Memorial slideshow or memorial video: which to make
By Sagie, founder of Echoes·Updated November 2, 2026
For a memorial, a still slideshow is enough when most photos are group photos, few clear photos of the person exist, the family wants every photo shown, or you'd rather make it yourself in PowerPoint or Google Slides. With many clear photos of one person across the years, a Growing memorial video tells the life as one continuous passage.
Two different things for a memorial
A memorial slideshow, also called a funeral or celebration of life slideshow, is a set of still photos shown one after another with music. Families play it at a memorial service, a celebration of life, the shloshim, the yearly memorial or a gathering at home. It's familiar, it's free, and almost anyone can make one.
A memorial video made with Echoes starts from the same photos, but the photos move. In our signature Growing style, each photo naturally morphs into the next, so the person on screen grows from a child into the person the family knew, in one continuous video.
Neither one is the "right" way to remember someone. What decides it is practical: what kind of photos you have, and how you'd like to make it. The general comparison is in photo slideshow or animated video; this guide is the memorial version.
When a simple slideshow is enough
- Most of the photos are group photos. Weddings, holiday tables, a whole family on a beach. A still slideshow lets people take their time finding the faces they know.
- There are only a few clear photos of them. If in most photos the face is small, turned away or half hidden, a slideshow shows each photo as it is.
- You want to show everything. A slideshow can hold hundreds of photos, letters and documents included.
- You'd rather make it yourself. Some people prefer to put it together slide by slide, in a tool they already know, and that's reason enough.
How to make a memorial slideshow well
A slideshow doesn't need special software. A few simple choices help:
- Put the photos in the order the life was lived, from childhood to the last years. One clear photo of a moment is better than three near-identical ones. If the family would rather leave out photos from the illness or the last months, leave them out.
- Use a widescreen (16:9) layout, so each photo fills a screen in a hall or a living room.
- Give each photo a few seconds, around five, and don't stack effects. A plain fade is enough.
- Choose one or two songs they loved and set them to play across all the slides.
- Keep the words short: the name and the years on the first slide, and maybe one line on the last.
- Save it in a form that plays offline. PowerPoint can save the slideshow as a video file (MP4). Google Slides presents from the browser, so check the internet where it will play, or download a copy first.
- Play it once on the real screen, with the sound on, before the day.
If some of the photos are old prints, photograph each one with your phone in even daylight, straight on. Handle them gently: the Library of Congress has practical advice on caring for and handling photographs that's worth a look before you start.
When a memorial video can say more
When you have many clear photos of the same person across the years, an animated video can say more with them.
In a Growing video, the photos aren't separate pictures in a row. A school photo turns into a wedding photo, the wedding photo turns into a parent holding a baby, and everyone watching sees one person move through a whole life without a cut. A slideshow can't do that, though a slideshow can do things a video can't, like hold every photo you have.
It does ask more of the photos. Growing works best with the same main person in every photo, fewer than three people in each, and the face clearly visible. If a face is turned away or tiny, the AI has to fill in the details, and it stops looking like them. For a set made mostly of big group photos, Classic style works best: each photo is brought to life on its own, then put together into one video.
How they compare
| Still slideshow | Memorial video (Growing style) | |
|---|---|---|
| The time it asks of you | Not much, once the photos are found | Most of the time goes into choosing the photos; the animations are made in the background while you do other things |
| The photos it needs | Any number, any kind, group photos included | 13 for a 1-minute video, then 12 more for each extra minute (37 for three minutes), with the face clearly visible |
| As it plays | People can linger on each photo and find the faces they know | The person grows from childhood to the last years in one continuous passage |
| Words on screen | Any text, anywhere on a slide | A personal opening with your own text, text slides before each part when the video has more than one part, a short text on an animation, and a closing with a name and a line |
| Music | One or two songs you place yourself | Up to 5 songs one after another, a song can start at a specific animation, or a song written from the memories you share |
| Their own voice | A home video can sit between slides | A home video of them can close the video with its own sound |
| Sharing with family afterwards | Easy if you exported a video file | An MP4 and a share link |
| What it costs | Nothing | A one-time payment set by the length of the finished video; the first animation is free to try |
The words and the music are where most of the care goes in a memorial video. There's more on each in what to write in a memorial video and choosing music for a memorial video.
Doing both
Some families do both. A still slideshow holds every photo, group photos and letters included, and plays quietly as people arrive. The Growing video, made from the clearest photos of the person, plays when everyone sits down together. The shloshim and the yearly memorial have their own guide: a memorial video for the shloshim or the yearly memorial.
The photos you gather for the slideshow are already a start. Keep them in one folder, ask relatives for the years you're missing, and the set for the video is half built. If you're not sure where to look, see finding photos of a loved one who passed.
A short decision list
- Most photos show many people: a slideshow, or a video in Classic style.
- Only a few photos show their face clearly: a slideshow.
- You have dozens of clear photos of them across the years: a Growing video.
- The family wants to see every photo: a slideshow, alongside the video if you make one.
- You'd rather make it yourself in a tool you know: a slideshow in PowerPoint or Google Slides.
If you choose the video
Most of the work is choosing the photos: go back through the years and pick a few from each chapter of their life, the clearest ones first. Upload them, look at each animation, and retry any you're not happy with (every package includes a bank of free retries sized to the package). Then add an opening, the words and the music, and put together the final video. Before it plays for anyone else, it's kind to show it to the closest family privately; their wishes come first.
You don't have to figure it out alone. As one customer put it:
"The interface was friendly and easy to use, I had full support available at any time"
- Noa
If you get stuck, a real person answers on WhatsApp. The main guide to making a memorial video from photos walks through every step in more detail.
What makes Echoes different
Echoes turns photos from across the years into one continuous video of a life. Each photo flows into the next, so a little girl grows into the grandmother the family knew, or a couple ages together over decades, in a single unbroken shot. Echoes then finishes it, ready to play at the memorial.
- Growing videos. You add dozens of photos of the same person or couple, and Echoes morphs each one into the next. It isn't a slideshow or a set of separate animations: you watch someone grow up or grow old in one continuous video. It fits memorials, family tributes, and anniversaries.
- Automated, but guided. Echoes does the heavy lifting: it picks the AI models, writes the prompts, generates the animations, and stitches everything into one finished video. You still decide everything that matters. It walks you step by step through ordering your photos, reviewing each animation (with a full set of free retries), and choosing the opening, the ending, and the music. You get the result of a skilled AI video workflow without having to learn one.
- A finished video, not a tool. The result is a complete video with titles, an ending, a soundtrack, and a share link. It's priced by the length of the finished video, not by credits or tokens: a one-time purchase, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Your first animation is free to try, so you can see how one of their photos looks, and take your time deciding.
About the author
Sagie, founder of Echoes
Sagie is the founder of Echoes. He built it in 2025 after making a video from his mother's old childhood photos, and has since helped hundreds of families turn their own photos into videos.
Frequently asked questions
- How long should a memorial slideshow be?
- There's no fixed rule. A few minutes, about the length of one or two songs, is easy to watch together and leaves time for the rest of the service. If you have far more photos than that, a longer slideshow can play quietly on a loop as people arrive instead.
- Can the memorial video include their voice?
- Voice narration isn't supported, so there's no recorded eulogy over the animations. A real home video of them can close the memorial video, though: a closing video can be up to 2 minutes and keeps its own sound, and you can choose to hear only that video's sound while it plays.
- Can I change the video later, for the next yearly memorial?
- Yes. You can change the music, the opening or the words on screen and re-compile the final video as many times as you like, at no extra cost. If you want a longer version later, you can also start a separate project with more photos and keep the first one as it was.
- Can I use the same photos for the slideshow and the video?
- Yes. The photos you gather for a slideshow can be uploaded to Echoes too, straight from your phone or computer. Keep the original files rather than screenshots from a chat, and keep the clearest ones, because in an animated video the face needs to be clearly visible.
- Are the photos I upload private?
- Yes. Your photos are private to you, stored securely, and never used to train AI models. They're only used to make your video, and you can delete your photos and videos from your dashboard at any time.