How to Sync Photos to Music

By Chelsea Baldwin

Updated September 22, 2017

Items you will need

  • Windows Movie Maker or

  • iMovie

  • Photos to be synced

  • Music to be synced

Sync your favorite photos to music to create a memorable video.
i photos image by reynald lassire from Fotolia.com

Syncing photos to music helps you create a memorable piece of media to look back on and watch from time to time to remember a special trip, event or happy, nostalgic memories from the past. Depending on whether you use a Mac or a PC, you can either do this with Movie Maker or iMovie. Windows Movie Maker is free to download, and iMovie automatically comes pre-installed on any Mac with the iLife suite.

Windows Movie Maker

Open Windows Movie Maker and click on “Import pictures” under the “Movie Tasks” menu on the left side of the screen. If the menu is not present, click on the “View” menu and scroll down to click on “Task Pane” to bring up the menu. Select the pictures you want to use from your hard drive or external storage device hooked into your computer.

Select the picture files you want to import into your new movie project by clicking on them and dragging them into place at the bottom of the screen from the “Collection” in the middle of the screen. Place the pictures in the order you want them to appear.

Click on “Import Audio or Music” in the “Movie Tasks” menu and select the song you want to sync your pictures to. Click on “Show Timeline” on the bottom menu bar, and click and drag the music file into the “Audio/Music” section of the timeline.

Use your mouse to click and drag the duration of the pictures along the timeline so each new photo begins at the section of the song you want it to.

Preview the video in the right side of the window and continue making edits until the photos are synced exactly how you want them to be with the song.

Apple’s iMovie

Open iMovie on your Apple computer. Find the middle menu bar and click on the photo icon to the far right. This will bring up all the photos in your iPhoto library.

Click on the photos you want to use in your video one at a time and drag them up into the project section of the window. Click and drag them into the order you want them to appear.

Add music to your project by clicking on the music note icon to bring up your iTunes library. Select the song you wish to use and drag it into the project window. It will appear as a green background behind your photos.

Hover your mouse over the photos to bring up a yellow bracket. Click on the sides of the yellow brackets to shorten or extend the time the photo shows during the song, depending on when you want each photo to pop up in correlation with the song playing in the background.

Preview the video by clicking on the play icon underneath the project window and take note of where you want to edit the photo display in correlation with the music. Continue making edits until the photos in the video are synced correctly with the music.

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