Ken Burns: settings and best results

01Step 1: Open the Studio and add your photos

Click Tools in the sidebar, open the Create tab and click Ken Burns in the From your media section. The card reads Turn photos into smooth camera moves. You can also type "ken burns" or "slideshow" in the search box at the top.

Drop your photos on the window, or click Drop photos here to pick them. JPG, PNG, WebP, TIFF and BMP photos work. With one video per photo, the strip at the bottom shows every photo. Click one to preview it. To add more, click the plus button (Add files) or the folder button (Add a folder) at the end of the strip. Hover a thumbnail and click its small x to remove it, or click Clear all to start over.

02Step 2: Choose one video per photo, or one video from all

The Make switch at the top of the Studio decides what you get:

• One video per photo: each photo becomes its own video, named after the photo with -ken-burns added, for example harbor-at-dawn-ken-burns.mp4.
• One video from all: every photo joins, in queue order, into one video, named after the first photo with -sequence added, for example harbor-at-dawn-sequence.mp4.

When you add two or more photos, Hangar switches to One video from all for you. Once you pick a side yourself, it stays where you put it.

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1. 1Make
2. 2Move
3. 3Frames, as the camera sees them
4. 4Where the move goes
5. 5Timeline
6. 6Play
7. 7Export

03Step 3: Pick a move

On the Shot tab, under Move, pick one of 12 tiles:

• Push in (the default) moves slowly closer, and Pull out moves slowly away.
• Focus closes in on the subject. Reveal starts close and opens up the whole scene.
• Drift left, Drift right, Rise and Descend glide across the photo. Diagonal travels corner to corner.
• Roll adds a gentle turn. Still holds the frame without moving.
• Custom is your own move. It is selected for you as soon as you change a frame by hand.

Zoom is one slider with No zoom in the middle. Drag right to zoom In and left to zoom Out, or use the − and + buttons; double-click it to reset. The readout shows how much the move zooms from start to end, such as In 1.45×. Push in and Pull out are the two sides of the same slider, so dragging Push in past the middle turns it into Pull out, and Focus into Reveal. Every move except Still and Custom can zoom, so a drift can also push in as it travels. When the photo is too small to stay sharp all the way, the ends of the slider are shaded.

Travel (Drift left, Drift right, Rise, Descend and Diagonal) sets how far the camera travels, and Turn (Roll) how far it turns, from 0 to 100 (40 by default). The readout says Subtle, Gentle, Strong or Bold.

Lands on sets where the move goes. Subject (the default) finds the main subject of the photo on your computer; if nothing stands out, the move goes to the center. Centre always goes to the middle. Your spot is a place you pick: in the Frames view, drag the cross, or click inside a camera frame where you want the move to go. Aiming works for Push in, Pull out, Focus, Reveal, Drift left, Drift right, Rise and Descend. A zoom move goes all the way to that spot, as far as the edges of the photo allow.

Photo shape matters when a photo’s shape differs from the video, such as a tall photo in a wide video. Fill (the default) crops the photo to fill the frame. Blurred shows the whole photo on a blurred copy of itself. Colour shows the whole photo on a color you pick, black by default.

04Step 4: Shape the move on the photo

The stage has two views. Switch between them with Frames and Camera at the top of the stage.

Frames shows the whole photo with the camera’s frames drawn on it: the Start frame in white, any stops as dashed frames, and the End frame in amber. Faint frames in between show the path, and a dotted line shows the speed: dots far apart mean the camera moves fast there. When a move lands on the Subject, the subject Hangar found is outlined with corner marks.

• Scroll over the photo to zoom the selected frame toward the pointer: the spot under the pointer stays put, like zooming a map. The − and + buttons at the top of the stage zoom it from its middle. On the stage a frame can zoom up to 8×; the Zoom slider on the Shot tab stops at 4×.
• Drag a frame to move it. Drag a corner to zoom in or out; the opposite corner stays where it is.
• With Push in, Pull out, Focus, Reveal, a drift, Rise or Descend, a cross shows where the move goes. When the move zooms, it is labeled Zooms in here or Zooms out from here. Drag the cross, or click inside a frame, to aim the move there.
• A dashed coral outline labeled Sharp to here shows how far the photo can zoom and stay sharp.
• When Keep sharp is holding a move back, a note under the stage says so, such as "Keep sharp holds the zoom at 1.6× for this photo". Click Sharpness in the note to open its setting.
• Drag the dot above a frame to turn it, up to 10° either way.
• Double-click the photo, or click Add stop, to add a stop the camera passes through. You can add up to 4 stops, 6 frames in all. To remove a stop, select it and press Delete.
• Swap start and end plays the move the other way around. Back to the move drops your own frames and returns to the move you picked.

On the Shot tab, Frames shows each frame as a small picture of what the camera sees, from Start through any stops to End. Click one to select it, or click the + between two to add a stop there. Under the pictures, the selected frame has its own Zoom (1× to 4×), Turn (−10° to +10°) and Position (X and Y as a percent of the photo), for exact values. A stop also has Remove this stop. Once there are stops, Path appears: Straight goes from frame to frame in straight lines, and Curved glides smoothly through the stops.

Camera shows exactly what the video shows at the playhead, with a timecode, and the transition’s name while a transition plays. Press Space to play or pause; it switches the stage to Camera if you were on Frames.

05Step 5: Set the speed and timing

On the Speed tab, pick a curve:

• Glide (the default): eases in and out, and keeps a steady pace in the middle.
• Ease: a slower start and end.
• Steady: the same speed all the way.
• Custom: drag the two handles on the graph to set Ease in and Ease out, shown as percentages.

The graph shows how far along the move the camera is over the shot’s time, with the hold zones and the stops marked on it.

Under Timing, set the Length of the shot, from 1 to 60 seconds (8 seconds by default). Hold at start and Hold at end keep the camera still for up to 5 seconds before and after the move. Play backwards runs the move from end to start. Loop back to the start goes out and comes back, so the video ends where it began.

With several photos, a line at the bottom of the Shot and Speed tabs says what your changes apply to: Applies to all 4 photos, for example. Click Only this photo to change only the selected photo, which then keeps its own settings; the line then shows that photo’s name. Click Reset to drop its own settings, or All photos to change every photo again. A change made for all photos also reaches a photo with its own settings: that photo takes the new value and keeps its other own settings.

In One video from all, the line starts on the photo you selected on the timeline, such as Only alps-morning, so each photo can get its own move. Click All photos to change them all at once.

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1. 1Speed curve
2. 2Ease in and Ease out
3. 3Length
4. 4Holds
5. 5Only this photo

06Step 6: Build a slideshow with music

With One video from all, the timeline shows a ruler and your photos as clips, each as wide as it is long. Click a clip to select it, and drag it sideways to change the order. A diamond between two clips stands for the transition there; click it to edit that transition. The Sequence tab holds the rest:

• Transition: 15 transitions in five groups. Each one is a small preview made from your own two photos, and it plays when you point at it. Cut and dissolve: Cut, Crossfade (the default) and Luma fade, where the next photo comes through the dark parts first. Dip and flash: Dip to black, Dip to white and Flash. Glow and blur: Glow, Blur and Light leak. Motion: Push, Slide and Whip pan. Shape and zoom: Zoom through, Soft wipe and Iris, which opens on the next photo’s subject. Under the previews, the chosen transition has its Length, from 0.2 to 3 seconds (0.8 by default); a transition is never longer than half the shorter of its two photos. Push, Slide, Whip pan and Soft wipe also have Direction: Auto (the default) follows the way the camera was moving, or pick Left, Right, Up or Down. With three or more photos, Use for sets it for Every cut or This cut only, so two particular photos can meet in their own way.
• Photos: Same length for all is on by default, with an Each photo length of 5 seconds. Vary moves keeps the slideshow from repeating itself. Same gives every photo the move you picked. Alternate (the default) gives every other photo the opposite move, such as Push in, then Pull out. Shuffle mixes the moves and never repeats the same one twice in a row; click Shuffle again for a new mix. A photo you gave its own move keeps it.
• Music: click Add music to pick an MP3, WAV, M4A or FLAC song. It uses the same music library as Add audio. Use Replace to pick another song, or remove it. Set the Volume (80% by default), Start at to skip into the song, and Fade out from 0 to 8 seconds (3 by default). Fit the video to the song stretches every photo evenly so the video ends with the song.

The timeline’s music lane shows the song’s waveform, or an Add music button when there is no song yet. Start at appears for songs longer than 2 seconds.

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1. 1Transition
2. 2A transition on the timeline
3. 3A photo clip
4. 4Music lane

With One video per photo, the timeline shows a strip of real frames from the move, a speed lane under it, hatched Hold areas and numbered stop markers. Click or drag on it to move the playhead. The transport buttons jump to the start, step back one frame, play, step forward one frame and jump to the end.

07Step 7: Choose the video size, file and look

On the Video tab:

• Shape: 16:9 (the default), 9:16, 1:1, 4:5, 21:9 or Custom size, where you type a Width and Height from 16 to 7680 pixels.
• Resolution: 720p, 1080p (the default), 1440p or 4K. This is the short side of the video.
• Frames per second: 24, 25, 30 (the default), 50 or 60.
• Sharpness: a meter compares how far the move zooms with how far the photo can zoom before it goes soft, and a readout sums it up, such as Sharp to 3.1×, Stops at 1.6× to stay sharp or Soft past 1.6×. Keep sharp: stop zooming at the limit is on by default and caps the zoom, so a photo never looks soft. If a photo is too small for the video even before any zoom, the meter gives way to a short note, Too small · stretched 8× for example. It gives the photo’s size, how much it is stretched, and the narrowest photo that stays sharp. When a lower resolution would be sharp, it offers one, such as export at 1080p.
• Natural motion blur: off by default. Adds a soft, film-like blur on fast moves.
• File: MP4 (the default) is H.264 and plays everywhere. On a computer with no hardware H.264 encoder, MP4 is saved as AV1, which some older players can’t open. HEVC makes smaller files but needs a hardware video encoder. WebM is for the web. ProRes is for editing apps, saved as a .mov file. GIF stops at 15 seconds, runs at up to 15 frames per second and is at most 720p unless you use Custom size. Quality is Standard, High (the default) or Maximum, for every file type except GIF. For ProRes it picks ProRes 422 LT, 422 or 422 HQ. A song you added is included in every file type except GIF.

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1. 1Shape
2. 2Resolution
3. 3Sharpness
4. 4File
5. 5Quality

On the Look tab, pick a Grade: None (the default), Warm, Cool, Faded, Mono or Rich. Under Texture, set Film grain (25% by default), its Grain size (Fine or Coarse) and the Vignette (15% by default). Under Fades and bars, choose Fade in and Fade out (None, Black or White), the Fade length from 0 to 3 seconds (1 by default), and Cinema bars (Off, 2.39:1 or 1.85:1). Grain size shows only while Film grain is above 0, and Fade length only while a fade is on.

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1. 1Camera view
2. 2Grade
3. 3Texture
4. 4Fades and bars

08Step 8: Export, then check the result

Play the move in the Camera view, and with several photos, click a few of them to check each one. Then click the export button at the top right. It reads Export video for one video, or shows how many, such as Export 4 videos. While it works, it shows how far it got, such as Exporting 2/4….

When the export ends, a card in the corner shows a thumbnail, the total Size and how long it Took. Its title counts the photos you used, such as "Exported 4 images", even when they made one video. Click Open folder to see the files. They are saved in your workspace’s output folder, in a ken_burns folder with a subfolder for today’s date, such as 11-04. See Where your files are saved.

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1. 1What was exported
2. 2Open folder