Making the photo slideshow for a funeral

Someone in the family is often asked to gather the photos for a funeral. There are usually only a few days to do it. Most crematoria can show photos on screens in the chapel during the service. Each one sets its own rules, so it helps to start with what yours will take.

What crematoria offer

At Aldershot Crematorium, Rushmoor Borough Council offers three kinds of picture. One photograph can stay on show throughout the service. A simple slideshow of up to 25 photographs can run without music, on a loop or once at a chosen time. A music slideshow of up to 25 photographs plays once, set to a piece of music the family chooses.

At Easthampstead Park in Bracknell Forest, a slideshow appears on the two chapel screens at a point in the service the family selects. The council prices its tributes in sets of up to 25 photos. So the funeral director needs to know how many photos the family wants.

When the photos are due

The funeral director usually passes the family's request to the crematorium. Bracknell Forest Council says a family arranging a funeral without a funeral director can contact the cemetery and crematorium office directly.

Deadlines differ. Chesterfield Borough Council says the photos must reach the crematorium's slideshow supplier 48 hours before the service. It asks for music choices two working days before. Ask your funeral director for your crematorium's deadline on the first day, along with how many photos it takes.

Fitting the photos to the time

A slideshow set to one song plays for as long as the song. A song of four minutes with 25 photos gives each photo a little under ten seconds. Fewer photos give each one longer on the screen.

Family members often hold photos nobody else has seen. Asking them early gives time to choose. A mix from every part of a life tends to work better than many pictures from the last few years. A short caption or a title slide can name the person and their dates.

Choosing the music

Bracknell Forest Council says it can play any music that is commercially available. Chesterfield's chapel music system has a library of over 300,000 songs. Chesterfield can often convert a family's own recording, such as a relative singing. It does not accept CDs or tapes, because of copyright restrictions.

GOV.UK says playing recorded music in public needs a licence, and royalty-free music needs none. A copy of the slideshow with a song on it, kept or shared after the funeral, raises a different licence question. For wedding videos, the British Copyright Council says adding recorded music to a video needs a Limited Manufacture Licence from PRS for Music. PPL PRS can say which licence covers a particular use.

Old slides and prints

Older family photos are often on 35mm slides or paper prints. The Library of Congress suggests scanning prints at 300 dots per inch. Slides are much smaller, so it suggests around 1,900 dots per inch. Flatbed scanners can take slide trays, and separate slide scanners are also sold.

It suggests saving colour scans as medium-quality JPEG files, or high quality if you might reprint them. It also suggests keeping at least two copies, stored in different places.

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