FROM ALBUM TO MOVIE
Turn your photos and videos
into a movie, automatically.
Upload your photos or share an album, and get a polished film with music and captions. Great for trips too, with your real route, maps, and day-by-day chapters. Review the photos first, or create it with our defaults.
Your previous albums
Watch a film again, or change it
Creating your film
Why does this take a few minutes?
Behind this one bar, your film goes through a lot of real work. Tap any of these to see how it is done and why your film needs it.
PlacesEvery photo's position, matched to a real place.
How it is done Each photo that carries GPS is matched against a worldwide gazetteer, and nearby shots are grouped so a place is looked up once. Names are then ranked, so the film says “Bishkek” rather than a street no one knows, and a country is named only once it is certain.
Why your film needs it It lets the film open each chapter with where you were, and keeps the story in the right order across a long trip.
Photo detailsThe hidden data every camera writes into a file.
How it is done The moment each photo was taken, its orientation, its size and its lens are read and cross-checked. Phones and cameras disagree about clocks and time zones, so the times are reconciled against each other until the album forms one true timeline.
Why your film needs it Without it, photos from two phones would interleave wrongly and a sideways photo would play on its side.
ColourThe most vibrant colours in every photo.
How it is done Each photo is reduced to a palette and scored for how vivid and how balanced it is. The strongest colours are carried into the scene's mood: its background, its title colour and the way it blends into the next scene.
Why your film needs it It lets neighbouring scenes feel related instead of jarring, and helps pick the photos that look their best.
FacesEvery face, found in photos and in video frames.
How it is done Photos and sampled video frames are scanned for faces, and each is given a position and a size. When a photo is cropped for a tall or wide screen, the crop is placed so the faces stay inside it, and the slow zoom is aimed at them.
Why your film needs it A film of people must never cut off a head or zoom into a tree. This is what keeps your family in the picture.
Look-alikesBursts and near-identical shots, sorted out.
How it is done Photos taken seconds apart are compared by their visual fingerprints. When several are the same moment, they are ranked on sharpness, exposure and faces, and the best one is kept.
Why your film needs it Fourteen shots of the same view would slow a film down. One good one lets the story keep moving.
MapsYour route, drawn on real map tiles.
How it is done The places in your album are placed on real map tiles, a route is drawn between them, and the camera is moved across the map frame by frame so it follows the trip.
Why your film needs it A short map between chapters shows how far you travelled, and ties the places together.
MusicA track chosen for the pace of your story.
How it is done Tracks from a library of freely licensed music are matched to your film's length and mood. The one chosen is cut at a natural phrase and faded in and out so it ends when the story does.
Why your film needs it Music carries the feeling of the film, and freely licensed tracks mean you can share it anywhere.
NotesThe words you wrote, in the right place.
How it is done Your album's captions and notes are read and matched to the photos they belong to. The opening line of each becomes a short caption over those photos, kept clear of the TaleMontage mark and short enough to read as the scene plays. The full note stays in your album.
Why your film needs it Your own words are the most personal part of the film, so they are kept and shown where you wrote them.
RenderingThe heavy part: every frame, created from scratch.
How it is done A film is thirty pictures every second. Each one is created separately: the photo is cut to size, moved and zoomed a fraction further than the last frame, blended with its neighbour, and any text or map is drawn on top. A minute of film is 1,800 of these, and every one is compressed on the machine's processors as it is created.
Why your film needs it It is the longest step, and it has to be exact, because one wrong frame shows as a flicker. It is why the film takes minutes and not seconds.
Good films take a little while. You can leave this page open, or come back to it.
- Preparing scenes
- Rendering film
- Adding music and finishing
- Finalizing your film
You can leave this page. We'll keep creating your film in the background.
FILM STATUS
Preparing your film
Creating a secure workspace...
0% complete
This takes several minutes. You can leave this page and come back: we keep working on it.
Why does this take a while?
Before you choose your photos, we get everything ready. Tap any of these to see how it is done and why your album needs it.
Fetching your albumEvery photo and video, one request at a time.
How it is done Google serves an album file by file, and only so fast, so a few hundred photos are a few hundred separate requests. Several run side by side, with a pause when Google asks us to slow down, and anything that fails is tried again.
Why your album needs it The film is only as good as its sources, so each file comes in at full quality, not as a small preview.
Long videosA huge video is read in pieces, not all at once.
How it is done A very large video is not downloaded whole. We read its size first, look at short windows of it, and keep the liveliest fifteen seconds as a clip.
Why your album needs it It keeps the wait short and your film moving, without losing the moment that matters.
Checking every fileNot every file arrives in one piece.
How it is done Each file is opened and tested. Cut-off downloads, unusual phone formats and files nothing can read are found here, converted when they can be, and left out with a note when they cannot.
Why your album needs it One damaged photo must never spoil a film of three hundred. This is where it is caught and set aside.
Reading the storyWhen and where each photo was taken.
How it is done The time, place and direction hidden in each file are read and put in order, and the places are named. Cameras and phones keep different clocks, so they are reconciled into one timeline.
Why your album needs it The film follows your trip in the order you lived it, with each place named.
Looking at each photoFaces, colour and sharpness, one photo at a time.
How it is done Every photo is scanned for faces, scored for sharpness and exposure, and reduced to its most vibrant colours. Videos are sampled frame by frame to find the best moments.
Why your album needs it It lets us pick the photos that look their best, and keep people in frame when they are cropped.
Finding look-alikesBursts and repeats, compared pixel by pixel.
How it is done Photos taken seconds apart are compared by their visual fingerprints and grouped. The best of each group is suggested, and the others are kept at hand for you to swap in.
Why your album needs it You start the review with a sensible choice, not three hundred photos to sort by hand.
Reading your notesThe captions you wrote in the album.
How it is done Captions and notes are collected and matched to the photos they belong to, ready to be shown as text in the film.
Why your album needs it Your own words are the most personal part of the film, so they are carried over from the start.
You can leave this page open, or come back to it. The photos are yours to review as soon as this is done.
Your choice
Your film is being created. Changing the photos stops it, and it starts over once you have chosen.
Progress details
Your film
Places found in your photos
Live activity
Your earlier film is still here, unchanged.
Your photos and privacy
We copy your photos and videos only to create your film. We don't share or sell them, or use them to train AI.
When you choose photos at your photo service, we read only the ones you choose, only while your film is created. We keep no access to your account.
Your photos, videos, and film are automatically deleted from our servers 24 hours after your film is ready. Your original album is never changed.
To see how our site is used, we note each visit's kind of device and browser and the country, region, and city it comes from. We don't keep your IP address.
Want to delete them now? This permanently removes your photos, videos, and film from our server. Download your film first if you want to keep it.
Deleting also ends any link you shared to your film, and removes the keepsakes created from it.
Delete everything now? This can't be undone.
None of these photos carries a location, so your film has no maps or place names. Check that location is on in your camera or phone, and that your photo service is not set to remove location from items shared by a link. Then share the link again.
We used TaleMontage's automatic photo selection because the review wasn't completed.
Nothing has been created yet. Choose the photos you want and press Create.
Download your film now. Your photos and film are deleted from our servers 24 hours after it is ready.
Your snaps
Not happy with the photos?
Add, remove, or swap photos. Then we recreate the entire film with your new selection.
Not feeling the music?
Keep your photos, just swap the soundtrack.
Pick a style and preview its tracks, or leave it on Automatic and we'll choose one.
MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG, or FLAC. Up to 5 tracks, 40 MB each.
Opening your film...
YOUR PHOTOS
Review your photos
Fine-tune your moments
Your film
Film length
Moments from your film
How we choose your moments
Some are close repeats of others, and the film shows one of each. The rest fit in a longer film.
A longer time on each photo fits fewer photos into the same film length.
Shape and other settings
Your journey
Preview of your film's ending
Choose your format
Video shape
Photo shape
Picks from
We will choose the cover photo.
Controls how quickly photos appear at the fastest point, while staying in sync with the music.
Finding the moments of your trip...
The moments of your trip did not load. Nothing you chose is lost.
Your film follows this order. Move a photo by hand and the film follows your own order instead.
A photo is available to your film, not promised to it. The length you asked for and the moments decide how many play. Pin a photo to be sure it appears.
The bright photos are the film's own pick at its length. Every other photo is still there for it. Skip a moment you do not want, or keep only its best photo.
In the order of your album
A photo you tick or untick yourself always stays as you left it.
Photos that share one slide are shown as that slide, as the film will show it. Tap a slide to see it large or take a photo out of it.
Tip: To move a photo in the film, drag the dots at its top, or use Arrange order. On a computer, drag a box over photos to select them. To deselect photos, start dragging on a selected photo or hold Shift while dragging from a gap.
Uses our defaults for the rest and creates your film.
Film style
Pick a style. It sets the entrances, the pace, the words and the mood of the music together.
Creates your film now with what is set.
Words and maps
Your film's title
None of the photos in this album carry a location, so the film has no maps. If you shared the album with the location hidden, share it again with the location included and start a new film.
More options
Map look
Preview each option using your own trip. Your choice applies to every daily map and the final route map.
We chose this music for your film. Have a listen.
No sample to play. Your film still uses this track.
Your film changed, so we chose again.
Your music is shorter than your film. After it, the film goes on with similar music, so nothing repeats.
More options
If you do not finish this review within 6 hours of opening it, your film is created from your current choices. Left off, your choices wait here until you come back.
That choice could not be saved. Please try again.
Pace and length
Sound from your videos
The film picks the moments worth hearing and keeps them under the music.
Other tracks
Music
Pick a style and preview its tracks, or leave it on Automatic and we'll choose one to fit your film.
MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG, or FLAC. Up to 5 tracks, 40 MB each.