PhotoFilmStrip, Turn Photos Into Video

PhotoFilmStrip allows you to turn a set of photos into video. The program, available as a portable version and installer, can be used to turn photos into a video in little time. The first thing that you need to do when you start the program for the first time is to create a new project. Each project consists of a name, project folder, aspect ration and optionally a pre-defined length and an audio firl for background music.

You can then load photos either by dragging and dropping them into the program interface, or by using the photo loader menu to do so. Photos are scanned and displayed in a strip in the lower half of the screen. The active photo is shown in the upper half. Here it is possible to select the visible space if the photo is larger than the maximum video resolution.



Additional tools are displayed between the two interface sections. Users can change a photo’s rotation here for instance, add Sepia or black and white effects, change the duration and transition period or add subtitles to the photo. It is furthermore possible to change the order of photos via drag and drop. Everything can be configured in short time.

Motion is configured in the upper half, between the two thumbnail photos. It basically moves the visible part of the photo for the selected duration. This effect can be disabled if it is not needed.

The number of images and the video duration are displayed in the footer of the program window. That’s handy to sync the video duration to the selected audio file.

A click on the Render Filmstrip button opens the rendering options. Users can select a quality profile, for instance medium, full HD or VCD, Pal or NTSC, and an output format. Available are MPEG4, Flash Video or MPEG1/2 among others.

The rendering process can take a while, depending on the selected number of photos, the output format and the processing power of the computer system the software is running on. The video will be saved to the project folder automatically.

The program lacks a preview feature, which is probably the biggest issue that I had with it. If you want to test how the selected photos and music look like on video, you have to render it to do that. That’s especially problematic if you have selected to process many photos, as the processing can take quite some time then.

PhotoFilmStrip is nevertheless an easy to use program for Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. Interested users find additional information and download links at the developer website.