Creative ways to actually use your photos rather than keeping them unseen on your device

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Actually using and enjoying your photos is something I’ve learnt from my photographer friend Claire Lacey Photography. She’s a big advocate of capturing those special family moments and then actually printing, sharing and displaying the photos to really keep those memories alive.

As such, I’ve been keen to start printing my photos and using them in creative ways, such as making videos, slideshows, photobooks and portraits. There are so many ways you can bring your photos into the limelight – here are just a handful of ideas:

Create a collage

I love the idea of seeing photos of my friends and family every day rather than uploading the pics to my social accounts and then forgetting about them. That’s why hanging photos on your walls is a lovely thing to do – it lets you feel more connected to your loved ones and acts as a daily reminder of the fun you have together. Rather than printing just one image at a time, I prefer to create a collage of multiple photos with different people and places. I can then print it poster-sized and hang it on my wall.

For those who want to add a personalised and creative touch without spending any money, consider using online resources that offer free collages. It’s a great way to compile those cherished memories into something visually stunning and sentimental. One more way of doing this is using painting by numbers art to create a personalised masterpiece from your photos. This allows you to turn a favourite moment into a creative project that adds a unique and personal touch to your home décor, making your memories even more special.

Edit a slideshow

For those of you who want to keep your photos digital rather than physical but still want to actually see them and enjoy them, a video photo collage is an ideal solution. You don’t need any editing skills to make one using a free online DIY video maker, simply upload your photos and let the collage maker do the rest.

It allows you to group together all the lovely photos from a specific occasion or holiday and then share them with your family and friends. You can add music, transitions, graphics etc to personalise the photo slideshow and then export it to whatever size and format you prefer in order to share on your social platforms.

And don’t forget the quick videos you take on your smartphone or tablet – those are often left unseen on your devices, too. So why not turn them into a video of your holiday, a particular season, a special occasion or the whole year? You can use an AI video editor to make the process extra easy and fast, with no editing skills required, which is perfect for me!

You can even add a voiceover to narrate your photo slideshow or videos using an ai text to speech converter. This way, you don’t need any costly voice-recording equipment and can simply use natural-sounding AI voices in your own language to add audio to the video collage.

Adding studio-quality narration brings a professional touch, and lets you share with your audience where a photo was taken, the people you’re with and any funny anecdotes behind the image – making it much more interesting for the viewer to watch your slideshow to the end!

Turn pics into portraits

While photographs provide a snapshot of a moment, paintings offer the intimacy and physicality of the memory. They have a timeless quality that photographs sometimes lack without extensive digital retouching. However, commissioning a painting may appear to be a complicated process that is not worth pursuing. But, thanks to PortraitFlip, that is no longer the case!

You can have hand-painted portraits made from photos that mean a lot to you. Since paintings are versatile they don’t need a particular occasion to be gifted to someone close to you – or you might just want to get a portrait of yourself made for that matter. If you want to make something even crazier, you can use an AI image generator to make any portrait you can think of!

Paint a canvas yourself

For a wonderful way to relax and unwind, you could even try painting a portrait yourself. You can take inspiration from a photo you love and have it converted into a paint by numbers kit. This makes the process even easier than starting with a blank canvas – you’ll have the outline of the design plotted out for you and all the colours are pre-mixed to make sure they look perfect when applied.

I previously painted two canvases of my beautiful cats and it was such a relaxing and mindful process. I loved sitting down to my art projects each day and working on them one brushstroke at a time. And now, the paintings not only look lovely but are really meaningful to me because I painted them myself.

Your artwork will help you to enjoy the special memories you’ve captured for many years to come.

Print your photos

It might seem like a simple solution but how many of us actually get around to printing our photos? You could print out a selection of small photos and scrapbook them to make a record of a special occasion. Remember making a ‘what I did on holiday’ scrapbook after the school summer holidays when you were little?

If there’s a stand-out image you want to really highlight, you could get it printed full-size and frame it up. Hang it as part of a gallery wall and add more photos of special events and memorable times over the coming years to create a full wall of precious memories.

Make a photobook

Another thing I’ve learnt from Claire is to make photobooks. I thought they would be really time-consuming to make, but online photo-printing companies now have such easy systems to use that you can rustle up a photobook in no time at all.

Consider pulling together photos of all the special things that you’ve done as a family during the past 12 months and make a photobook for that year. It makes it so much easier to look back on past events if you can just pull the photobook off the shelf and flick through it. Let’s face it, you’re probably not going to bother plugging in your external hard drive to scroll through them, are you?

Photo by Claire Lacey Photography

Let me know what other creative ways you can think of for using and enjoying the photos you take. I’d love to hear how you’ve kept memories alive with photos in the comments below. 🙂

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