Can You Add Pictures To TikTok Videos Without Slideshows?

It’s easy for TikTok users to add photos to their videos. The social media platform automatically creates highly-produced slideshows, complete with professional transitions and zooms, when you choose to create a TikTok post that features the pictures you want to showcase. The shows are eye-catching and interesting, and take only seconds to create.

Once you’re in the TikTok editor, all you have to do is choose the photos to upload from your phone’s camera reel, arrange them in any order you’d like, choose music, add filters, effects, and/or text, and tell the app to do its work. You’ll have a visually-appealing video slideshow ready for posting in no time at all.

But what if you don’t want a slideshow?

No worries. There are several methods you can use, depending on the visual composition you’re shooting for.

1. Add Photos as Stickers

Stickers are images that can be placed “on top of” the TikTok video you record while you’re in the editing screen. When you turn your pictures into stickers, they can be placed anywhere in the frame.

1. Record your TikTok content by tapping the “+” icon at the bottom of the home screen, choosing the length of the video you’ll create, and hitting the red “Record” button. When done, click the red checkmark at the bottom right of the screen.
2. Tap the “Stickers” icon (a stylized face) in the right-hand icon menu on the “Edit” screen.
3. Find and click the “Upload” icon (it looks like a mountain with a “+” sign in the middle of the screen. Choose the photo you want to turn into a sticker, click the “Upload to remove background” button if that’s the style of picture you want to display, and hit “OK.”
4. You’ll see your video preview with the photo added. Move it anywhere you want on the screen, resize it or rotate it if you’d like, add any other edits to your video if necessary, and click “Next” to reach the “Upload” screen.

2. Use the Green Screen Effect

Most people take this approach when they want to use their photo as a background and show their video “in front of” the picture. Here’s how to do it.

1. Open the TikTok “Record” screen by hitting the “+” icon at the bottom of the home screen, but don’t begin recording just yet.
2. Hit the “Effects” icon directly to the left of the red “Record” button.
3. Click “View all effects” and choose the “Green Screen” option.
4. A timeline of all of the photos on your camera reel will appear toward the middle of the screen. Scroll until you find the picture you want to use as your background, and tap it. You’ll see your photo appear as a background.
5. You’ll also see a “Green Screen” icon appear where the Record button would normally be. Select the length of video you’ll be recording, and hit the button to shoot your content. When you’re done, click the checkmark to move to the Edit screen, where you can do any other necessary work on your video before uploading it as a post.

Want to only show the photo (or multiple photos) in your video? This is the other way the Green Screen effect can let you add pictures to your TikTok videos without sideshows.

Set your first photo background with the green screen, and then record with your phone’s camera pointing at a solid-colored wall. All your viewers will see is the background picture. If you want to show several photos in a row, record for the length of time you want to show the first picture, repeat the process but choose a different background photo, and so on.

If you want to add audio narration for the photo display, you can do that in the editing screen by using the “Voice” effect.

3. Use a Third-Party Video Editor

Let’s say you want to record some on-camera narration explaining what a picture will show, then display the photo, and then return to your on-camera dialogue. TikTok’s editor isn’t full-featured enough to allow that sort of editing work; you’ll have to use a different app to record and edit your video and then upload the finished content to TikTok for posting.

Many people choose the CapCut editing app for tasks like this. It’s owned by the same company that owns TikTok, so it’s designed to create TikTok-friendly video that can be seamlessly uploaded right to the app. It will look just as if it’s been recorded and edited directly on TikTok — and it can let you create much more elaborate video productions with very little extra work.