GIF’s and Photographers

How to create a GIF in Photoshop

When one thinks of GIF's they usually think of that old past time of sending Whatsapp messages to friends with the common ones, like the little girl with the awkward face, or Chris Pratt being ever so over-excited.

It never occurred to me how something as simple as a GIF could actually make a difference in my photography business.

GIF's give a feeling of emotion more than a typical still single frame image does. It helps to build the narrative of that moment that led up to that perfect shot.

GIF's and Photographers- where's the connection?

I used to obsess over using high burst on my camera during a shoot. I had this notion that if I just kept shooting then I’d never miss a single thing.

Well, in reality, I missed out on a lot of time as I’d spend so much longer culling all of these shots. Not to mention the fact I was greatly decreasing the lifespan of my camera sensor!

I now just use high burst in situations where I’d love to make a gif to send to my clients or to use on my socials. It gives a little something extra to your couple and you then have something fun to share on your reels too!

They can be a great marketing tool, and a good eye-catcher for anyone scrolling as they search for a photographer.

Here’s how to make a gif in Photoshop:

Once I’ve imported and tweaked my editing style on all of them in Lightroom and exported them into .jpgs, I’ll then open the images in Photoshop. I’ll then proceed to add each other image in sequence as layers on top of that original image.

Open up the Timeline window

In the Timeline window, click "Create Frame Animation"

In the timeline window, on the top right corner, click on the hamburger menu button and select "Make frames from layers"

Now you have a gif! You can press the play button in the Timeline window to watch it through

At the bottom of the toolbar, select how many times you'd like it to loop. I just keep it on 'Forever' so its continuous

Save and Export Your GIF. I do this by going to File > Export > Save for Web > Preset should be set to GIF, and I select 256 colors. Then save, and you're done!