Music for a funeral slideshow

A photo sits comfortably on screen for 6 to 8 seconds. That gives you a simple sum. A 4-minute song is 240 seconds, which suits 30 to 40 photos. A track of 3 minutes 30 (210 seconds) suits 26 to 35. If your memorial slideshow has two photo sections with two songs, work each one out separately.

With fewer photos than the song needs, a picture does not simply linger. Eight seconds is the ceiling; after the last photo the set starts again by itself. Twenty photos on a 4-minute song means the set is seen one and a half times. With far too many, say 80 photos in 240 seconds, each gets 3 seconds, which is too quick to take in. Use fewer photos, a longer song, or split them over two sections.

A video clip placed among the photos counts as fixed time. A 30-second clip in a section with a 240-second song leaves 210 seconds for the stills, so 26 to 35 of them. The clip plays once and the song carries on underneath.

A six-minute song is too much for thirty photos. You can trim it: every music file you have added shows a scissors icon in your collection. Pick a start and an end point, and optionally let the music fade in or out. The shortened version is saved as a separate track and the original is kept. Then select the short version for the section.

Know which song it will be but do not have the file yet? Enter its length for now, for example 3 minutes 45. You immediately see how many photos fit and can carry on arranging. Once the MP3 is attached, the section takes on the real length of the track. The same trick helps when the venue plays the song from its own system: ask how long their recording runs and enter that.

The download only contains music you have added as a file. If the song is already on your computer or phone as an MP3, add that. If not, buy it as a download from an online music store; a single track usually costs around one pound, dollar or euro. A CD you own can be ripped to MP3 for personal use. And if the music only exists in a home video, the sound can be taken out of that video and placed in your collection as a music track.

In the extended view, Spotify and YouTube are available for looking up a song and listening to it while you build the slideshow. That lets you hear whether a track suits the photos before you buy it. It goes no further than that: streaming services do not allow their music to be packaged into a file.

Start with tempo. On a slow song, 7 or 8 seconds a photo feels natural; an upbeat track for a celebration of life slideshow can move faster, but stay above 6 seconds. Notice a long intro or a long fade at the end, because the first and last photos fall there.

Then listen to the whole lyric, not just the chorus. A verse can carry a meaning you had forgotten. With a wordy song, people read less of what is on the slides, so keep captions short.

If the order of service has two photo tributes, pick songs that differ in mood so the second does not feel like a repeat. And play the preview: it runs the funeral photo slideshow as it will on the day, with music and pauses, as often as you like.