How long does it take to make a funeral slideshow?

Most of the time goes into choosing the photos. The making itself is short: put photos and an MP3 in the collection, click "Choose photos" and "Choose music" on the part, and watch the preview. You do not have to finish in one sitting. Everything is kept, and you can carry on later, on another device if you wish.

Can I move a part later on?

Yes. Every part has a handle to the left of its name. Drag it to another position whenever you like. A newly created part always lands at the end, and you put it in place the same way.

What if I want to take a photo out?

Click the cross at the top right of the photo in the part, then click or tap once more to confirm. The photo leaves that part but stays in your collection, so you can choose it again later. Deleting it for good is done in the collection itself, where the screen asks you to confirm first.

What does "±7 sec per photo" next to a part mean?

It is how long each photo stays on screen, worked out from the length of the song and the number of photos. Somewhere between 6 and 8 seconds is a calm pace. If it says "series 2×" after it, there are few photos for the song and the series is shown again. Our page on the slideshow itself goes further into how many photos suit one song.

Can the same photo appear in two parts?

Yes. The "Choose photos" window shows whether a photo is already in another part, and you can still select it, for example a portrait in the entrance loop and again for a speaker. If a photo ends up twice in the same part by mistake, it gets a small marker so you notice. Want one photo in many parts? Choose it as the main photo under "Your collection": it then appears with every speaker at once, and you change it in one place.

I found the song on Spotify or YouTube. Can I use that?

For listening and deciding, yes: in the Advanced view you can look up and play music through Spotify and YouTube while you work. The preview and the download only contain your own MP3. So add the chosen song as an MP3 with "Add music"; if the song only exists inside a video, you can use the sound from that video.

Do I have to use the assistant?

No. Everything described on this page can be done with the buttons in the overview. The assistant is for people who would sooner say what they want in plain words; it helps a limited number of times for free and without limit after payment. "Undo" reverses its last step. It never judges who is in a photo.

Do the people I invite see my whole slideshow?

Not by default. Someone you invite gets a simple page for adding photos, videos and music. Under "Who is helping" you can switch a person to "Also edit the presentation", and they then work in the same overview as you. You can remove someone there too; what they already added stays.

Can I still change things after downloading?

Yes. Edit the slideshow and download again; you only pay once. After a change, watch the preview of that part and replace the file you sent earlier to the funeral director or the venue.

Do dragging and editing work on a phone?

They do. On a phone the chat and the presentation are two tabs. Press and hold a photo or a part to drag it, and the pencil opens the same editing screen with the same sliders. Sorting through a large number of photos is more comfortable on a laptop or tablet, but it is not required.

Is there a day-by-day plan for the week before the funeral?

This page is about the screen itself. A day-by-day order of work is on our page about making a farewell presentation. Inside the slideshow you do have the running order of the day, with times for what happens before, during and after the service.

Funeral slideshow maker: a walkthrough

The screen you start with

A funeral slideshow in The Last Farewell is built on one screen in your browser, on a phone, tablet or laptop, with nothing to install. This page walks through that screen so you know what is there before you begin. You create a presentation with your loved one's name and pick the Simple view. The presentation sits on the left and the conversation with the assistant on the right; on a phone they become two tabs, "Presentation" and "Conversation". The assistant starts by setting out a first outline of four parts: a walk-in loop, a speaker, a photo presentation and a closing loop. Nothing about it is fixed. Any part can be removed, another can be added and the order can change. You can ask the assistant for things in plain words, or leave it alone and use the buttons in the overview yourself. Either way you end up with the same memorial slideshow.

Easy to use

Create together with family

Professional result

Ready within an hour

Make a funeral slideshow: collect first, then choose per part

Above the parts is a card called "Your collection" with three buttons: "Add photos", "Add music" and "Add videos". Whatever you pick lands in the collection first, not yet in the slideshow. iPhone photos (HEIC), JPEG and PNG work as they are, and so do scans and PDFs, so there is no converting. Music goes in as your own MP3 file, phone videos as MP4 or MOV. Open the collection and you get three tabs (Photos, Videos, Music), sorting by newest, oldest, file name or person, and a "Trim" button to shorten a song. "Invite others" asks for an email address; press "Send invitation" and that person signs in with their email address and a code sent to them, then adds their own photos, videos and music to the same collection. Under "Who is helping" you see who has joined and decide whether someone may only add things or may also edit the presentation.

Each part has two buttons after the words "From your collection:". "Choose photos" opens a window with every photo in the collection. Click the ones you want and confirm with "Add", which shows the number you selected in brackets. Photos already used in another part are marked, so you never double up by accident. "Choose music" attaches an MP3 from the collection, and you can listen to it there first. A part can hold more than one song; they play one after the other. Under "More" you will find "Choose video" for a clip between the photos. The chosen photos appear as a row of thumbnails inside the part. Drag them to reorder; on a phone, press and hold a photo first.

Once a part has photos and music, the photos spread themselves across the length of the song. You do not set any timings. Next to the part's name you can read the outcome, for example "±7 sec per photo", which is how long each picture stays on screen. If that figure drops below 6 seconds the pace gets quick, and fewer photos, a longer song or a second piece of music will help. With only a few photos for a long song, each one stays for at most 8 seconds and the series comes round again; the note then reads something like "±8 sec per photo · series 2×". A video among the photos counts as fixed time, and the photos share what is left of the song.

The kinds of part and what each does in the slideshow

Entrance and exit loops

The window lists them as "Entrance / Arrival" and "End of service / Exit". Photos keep looping until you stop, with or without music, and the overview labels them "repeats until you stop". The duration you enter is only an estimate for the running order; the slideshow itself carries on for as long as people are arriving or leaving.

Speaker and own moment

A "Speaker" part shows one photo without music, and it stays up until whoever is operating moves on. "Add speech text" keeps the eulogy with the part as a Word or PDF file. An "Own moment" behaves the same way under a name you give it, such as a poem or a moment of silence. Without a photo it only appears in the running order.

Music piece

This is the funeral photo slideshow proper: photos change with the music and the part lasts as long as the song. When creating it you choose between "With music" and "Set manually" for the duration. The "Music piece (looping)" variant starts again after the last picture, photos and music together, until you stop it.

Video compilation

One or more videos played in sequence, each once at its own length. You switch the sound of each video on or off and can put background music underneath. It suits clips that deserve their own place in the service, a short memorial video for instance, instead of sitting between the photos.

What you can do with a part

Add one: click "Add a part" (above and below the list), pick the kind and click "Create". The new part is placed at the end.
Rename it: the pencil next to the name opens a text field, and "Save name" keeps the new name.
Move it: take the handle to the left of the name and drag the whole part to a different place in the order of service.
Remove it: the bin icon asks first, with "Yes, remove" or "No, keep it".
Fine-tune it under "More": an "Opening text…" on the first slide, the display (Fill or Original), the transition (Fade, Wipe, Zoom or Direct) and the background (Blurred or Solid).

Editing a single slide with the pencil

Each photo in a part has a pencil at the top left and a cross at the top right. The pencil opens the editing screen for that one slide. It has sliders for "Rotate", "Scale", "Left/Right" and "Up/Down", plus a choice between "Cover", where the photo fills the screen, and "Original", where the whole photo stays visible. You see every change straight away in the picture. "Reset photo" puts things back as they were, and "Done" closes the screen with your changes saved.

The same screen has "Add text" for a line over the photo, a name or a year perhaps, with a choice of font, colour, size and shadow. You can also place up to four more photos on the slide as smaller insets and drag them where you want them. "Blur background" switches the soft backdrop behind an upright photo on or off, and "Photo frame" adds a frame. The cross on a photo takes it out of the part, never out of the collection. Back in the overview you can also mark a photo so the slideshow waits there for start.

Downloading, in four forms

The green "Pay and download" button opens the download screen; after payment it simply reads "Download" and you can return to it as often as you need. There are four forms. PowerPoint, with the music inside the file, slides that advance on their own and the waiting points built in. Numbered photos (001.jpg, 002.jpg and so on) with the music as separate files, for a venue with its own playback system. A file for the Farewell Player, a free program for Windows and Mac that runs without internet. And video (MP4), one file per part with photos, videos and music together. Alongside these come a one-page operating guide and the order of service as a PDF.

Watching your funeral slideshow before the day, with music

At the top of the overview is "View preview". It plays the whole slideshow as it will run on the day: the entrance loops, a speaker's photo stays until you press the space bar, and a part that waits for start only begins after the "Start" button. Inside the preview you can jump straight to another part and turn the sound up, down or off. The word "Preview" lies across the picture as a light watermark. Watching costs nothing and you can do it as often as you like.

To see just one part, click "More" on that part and then "Preview". After swapping a song or dragging a few photos you hear at once whether it works, without sitting through the entrance loop. If something is off, close the preview, change it and play it again; the new preview shows the change immediately.

A slideshow for a burial and one for a cremation are made in exactly the same way, and the same goes for a celebration of life slideshow: same parts, same buttons, same download. Only the order differs, and you set that by dragging.

Making, editing and previewing are free. A one-off … when you download, with no subscription.

The running order of the service on the left, the chat with the assistant on the right

Optional

Prefer to go step by step? The assistant can help

If you would rather not figure everything out yourself, you can work with an assistant in the simple view. You describe how the service will go; the assistant prepares the parts, the music and the photos. You make the choices, and you can switch to the advanced view at any time.

How the assistant works

How does it work?

1

Create a free account

2

Upload photos and videos

3

Choose music and customize

4

Download or share the presentation

View detailed guide

Funeral slideshow: a screen-by-screen tour of making one