Guidance
Funeral Slideshow Guide: How Many Photos, What Order, What Music
A funeral slideshow is usually made in two or three evenings, by someone who is grieving, who has never made one before. This guide is for that person. It answers the practical questions directly — how many pictures a funeral slideshow needs, what order to put them in, what music works, which software to use — so the remembering can take the energy and the logistics cannot.
5 August 2026 · Mosaic of a Life
How many pictures for a funeral slideshow?
The honest arithmetic: each photo should stay on screen for five to seven seconds — long enough to recognise faces and feel something, short enough to keep the room with you. That gives roughly eight to twelve photos per minute, which converts to:
- 3–4 minutes (one song): about 25–40 photos. Right for a slideshow played once during the service itself.
- 5–8 minutes (two songs): about 50–80 photos. The most common choice, and a comfortable one.
- 9–12 minutes (three songs): about 90–130 photos. Best kept for the reception, looping in the background, where nobody is held in a seat by it.
If the slideshow plays during the service, shorter is genuinely better: three to five minutes holds a room completely; ten minutes loses it. If it loops at the reception, length matters less — guests drift over, watch a cycle, and drift back to each other, which is exactly what you want. When in doubt: 60–75 photos over two songs serves almost every funeral well.
And if you have far more good photos than the arithmetic allows — most families do — that is not a problem to squeeze into the slideshow. Put the best sixty here, and give the rest another home: a photo board, or a mosaic portrait, both covered in our funeral photo display ideas.
What order should the photos go in?
Three approaches, in rising order of effort:
Chronological — the default, for good reason
Childhood, youth, wedding, work, children, grandchildren, the last good years. A life told in order has a natural arc that needs no cleverness, and guests who only knew one chapter get to meet the rest. If photos of the early decades are scarce, that is normal — a handful of childhood images carry great weight precisely because they are few.
Chapters — chronology with headings
The same arc, loosely grouped: the early years · the family · the boat · the grandchildren. A short title slide between chapters gives the room a moment to breathe and lets you group the fishing photos together where they belong.
Bookends — the simplest lift
Whatever order you choose, open and close deliberately: begin with one strong portrait, ideally with their name and years, and end with the photograph that is most them — the mid-laugh one — held on screen a few seconds longer. The last image is the one the room keeps.
Two ordering habits worth keeping regardless: scatter the group shots among the portraits rather than clumping them, and place any photo likely to undo the family (the last photo, the hospital photo) with care — or leave it out. A slideshow does not owe the room the hardest image.
What music works
Their music first. The song they cooked to, the record always on in the car — a genuine favourite beats a beautiful stranger every time, and the family will hear it as them forever after. Where you need additions, these carry funerals gently: “What a Wonderful World” (Louis Armstrong), “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole), “Hallelujah” (Leonard Cohen or Jeff Buckley), “Time to Say Goodbye” (Andrea Bocelli), “You Raise Me Up”, “Wind Beneath My Wings”, or hymns like “Amazing Grace” and “Abide With Me” where they fit the service. Instrumental versions of any of these work when lyrics feel like too much.
Practical notes: two songs of ordinary length give you your five-to-eight minutes; let the photo count follow the music rather than fading a song mid-verse; and check with the officiant or venue — some churches have guidance on secular music, and it is better to know on Tuesday than at the service.
What software to use
Use whatever is already on a device you own — this is a job for familiar tools on a short deadline:
- Google Photos or Apple Photos (Memories): select the pictures, and either will assemble a movie with music in minutes. The fastest route by far.
- iMovie (Mac/iPhone): free, and the most control for modest effort — reorder freely, set slide duration, add title slides and your own music, export a video file.
- Canva: free slideshow templates in the browser, easy for a less technical helper, exports to video.
- PowerPoint or Google Slides: old-fashioned and reliable — one photo per slide, timed transitions, and every venue on earth can play it. Export to video if you can.
Keep the craft plain: simple crossfade transitions, no spinning effects, captions only where a face or place needs naming, and every photo shown full-frame rather than cropped by a template. The photographs are the point; the software should disappear.
Practical details that save the day
- Export a video file (MP4) rather than relying on an app, a login or the venue's wifi.
- Bring it three ways: on a USB stick, on a laptop, and uploaded somewhere reachable. One of the three always works.
- Test at the venue — or at minimum confirm their screen, cable and sound. Ask for a run-through an hour before guests arrive.
- Scan prints with a phone. A free scanning app makes old photographs slideshow-ready in seconds; photos of photos, taken in good light, are honestly fine too.
- Appoint an operator. One named person presses play and handles the technology, so the family does not spend the service watching the projector.
After the service
The slideshow has a long life after the day: share the file with everyone who spoke, everyone who contributed photos, and everyone who could not attend — for many far-away relatives it becomes the memorial they were able to be part of. And the gathered photo collection is now a family treasure in its own right. Some families give it one more form: a memorial photo mosaic — the same hundred photographs composed into a single portrait of their face, for the wall rather than the screen. If that feels right someday, you can begin with the photos you have already gathered; the slideshow folder is exactly the raw material.
Questions families often ask
How many pictures should a funeral slideshow have?
Plan on eight to twelve photos per minute, at five to seven seconds each. For a slideshow played during the service, 25–40 photos over one song (3–4 minutes) holds the room best; for a reception loop, 60–100 photos over two or three songs works well. Sixty to seventy-five photos is a safe answer for almost any funeral.
How long should a funeral slideshow be?
Three to five minutes if it plays during the service — long enough to tell the story, short enough to hold every guest. At a reception it can loop at five to ten minutes, because nobody is held in a seat by it. When in doubt, cut: the slideshow people wish were longer always beats the one they endured.
How many songs do you need for a funeral slideshow?
Usually one or two — a single song covers a 3–4 minute service slideshow, and two songs cover the common 5–8 minute length. Choose the person’s genuine favourites first and let the photo count follow the music, so no song fades mid-verse. Keep a third song only for a longer reception loop.
Can I make a funeral slideshow in one day?
Yes, comfortably, once the photos are gathered — Google Photos, Apple Photos or iMovie can assemble one in an evening. The slow step is collecting: open a shared online album on day one and send the link to family and friends, then build the slideshow from whatever has arrived by the night before. Export a video file and bring it on a USB stick as well.