Have lots of photos but don't know what to do with them? They clutter up the space on your hard drives or shelves, and still you don't want to just get rid of them since they are important. There is a way to bring your dusty piles of photos back to life - make a gorgeous slideshow! All you need is good photo slideshow software.
However, what does "good" mean? How to find a program that will be powerful enough but still easy to use? In this guide, we offer you a top-tier list where you will certainly find something to your taste.
Here's our list:
SmartSHOW 3D
NCH PhotoStage
Magix Photostory
CyberLink MediaShow
FlexClip
Let's take a closer look at each of them!
SmartSHOW 3D
First, we tried out SmartSHOW 3D. It turned out to be very intuitive slideshow software that even newbies will be able to get a handle on it. The program supports Windows 10, 8.1, 7, Vista, and XP. The prices for the full version start from $39.90.
SmartSHOW 3D lets you make a slideshow from scratch or you can pick a ready-made template from the 'Slideshow in 5 Minutes' section. There are dozens of themes for any occasion to pick from: wedding, travel, kids, family, birthday, christmas, etc. All you need to do is drop in your photos, music and click the Create button. Then just enjoy watching your freshly-made slideshow. Sounds easy, right?
When the base for your slideshow is ready, you can tweak it as you like. SmartSHOW 3D comes with 100+ professionally designed templates and animation effects to play with. Make your photos swirl and dance, throw in some rain drops or falling leaves, create stunning collages - all these creative possibilities are at your fingertips. What we found even more interesting is the ability to mix video clips with stills. That will certainly break the monotonous flow of your slideshow.
With this slideshow program, you can also get your hands on 350+ transitions & animation effects. Now we can forget about simple fades and make photos appear and disappear in different ways like flipping, jumping out, rotating in, rolling like a page and others.
Music that accompanies the video is also important. SmartSHOW 3D has a collection of 200+ royalty-free tracks that you can use together with your voice comments.
If you are addicted to photography and need something fancy for your showcases, here is the feature you might like: 3D animations of photos, videos and text. This makes a common slideshow a true piece of art.
SmartSHOW 3D offers you 30+ popular video formats to choose from. You can create HD videos, slideshows for TV and Internet, or even burn them to DVD.
If you are thinking about trying out the software, you can download the free trial on the official website and see how SmartSHOW 3D works for you.
Pros:
Easy-to-use software, with a large base of step-by-step tutorials and teaching videos
Lots of ready-made templates and realistic effects
Ability to add video clips and create video collages
3D animations for almost any slide element like text, pics or vids
Cons:
Learning to make custom animations may be hard at first
Clipart gallery is rather small
NCH PhotoStage
This one is probably one of the easiest picture slideshow software to use since PhotoStage has a very simple interface. We have found all the basic tools for slideshow creation under its hood, so we can really recommend this program for people who just want a simple presentation without distracting effects. It works on Windows 10, 8.1, 7, Vista, and XP. PhotoStage also runs on Mac OS X 10.5 or above. The prices start from $34.99.
For complete beginners, the software offers a basic wizard that will help them make their first slideshows. Simple looks may be deceiving, though. PhotoStage allows you to add and edit video clips, so you won't need additional video editing software. You can also forget about image editors: here, it's possible to adjust brightness, hue and contrast, rotate or flip pictures.
What about transitions or effects? PhotoStage can offer you some simple effects like pan and zoom, totally customizable. There are about 130 transitions, including classic "fades".
What makes this slideshow program unique is powerful MixPad Audio File Mixer. It lets you blend several music tracks into one. So, why not add a personal touch with a custom song mix? You can add not only music tracks but also record narrations - this will help you dwell on additional details that your viewers can miss.
How to share your slideshow made with PhotoStage? There are many popular ways like burning your creations to DVD, uploading the video to YouTube or Facebook, or taking the file to your external drive.
Pros:
Low learning curve even for complete beginners
Supports full HD export
Themes and designs for simple presentations
Allows to mix several audio tracks
Cons:
Few tools for pros like custom animations, 3D or realistic effects
You need to purchase technical support
Magix Photostory
If PhotoStage is for beginners, then Magix Photostory is professional slideshow software. It has a very extensive toolkit and can handle any number of images, including 360-degree and panorama photos. However, that doesn't make this program hard to master. Photostory supports Windows 10, 8.1, 7, 64 bits only. The prices start from $49.99.
Photostory has a built-in slideshow wizard that allows you to create a video in just three steps: add photos, drop in music with effects and finally share your work with others. It also has the Effects Manager tool to quickly choose and apply effects to your images.
Overall, the software offers 1500+ effects, pieces of music and sounds, with 20+ premade styles for enhancing your images. With Photostory, you will be able to apply effects to an image or groups of images to speed up the process.
If you are a fan of music and like mixing stuff, then it's your best choice since it's possible to use 64 tracks per project. You can group and ungroup them for simpler editing.
Photostory lets you export your slideshow in different ways, including popular video formats such as AVI and MP4. What's more interesting, this software supports Full HD and 4K export. If you want to gift a slideshow to your friends or family, you can burn it to DVD or Blu-ray. Fan of social media? Upload your creations to Facebook and YouTube then.
Pros:
Pro-level tools
Lots of effects and animations
Can record voice narrations
Lets you use 64 tracks per project
Cons:
Figuring out all the features will take some time
If you want additional effects, you need to download or even purchase them
CyberLink MediaShow
MediaShow is great for people who need to organize photos before making videos. It has a tag system that help you categorize your pictures and videos for more convenient editing. For example, there is a calendar view sorting your content by the date it was shot. MediaShow runs on Windows 10, 8/8.1, 7, Vista and XP (Service Pack 2). The prices for the full version start from $49.94.
What's worth mentioning here? MediaShow supports 3D photos and videos recorded in the MPO format that most 3D cameras use. What's more, you can convert your 2D photos to 3D and give them a completely new life. Later you can produce a 3D movie or burn it to 3D DVD.
MediaShow can also recognize faces in photos for better effects application and tagging. It allows you to find a certain person on all images with that tag.
While other software offer simple brightness adjustment, MediaShow lets you remove red eyes and straighten your photos. It also has some filters for videos, like de-noising, stabilizing and color correction.
Pros:
Monitor Dropbox or other services for photo updates
Export for mobile devices and burning to AVCHD
Edit and produce 3D movies
Smart tag system
Cons:
No voice recording
The design is not very convenient
FlexClip
Don't want to download and install any software on your computer? FlexClip's free online slideshow maker lets you create beautiful slideshows with text, music, and other animated effects in just three steps.
The platform supports Mac, Windows, and Linux. And best of all, you can do it for free. Whether you want to make a slideshow for a birthday, wedding, family, or travel, you can do it by using FlexClip with minimum effort and time.
Pros:
- Free and easy to use
- Hundreds of beautiful slideshow templates
- 60+ cool transitions including Fade, Zoom, Wipe, Page Curl
- Voice recording
- A variety of text animations
- Massive collection of royalty-free music
Cons:
- Only supports to download mp4 file.
Conclusion - What slideshow software to choose?
That's it! We have presented you 5 most popular slideshow makers. Each of them is different and has its own pros and cons. Look through them once more before making your final choice. If you look for an easy-to-use slideshow maker, then choose between FlexClip and PhotoStage. Want something for advanced users? Go with MediaShow that allows you to work with 3D movies. Need something in the golden middle? Then try SmartSHOW 3D. Anyway, we hope you will find the one that suits your goals and tastes, and definitely make a gorgeous slideshow!
