How to Turn Photos into GIFs

Sharing a new, simple tutorial on how to turn still photos into animated GIFs! Use this fun technique to transform your boring images into videos for Facebook and Instagram. Action shots get a lot more engagement as people stop to admire how cool your GIF is!

How to Turn Photos into GIFs!

Tired of posting boring still photos? Try turning your photos into GIFs! A GIF is a very short animated clip that lasts seconds but can loop infinitely. Have you ever wondered how they are created? It’s easy! I’m sharing how I create my own fun GIFs to post to Instagram or Facebook! The possibilities are endless with this simple 2-second video clip.

Here are a couple of examples of one’s that I’ve posted on Instagram:

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A post shared by Kiki Davies – Calgary, AB 🇨🇦 (@pursuingpretty)

Shoot Your Photos

To create a GIF, you first need a series of photos that were shot together while your subject is moving. Ten photos is the perfect number for this. For example, I shot these while doing a slow twirl in this flowing yellow dress. Having your photography subject go a little slower in their movements will help your camera catch each action, making the GIF turn out a little more exaggerated. It’s important to keep your camera or iPhone extremely still while shooting so I highly recommend using a tripod to steady your shot.

From your iPhone: Since your iPhone is capable of taking consecutive photos quite quickly, it is easy to capture enough photos to create a GIF. Unless you’ve found an app to create one right on your phone, you’ll have to transfer them to a desktop to create the GIF in the free website that I use.

From your camera: You’ll need to switch your camera to “continuous”, meaning when you hold down the button to take the photo, up to 10 photos can be taken in a row. Each DSLR camera has different settings so you may need to search this up online to know how to access this setting on your brand. In shooting selection mode, it’s the once with the little “c”.

GIFMAKER Website

Now that you have a sequence of photos, I like to use https://gifmaker.me/ to turn photos into GIFs. It’s a free website and pretty simple to use. Using your desktop computer, go to this site and click “upload”. Once your photos are loaded, you can drag to change the order if needed. Using the right sidebar, drag the sliding bar to speed-up or slow-down your animation. I like mine at 200 milliseconds. Leave the loop set at “0” so that it will loop infinitely when posted.

To create a GIF that is usable on social media, click the “create video animation” button when you’re satisfied with your GIF. Then download the mp4 file and it’s ready to airdrop or share to your phone! That’s it!