photos are

5. How to Make a Birthday Slideshow – Assemble it:

Once you have everything organized, pull your photos in one folder at a time. Add any captions you need, and add your music. Make sure you have all the basics assembled.

6. How to Make a Birthday Slideshow – Watch and fine tune:

Don’t bother watching it until you’re done with the basic “assembly” – simply because it takes time! Every time you watch it, you’ll find new things. Rather wait till you have everything together so you can “proofread” the music, captions, image rotation, etc. all at the same time. It’ll save you hours of viewing time!

7. How to Make a Birthday Slideshow – Make it shorter:

Once you’ve watched it, you’ll realize just how much time went by. If you’re anything like me, you probably took at least a hundred photos every day for the first few weeks of baby’s life… and it didn’t stop there! While baby is adorable, no one will disagree, people simply don’t have the patience to sit through an hour of slideshow. Stick to photos, not videos (or one or two clips of the absolute cutest things). Make it five to ten minutes long. Ours was thirteen, and I saw some fidgeting toward the end.

8. How to Make a Birthday Slideshow – Back it up:

Once you’re done making it, publish it as an actual movie and back it up to DVD. You’ll have such fun looking at it in twenty years from now. Make a few copies for close family and friends who did not make it.

You can read more first birthday party tips and resources here. Check out the gift guide for first birthday gift ideas. And make sure to share this with those who will find it useful – sharing is caring!

Sharing is caring!