How many photos for a memorial slideshow?

Short answer: plan on 8 to 12 photos for every minute of music. At that pace each photo stays on screen for about 5 to 7 seconds, which is long enough to recognize faces and short enough that the slideshow keeps moving. A 10-minute slideshow holds roughly 80 to 120 photos.

A quick table

Slideshow length	Photos	Songs (about 3½ minutes each)
5 minutes	40 to 60	1 or 2
10 minutes	80 to 120	3
15 minutes	120 to 180	4
20 minutes	160 to 240	5 or 6

Fewer photos per minute feels calm and reflective; more feels lively. Old family photos often deserve a little longer on screen, because people want to study them.

How long should it be?

During a funeral or memorial service: keep it under 10 minutes. It's one part of a service that already has readings, music and speakers, and the room's attention is finite.
At a visitation or reception: longer is fine, even 20 to 30 minutes on a loop, because people come and go and watch a few minutes at a time.
For family who couldn't be there: a video copy of the service slideshow is usually right; if you want to include more, make a longer "extended" version afterward.

When you have far too many photos

Most families start with hundreds or thousands of pictures and need about a hundred. A few rules make choosing much easier:

Faces first. A clear photo of them with the people they loved beats a beautiful landscape every time.
One per moment. From each holiday, wedding or trip, keep the single best photo, not the ten that look almost the same.
Cover every chapter. Childhood, young adulthood, marriage and family, work, grandchildren, the hobbies people knew them for. A gap of twenty years stands out.
Include a few that make people laugh. A memorial slideshow is also a celebration; the funny photos are often the ones people talk about afterward.
Set a deadline for collecting. Ask relatives to send photos by a fixed time, then stop. Late arrivals can go into a longer version for the reception.

Let the music set the timing

The easiest way to get the timing right is to pick the songs first, then fit the photos to them. With Porchlight Slideshow, that's automatic: drag in the photos and the songs, and it spreads the photos across the music so the last photo fades out as the last note ends. Add or remove photos and the timing adjusts on its own.

If you're using a video editor instead, divide the length of the music in seconds by the number of photos to get the seconds per photo, and keep it between about 4 and 8.

A last check

Watch the whole slideshow once, full screen, before the day. You'll spot the duplicate, the sideways photo and the one that's too dark, and you'll know how it feels to sit through it. For more on planning, see our guide to memorial slideshows and choosing the music.