It's often said that a photo tells a story. In this case, we can say that slideshow videos from photos tell real novels.

Slideshow videos display images or videos one after the other, with smooth transitions and, where appropriate, music. These videos are often used on networks to tell a story.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how, using FFmpeg, you can create a slideshow video from images.

Creating a slideshow video with FFmpeg

Before getting to the heart of the matter, you need to select the images you want to appear in your video.

For our example, we'll choose 7 photos, which we'll name "photo1", "photo2", "photo3" and so on. We'll store them in the following directory: C:\Users\Utilisateur\Documents\Slideshow

Once you've selected and arranged your photos, you're ready to get started. Well, almost.

If you haven't already done so, install FFmpeg on your computer. You can download it from the official website: https://ffmpeg.org/

Once done, there are just three steps to follow to create your video.

Step 1

Open the command prompt on your computer. To do this, simultaneously press "Windows" and "R" or "Command" and "R" on Mac, then type "cmd" in the conversation bar.

Pressing "Enter" will open the command prompt.

Step 2

Now navigate to the directory where your images are located. To do this, use the command "cd" followed by the path to the directory.

In our example, we'll type the following command:

cd C:\Users\Utilisateur\Documents\Slideshow

⚠️ Make sure to replace "User" with your real username.

Step 3

It's already the last step! (It's also the longest if you decide to modify certain parameters).

All that's left is to create the video slideshow.

For our example, we want:

  • the photos appear one after the other with a duration of 1 sec
  • the video to appear in 1080 x 1920 format (typical of Instagram stories or reels)
  • photos to be displayed full-screen (even if we have to cut off some of the sides slightly)

We'll type the following command:

ffmpeg -y -framerate 1 -i "C:\Users\Utilizer\Documents\Slideshow\photo%d. jpg" -vf "scale=w='min(1080,iw1920/ih)':h='min(1920,ih1080/iw)',pad=1080:1920:(1080-iw)/2:(1920-ih)/2,setsar=1" -c:v libx264 -r 30 -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4

Once you've run the command, FFmpeg will process the images and create a slideshow video named "output.mp4" in the same directory. This may take a few minutes, depending on the size of the video and the power of your computer.

Your video is now ready! (If you want to set up your video slideshow differently, we'll explain the different parts of the command below. All you have to do is modify them).

To enable you to modify the parameters to obtain the video slideshow you want, here are the details of the different parts of the command:

  • y will overwrite the output file if it already exists in the directory, without prompting for confirmation. (rather handy when testing your settings)
  • framerate 1 specifies that each image should be displayed for 1 second
  • i "C:\Users\Utilisateur\Documents\Slideshow\photo%d.jpg" indicates the source image path. Warning: if this path is not correct or the file formats do not match, your command will lead to an error
  • vf is used to insert a filter. For our example, we use :
  • -> scale=w='min(1080,iw1920/ih)':h='min(1920,ih1080/iw)' resizes images, maintaining their original aspect ratio, while adjusting the zoom to maximize image size without distortion.
  • -> pad=1080:1920:(1080-iw)/2:(1920-ih)/2 adds black borders and centers full-screen images. All this by calculating the offset values for positioning
  • ->setsar=1 sets the pixel aspect ratio to 1 and prevents image distortion.
  • c:v libx264 is an option. It specifies the video codec to be used (libx264).
  • r 30 indicates that we want a maximum frame rate of 30 frames per second. This option could be removed in our example, but for video-based slideshows, it can be useful.
  • pix_fmt yuv420p specifies the pixel format of the video.
  • output.mp4 is the name the video file will take in the directory

Once you've modified the parameters to suit your needs, you can automate the process and repeat it as many times as you like. This allows you to create slideshow videos with just a few commands in the command prompt.

To go a step further and add subtitles to your video, for example, we invite you to read our article "How to add subtitle to your videos with FFmpeg?"

However, if this tutorial seems difficult to implement, or if changing the command parameters scares you, there's always an alternative solution: you can use a video generation API like Abyssale.