How to Make a Slideshow on TikTok

Creating a slideshow on TikTok is simple and not that different from posting a video. It’s an increasingly popular alternative to short clips and ideal for both beginners and seasoned users.

While it might seem counterintuitive to share still images on TikTok, it’s actually an excellent option for certain accounts and posts. Sometimes, a series of pictures simply works better than a video. In fact, you’ll often find slideshows among the platform’s trending posts.

For example, if you’re sharing a how-to series or snapshots of new products, photos let you focus on the most important visuals. You can reduce distracting audio and visuals and add helpful text or voiceovers.

People are using TikTok to tell stories, market their business and even get famous. The best way to do any of that is to use the platform to its full potential.

If you want to learn valuable skills for enhancing your social media presence and engaging followers, read on for easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for creating and posting TikTok slideshows.

Step 1: Preparing Your Photos

If you’re making a photo slideshow to share products or anything else related to work, it’s important that the photos are high quality and attractive. Even for a personal project, good pictures are going to perform much better than blurry, uninteresting images.

Select photos that best illustrate your message. Keep in mind that more photos don’t necessarily mean a better slideshow–in some cases it could make things confusing, overwhelming or even boring. Apps like Photomode.io can help you keep images organized and easy to find.

To ensure your photos are worthy of your slideshow, get familiar with some basic editing tools to tweak lighting, crop, resize and enhance. Your camera app likely provides tools, though you can also use photo editing software.

Step 2: Creating a Slideshow in the TikTok App

It’s simple to create slideshows on the TikTok app for both iPhone and Android with this step-by-step guide.

Open the app on your mobile device and tap the “+” at the bottom center of the screen for the in-app photo editor.
Choose “Templates” at the bottom of the photo editor screen, and select the template that best suits your style and the number of photos you need.
Tap “Upload” at the bottom of the screen, and select the photos to be included by tapping the circle in the upper right corner of the photo. TikTok will display the pictures in the order you select them.
Hit “Next” for a preview of the slideshow. Note: The slideshow feature can create a TikTok video slideshow or a series of photos for users to swipe through. Determine which with the photo mode and video mode button beneath the images.
Add captions, tag people, include hashtags and adjust any of the other settings before publishing on the “Post” page.
Enjoy seeing your slideshow on TikTok live and in action.

Step 3: Adding Transitions and Effects

It’s not required, but you can take photo slideshows to the next level by adding fun transitions between pictures, visual effects, text, emojis and stickers. You can even change TikTok video speeds.

Before posting your photo slideshow, when you’re still in the preview, use the editing tools along the right side of the screen to enhance the final product. For example, click “Effects” to select how the slideshow will transition from one photo to the next, or to choose sounds and text styles.

When adding transitions and effects, try to capitalize on trends and popular imagery to connect with your audience. At the same time, don’t add so many effects that they can’t see the originality in our photos.

Step 4: Incorporating Music and Voiceovers

In addition to visual effects, you can add audio as music and voiceovers to your photo slideshow.

If you’ve chosen a template, it may already include music. However, you can change this by tapping the “Add Sound” button at the top of the preview screen. You can also include music on TikTok by tapping the music note icon in the video editor.

Voiceovers are useful if you’re sharing instructional images:

Tap the microphone or “Audio Effects” in the video editor and use the timeline marker to determine where your voice will go in the post.
Using the record button, speak into your phone for each spot where you want to speak.
Play the recording back to see if you need to redo it.

When selecting TikTok music, weigh how appropriate it is for your imagery. Just because a song is featured in a viral video doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for your post. Try to find something that suits your brand and flows well with your pictures. Of course, if a trending song works with your post, use it!

Step 5: Finalizing and Uploading Your Slideshow

It’s very important to preview your photo slideshow before posting to TikTok. This is when you catch mistakes and make final adjustments to ensure it sends the exact message you’re going for.

You’ll preview your slideshow after you upload images and select “Photo Mode.” Use the effects, audio and other buttons to make the necessary changes, or add relevant hashtags like “FYP” (For You Page) and adjust the sharing settings.

The step-by-step process for uploading your photo slideshow to TikTok is simple:

Check that your desired effects and music match what you want them to be.
Hit “Next.”
On the “Post” page, add your description, mentions, hashtags, links and tags.
Check the sharing settings and advanced options.
Hit “Post” and you’re finished.

Bonus Tips: Making Your Slideshow Stand Out

Once you have mastered the basics of a photo slideshow, try some extra tips and tricks to make your work really stand out. Consider incorporating them into your TikTok marketing strategy.

Use CapCut for Advanced Editing

CapCut is an advanced video editing tool offering filters, effects, templates and other editing functions for free. It works very well with TikTok and is known for being behind many viral videos and popular creators.

Open Capcut project with a photo of a dog over a greenscreen background of mountains, fog and trees. — With high-quality images and the right editing tools, you can create helpful and entertaining TikTok photo slideshows. Class: Capcut for Desktop: The Ultimate Video Editing Course for Reels and TikTok Creators by Enrico Luzi

Using Green Screen and Overlays

The green screen effect lets you put yourself in front of any background you like without leaving your desk or couch. Just go into “Effects” and then into “Trending” and find the #greenscreen icon. Then you can use any photo or video from your library to be your background.

An overlay, on the other hand, is an image or video that goes over your primary content. Use the “Adjust Clips” icon in post-editing and choose “Overlay.” Select an item from your library, and use the editing tools to adjust the size and placement of the overlay.

So much of the fun of TikTok is participating in the trends, from goofy pranks to catchy dances. Brush up on meme culture and trending content to make your own and increase the odds of going viral.

Key Takeaways

Creating a swipe photo slideshow on TikTok is something any digital creator can do. If you have high-quality photos and select the right ones to express your message, it’s easy to use the editing tools and effects to put together a great slideshow for social media.

Remember that more photos in a slideshow don’t necessarily make it better. Ensure you have enough to support your message (new products and instructions, for example), but not so many that it’s overwhelming for users.

Once you have the basic process down, dig into adding visual and audio enhancements and including relevant hashtags and mentions, such as #ForYouPage. Once you preview the post and see that every detail is correct, hit “Post” and enjoy. If you get confused anywhere in the process, take advantage of the TikTok tutorial library.

Skillshare offers classes and 1:1 sessions with experienced content creators. These can take you from producing content right through to monetizing and building a business from it. You might even get to the point of offering TikTok-related content on your YouTube channel. Check out classes like:

Written By

Katie Mitchell

Katie lives in Michigan with her husband, kids and pets. She enjoys cooking, travel and live music.