Funeral Slideshow Ideas and How to Make One

A slideshow is often the part of a funeral or memorial service that people remember. For a few minutes, everyone sees the whole life: the baby photos, the wedding, the holidays, the ordinary days in the kitchen or the garden.

Putting one together while you're grieving can feel like a lot. This guide gathers ideas and practical steps to make it easier: what to include, how many photos to use, which songs fit, and which free tools to make it with.

We should say who we are. We don't make slideshows. We make short AI memorial videos from one or two photos, and some families add one to the end of their slideshow. There is more on that below, but everything else here applies whatever you decide.

Funeral Slideshow Ideas

There is no single right way to do it. These ideas work in many of the slideshows families remember:

1. 1Tell their life in order. Start with childhood and move through school, work, marriage, children and later years. It is the easiest order for guests to follow, and the easiest for you to sort.
2. 2Or group photos by theme. Family, friends, work, travel, hobbies, pets. Themes work well when dates are unknown, or when one part of their life mattered most.
3. 3Include the everyday. Holidays and weddings are easy to find, but the photos people react to are often ordinary ones: cooking, reading the paper, asleep in a favourite chair.
4. 4Show the things they loved. A garden, a car, a fishing rod, a recipe card in their handwriting. A photo of an object can say as much as a portrait.
5. 5Ask family and friends for photos. Set up a shared album or ask in a family group chat. Friends and colleagues often have pictures the family has never seen. Give a clear deadline.
6. 6Add a few short clips. A few seconds of home video, or a voicemail they left, can be very moving. Keep clips short and check the sound before the day.
7. 7Keep captions simple. A year and a place, or a phrase they always used. Long text is hard to read on a screen and pulls attention away from the photos.
8. 8Open and close with a portrait. Begin with a clear, recent photo so everyone recognises them, and end on a favourite picture, held on screen a little longer.
9. 9Bring one photo to life. Some families end the slideshow with a short AI memorial video, in which a favourite photo gently moves. There is more on this below.

How Long Should a Funeral Slideshow Be?

Most funeral slideshows run for 5 to 10 minutes, about the length of two or three songs. Much longer than that and attention starts to drift, especially during a service.

Plan on 5 to 7 seconds per photo, which works out at roughly 10 photos a minute:

If the slideshow will play on a loop during a visitation or reception rather than during the service, it can run longer and include more photos.

Songs for a Funeral Slideshow

The best song is usually one they loved. If nothing comes to mind, ask the family what they sang along to in the car, or what played at their wedding. Otherwise, these are songs many families choose:

Popular songs

• “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong
• “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole
• “In My Life” by The Beatles
• “My Way” by Frank Sinatra
• “Tears in Heaven” by Eric Clapton
• “Time to Say Goodbye” by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman
• “The Dance” by Garth Brooks
• “Supermarket Flowers” by Ed Sheeran
• “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth
• “Dancing in the Sky” by Dani and Lizzy

Hymns

• “Amazing Grace”
• “How Great Thou Art”
• “Abide with Me”
• “It Is Well with My Soul”

Instrumental music

Instrumental pieces such as Pachelbel's Canon in D, Debussy's “Clair de Lune” or Satie's “Gymnopédie No. 1” work well for longer stretches, or under a part where someone will speak.

Songs in your own language work just as well. Some faiths and families prefer no music at a funeral; if so, the slideshow can play in silence, or be shown at a gathering afterwards.

If you'll share it online

Posting the slideshow on YouTube or Facebook, or streaming the service, is different from playing it in the room. Platforms often mute copyrighted songs or block the video. For an online version, use royalty-free music, such as the music library in your slideshow tool or YouTube's Audio Library.

How to Make a Funeral Slideshow, Step by Step

1. 1Gather the photos. Set a deadline a few days before the service and collect everything in one shared album. Scan prints at 300 dpi or more, or photograph them flat in daylight without glare.
2. 2Choose and sort them. Pick the best, drop near-duplicates and blurry shots, then put them in order. Numbering the files (001, 002, 003) keeps that order when you import them.
3. 3Pick the music. Choose the songs first, then fit the number of photos to their length.
4. 4Build it. Use one of the free tools below. Show each photo for 5 to 7 seconds, use gentle transitions such as a crossfade, and add the music.
5. 5Export and test it. Save it as an MP4 video and watch it from start to finish. If you can, test it on the screen at the venue, and bring a backup copy on a USB stick.

Free Tools to Make One

Many funeral homes also offer to make a slideshow or tribute video for you, usually for a fee. It's worth asking if you're short on time.

Adding a Short AI Memorial Video

A slideshow tells the story of a whole life. Some families also want one moment in which a favourite photo moves: a smile, a turn of the head, a moment together that feels close to real.

That is what we make. From one or two photos, our team uses AI to create a short memorial video and emails it to you as a 1080p MP4 within 48 hours, for $9.90. Because it is a standard video file, you can add it to PowerPoint, Canva, iMovie or Google Slides like any other clip.

All videos marked “AI sample” are AI-generated examples.

A few things help:

• Put it at the very end, after the last photo, or play it on its own before or after the service.
• Add a short caption, such as “Animated with AI from a photo taken in 1985”, so no one is confused.
• Ask close family first. For some people, seeing a photo move is a comfort; for others it is too much, especially at the service itself.

To decide whether it's right for you, read our guide to creating an AI video of a deceased loved one, or see how an AI hug video works.

On the Day

• Send the file to whoever runs the screen a day or two before, and ask what format and connection they need.
• Bring it on a USB stick and keep a copy on your phone, just in case.
• Turn off notifications and sleep mode on the laptop that plays it.
• Decide who will start it, and when. A slideshow often plays as people arrive, after the eulogy, or at the reception.
• Afterwards, if the family agrees, share it with people who couldn't be there.

Questions