5 Best Free Photo Slideshow Maker Software

With the widespread of large-screen smartphones and cameras, taking photos has been a daily work, especially in some big events like Christmas celebration, graduation ceremonies, birthday parties, etc. Photo slideshow software allows you to create a slideshow of your favorite or memorable photos from your collection and turn multiple images into a standard video file for playback on your PC or other media devices.

There are quite many basic programs that will help you present photos in a singular linear fashion, similar to whipping out a handful of snapshots and handing them to a usually disinterested spectator (family, relatives, or friends).  However, a more memorable slide show adopts more complex features (like motion, music, narration, titles, transitions, etc.) to help tell a story about the photos without the distraction of out-of-sequence and poor photos.  Today I would like to share 5 best free photo slideshow maker software tools to help you create photo slideshow in an easier way.

Photo Slideshow Maker

Photo Slideshow Maker is a free photo slideshow maker software program that allows you to create photo slideshow from photos in png, jpg, jpeg and bmp formats and then convert generated photo slideshows to 180+ formats for different media players and devices. The internal photo slideshow editor allows you to add/remove/replace/rotate photos, insert transition effect, apply background music and set music effect. The drawbacks of this Photo Slideshow Maker are it doesn’t add text and it is only free to create a photo slideshow video that is no more than 5 minutes.

DVD slideshow GUI

DVD slideshow GUI is a user interface for various great tools needed to make your own slideshow of photos. It is not as easy and intuitive to use as Photo Story but it's packed with more features favored by more experienced users. Not only can you import photos and soundtracks with the program, you can also add to your project additional media types such as videos in avi or avs format, and presentation files in ppt or odp format.

Socusoft Photo to Video Converter (Free Version)

Socusoft Photo to Video Converter (Free Version) is another easy-to-use program for making your slideshows in four quick steps: add photos; select transition and music; preview and output video. On top of that, you can record your narration or add your favorite background music with optional in/out fading and loop audio. A project can be saved in its proprietary format while a completed slideshow can be saved to popular mpg format for playback with a video size up to a maximum of 720x576 pixels. Various audio and video options are available for adjustments by users as well. Sadly, adding text to slides, more output profiles and other advanced features, such as burning slideshows to a DVD disc, are only available in the commercial Pro version.

ffDiaporama Video Sequence Builder

ffDiaporama Video Sequence Builder is a highly capable open source program on the level of some high end commercial products. As such, its complexity requires a steep learning curve and can be quite daunting to users looking for a simple drag and drop slide show builder. However, if the user is looking for a key-frame type of image manipulation, this program will be a good candidate. Style sheets are available as samples of image motion manipulation (ala "Ken Burns" effects). The program is complete with a wide variety of audio and video output choices and DVD formats. Image inputs may be of photos, video, or animated clips. Some image editing is also available.

Bolide Slideshow Creator

Bolide Slideshow Creator is a good, easy to use, but very basic program.  I am in the process of evaluating the program and will write a critique article in the near future.  It is a Windows desktop program with capabilities for incorporating photos, audio, transitions (limited to about 30), text, adjustable timing for photos and transistions into the slideshow.  However, it is limited to one simple pan and zoom effect and a 4:3 format output in avi, wmv, or mvw .  More info later.