Photos for Mac and iOS: The Missing Manual

Chapter 6. Slideshows and Movies

When it comes to showing off your pictures and videos, nothing beats a great slideshow. Imagine watching your digital memories take over your entire screen, set in motion through smooth animations and transitions, complete with background music. It’s one of the simplest and most impressive Photos stunts you can pull off.

Such personalized and polished cinematic experiences are easy to create because Photos does all the heavy lifting. All you have to do is pick the images you want to include, and then fiddle with a few settings. The program includes several animated themes that get your images moving, and automatically pairs each one with a specially selected, high-quality soundtrack (though you can use your own music if you prefer).

You can trigger collection-, moment-, or album-based slideshows instantly, which is handy when you’ve got a neighbor or delivery guy trapped in your house for a few minutes. In fact, the program is riddled with play buttons for just this purpose; you see one when you point your cursor at a collection or moment in Photos view, when you view the contents of an album, and so on.

Or, if you prefer, you can take your time and prepare a slideshow project to play at your parents’ anniversary party, your next photography club meeting, or whatever. These saved slideshows are highly customizable. In addition to choosing a theme and music, you can determine how long each slide stays onscreen; choose the style, speed, and direction ...