How to choose photos for a video gift
Updated August 25, 2026
To choose photos for a video gift, scroll back through the years on your phone and pick a few from each year. You don't need perfect shots - ordinary, candid photos often animate better. What matters most is that the face is clearly visible in each one, and for a Growing video, that it's the same person throughout.
Scroll the years, pick a few from each
The easiest way to build a video that feels like a whole story is to open your phone's camera roll and scroll back year by year, pulling a few photos from each. A spread across time - baby, school years, a holiday, this year - carries more feeling than ten photos from the same afternoon.
You don't have to decide the final order perfectly up front. You can rearrange photos as you go, and swap any of them out later.
Ordinary photos beat perfect ones
This surprises people: the polished, posed portraits often aren't the best choices. Candid, everyday photos - someone mid-laugh, a normal Tuesday, a slightly imperfect moment you almost deleted - tend to animate into something warmer and more alive. Perfect isn't the goal; real is.
The one rule that really matters: the face must be visible
More than lighting or resolution, this is the thing to get right: you can clearly see the face. If a face is turned away, tiny in the frame, or partly hidden, the AI fills in the details it can't see - and the result stops looking like the person. Clear, front-lit photos where the face reads well give the best animations. If you can't really make out the face, leave that photo out.
Choosing photos for a Growing video
A Growing video blends each photo into the next, so it asks a little more of your selection:
- Keep the same person as the clear subject across all the photos - that consistency is what makes the blend read as one person over time.
- A few people per photo at most (ideally fewer than three), so the main subject stays the focus.
- Order by age or time, earliest first, so the story flows in one direction.
For a Classic-style video, there's more freedom - each photo is animated on its own, so a mix of people and moments works beautifully.
Using old printed photos
You don't need a scanner. Photograph each print with your phone in good, even daylight, holding the camera straight on and avoiding reflections and shadows. That single snapshot is all you need to bring an old photo back to life.
Frequently asked questions
- How many photos should I use?
- You can use up to 60. A Classic-style video works with as few as one photo; a Growing video needs at least two, since each consecutive pair is blended into one animation.
- Can I rearrange the photos after uploading?
- Yes. You can reorder photos as you go and re-compile the final video as many times as you like, so you don't have to get the order perfect up front.
- What if I upload a photo and it doesn't work?
- Retrying an animation is free (up to three times), and you can also swap that photo for a different one - so a photo that doesn't land is easy to fix or replace.
- What does it cost?
- It's a one-time purchase priced by the length of the finished video, not a subscription, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Are my photos private?
- Yes. Your photos are private to you, stored securely, and never used to train AI models, and you can delete them any time from your dashboard.