How To Easily Create A Slideshow In Adobe Premiere PRO

 Setting Up Your Project

1. Before starting a new project in Adobe Premiere, place all photos and music in a folder on the Desktop.
2. Open Premiere and begin a New Project. Name the project and set file destination in the project folder on the Desktop (same folder that your photos and music are in.)
3. Next, go to Edit - Preferences - Timeline. In this menu, you can set the default duration for Video/Audio Transitions and Still Images for your project.
4. To import photos, right click in the Project Panel - Import - Locate Folder. From here, click “Import Folder.”
5. Right click again in the Project Panel. Select New Item - Sequence. For this project, I’ll be using Digital SLR - 1080p, 30fps. Finally, name your sequences and then click OK.

Inserting Photos/Creating the Background

1. Click and drag the photos folder and place it in the V1 layer in the timeline.
2. In the timeline, select all photos - right click - select “Scale to Frame Size.”
3. With all photos still selected, hold the “alt” key and drag photos into the V2 layer to duplicate the layer.
4. Select all photos in V1 layer - right click - select “Nest” and name the Nested Sequence “Background.”
5. Select the Nested Sequence. In the Effects Control Panel, increase the scale so that the photos fill the entire frame in the Program window.
6. With the Background sequence still selected, go to Effects - Blur/Sharpen - and select Gaussian Blur. Set the “Blurriness” to 50.
7. Double click on the Nested Sequence. To add transitions to each photo, go to Video Transitions - right click on Film Dissolve - select “Set Selected to Default Transition.”
8. Select all of the photos to then click “Ctrl+D.” The default transition is now applied to all of the photos.

Creating Slideshow Animation Preset

1. Select the second photo. In Effect Controls set a Scale and Rotation keyframe to the beginning and end of the photo by clicking the stopwatches (next to Scale and Rotation.)
2. Set the first scale keyframe to 85 and final keyframe to 95. Set the first Rotation keyframe to -5 and final Rotation keyframe to 0.
3. Set the Film dissolve transition to both ends of the second photo. Now in the Effects Control panel, adjust Scale and Rotation keyframes to the beginning and ending of the clip.
4. Select the first two Scale/Rotation keyframes - Right click - select “Ease In.”
5. Select the final two keyframes - Right click = select “Ease Out.”
6. To save this as a preset for all of our photos, right click on “Motion” in the Effect Controls Panel, then select “Save Preset.” Give your preset a name and you can then find this preset in your Presets folder.
7. Select all photos, click and drag the new Scale/Rotation preset to apply to all photos.
8. With photos still selected, click Ctrl+D to apply default transition to all photos.
9. To add a drop shadow go to Effects - Drop Shadow. Set the Distance value to 15 and Softness to 25.

Adding Music/Matching Slideshow & Music Duration

1. Import music by double clicking in the Project Panel. Locate the file on your computer to then drag the audio file into the A1 layer in your timeline.
2. To make audio adjustments, click on the Audio Tab. From here, locate the A1 audio track and move the fader up/down to set the desired level.
3. To have your photo sequence match the length of your audio, begin by selecting both video layers, right click, and nest both layers.
4. Right click on the “FX” icon in your newly nested sequence in the timeline. Select “Time Remapping”, then click “Speed.”
5. Click and drag the white line up/down to set the desired length.
6. Finally, under Effects search “Exponential Fade.” Click and drag this effect to the beginning and end of your music track.