FaceReel, is a free Windows 8 photo app that can be used to create photo slideshow in Windows 8 devices, and then share them with friends and families. The app uses a facial recognition software to automatically align images, and then creates a movie of the slideshow of photos in .mp4 files, which you can save directly to the SkyDrive or locally in your Windows 8 devices. And all of these are done, with few mouse clicks.
The app supports a built in video player as well, that gives you a preview of the photo slideshow movie, you just created using the app. And if you liked it, then the app lets you share the videos directly from within the app itself. This is a good Windows 8 photo app, to create a quick slideshow of the favorite photos, that you like to share with your close ones.
Create photo slide show, and then save and share them using this Windows 8 photo app:
I liked the fact that, how easy it is now to make a photo slideshow in Windows 8 devices. It’s just a matter of few minutes and clicks, now, that you can create a good photo slideshow. The app has a clean user interface and is very well designed. This makes it quite easy for every one to create photo slideshow, and then share them. The app only recognizes the default Pictures directory of your Windows 8 devices, and the photo files and folders inside it. So, if you want to add a photo from SkyDrive, then you have to download it and save it in Pictures directory.
Or, if you wish, you can also take instant photos using your Windows 8 device camera, and import them in the app. The app is very well integrated with Windows 8 camera app. The buttons for these two options are present on the left side of the first screen, that you’ll be with when using the app.
For adding favorite photos, all you have to do is click. The app gives a very good browsing window (more like a ribbon) at the bottom of the screen. From here you can browse and select photos. A good thing about adding photos in the app is, if you want to add all the photos of a folder, than in place of selecting photos one by one, you can right click on the screen and click on Add All.
And if you want to delete a photo that’s ruining the slideshow from the list then, just select the unwanted photos by right clicking on them and click on Delete. Good thing is you can delete multiple photos at once. Now, this does speeds up the whole process. Once you have got all the requisite photos on the screen, what you have to do next, is right click on the screen again, and click on Make Video. The app automatically aligns the photos and creates a video of photo slide show. You have to wait for a while. Once done, you’ll get a play button to view the slideshow video.
Like I said above, the preview of video gets played in an in-built video player, which you can pause-play anytime. Plus there are buttons for switching to full screen mode, volume control, and a playback slider.
Next, you can either save the created video locally or to SkyDrive. Simply click on Save button, and the file gets saved in .mp4 format, which is quite common these days, hence making it easier for you as well as other viewers to view the slideshow. Or if you want to skip that, then you can directly use the Windows 8 Share Charm in the same screen and share the video.
Key features of this Windows 8 photo app:
- Freely available.
- Create photo slideshow video in .mp4 file format.
- Save and share the videos.
- Integrated with Windows 8 SkyDrive.
- Integrated with Windows 8 Share Charm and Windows 8 camera app.
- Simple and clean UI.
Do check out these Windows 8 photo apps: first is very similar to this app that is to create photo album and play their slide show, and the other is Windows 8 Watermark App to watermark PDF and photos
Final note:
FaceReel, is a good Windows 8 photo app. It is handy, fast and easy. However, it could have been more useful if it wouldn’t have crashed. Though, it just crashed just once or twice. Also, I wish that there were some options to align the photos. Still it’s a good start. All the features and integration work well. Also, the face recognition pretty much does it’s job. All in all a good app.
You might also like checking this Windows 8 tutorial to change Photo App Live Tile Images in Windows 8.1.
