How to Make a Growing Up Photo Montage

A growing-up photo montage is a great touch to a milestone event.

A growing-up photo montage can be a wonderful addition to a party, especially on milestone occasions. Nothing tugs at the heartstrings more than seeing a person's journey from infancy, through adolescence, all the way to adulthood. The good news is that you do not need to be a professional photographer or a computer whiz in order to create a great-looking montage. With only a few items that you likely already have access to, you can create a high-quality growing-up photo montage for your next big event.

Things You'll Need

• Photos
• Computer
• Scanner
• Music

Instructions

1. Choose your photos. You want to pick high-quality photos that best represent the different times of your life. Try to pick an equal number of photos for each stage of growing up. You want the presentation to flow at a good pace, so make sure you don't get bogged down in any one particular area. For example, you don't want to have 25 baby photos and only three from middle school.

2. Scan the selected photos to your computer. These days, most people have a digital camera and the ability to upload them instantly. However, you may potentially be going back decades before the advent of digital technology for many of your photos. If you do not have direct access to a scanner, many copy shops and drugstores provide services to burn your old photos to a CD for easy transfer to your PC.

3. Transfer the photos to a separate directory. Open up the directory through the "My Computer" icon and rename each photo based on the order in which you want them to appear in the montage. A good method would be to simply number them. Just be sure to use "01" as opposed to "1" to start otherwise, they will end up out of sequence after the ninth photo.

4. Create a slideshow. You can do this directly through "Windows Explorer" or you can use a program like PowerPoint. Simply paste a photo on each blank slide and insert a new one. Repeat until all of your photos are set. Once they are in order, you can add transitions such as wipes or fades and set the duration you want each photo to be displayed on screen.

5. Add music to the background. The photos alone are nice, but an appropriate song will truly add emotion and take the presentation to another level. This can be accomplished through the "Insert" drop-down menu in PowerPoint or even by playing an audio CD on a separate device. You can even choose multiple songs; just be sure that the song choices are appropriate to the theme you want to get across in your growing-up photo montage.

References

• Wed Alert: Create a Slide Show or Video Montage