How to Make a Before and After Video From Two Photos

You have two photographs on your phone. One from before a job, one from after it, and somewhere between them is a video you have not made yet because you have never opened this kind of app and you are not sure what happens between picking the photos and posting the result.

Here is the whole thing, in order, and the one fact worth having before you tap anything: this app takes two still photographs and gives you back a video, a GIF or a single image. It does not take two video clips. There is no timeline, no trimming and no transition between clips anywhere in it, because the photo picker itself is filtered to images and video was never an option to begin with. If you arrived hoping to compare two video clips, this is not that tool, and it is worth knowing that now rather than after a download.

1. Get the two photographs in

You can bring the before and after in three ways: pick both from your gallery through the standard photo picker, shoot one or both fresh with the plain camera, or shoot the after with Ghost Camera, which lays your before photograph over the live viewfinder at an opacity you set between 0 and 70 percent so the two line up before you press the shutter rather than after.

This step assumes the two photographs are already reasonably close, in the same spot, at the same distance, under the same light. That is a separate skill from the video itself, and it is the one that actually decides whether the finished post looks convincing. If your pair does not hold together yet, the method is in how to take matching before and after photos , and it is worth doing before you touch a template.

2. Choose a comparison mode

Four modes, and every one of them is free on every plan: Slider, which splits one frame with a divider you drag; Side by Side, both photographs at full height next to each other; Top / Bottom, stacked, which is the one to reach for on a wide subject like a driveway or a garden bed rather than cramming it into a vertical frame; and Tap to Switch, one photograph at a time, flipped by a tap, which is the cleanest read on a small screen.

Pick by the subject’s shape, not by which one looks nicest in the abstract. A person or anything tall suits Slider or Side by Side. A room or anything wide suits Top / Bottom. A busy or detailed subject suits Tap to Switch, because nothing sits split or shrunk.

3. Choose a reveal animation

This is the one place the free tier narrows before you reach the export sheet, and it is worth knowing early rather than discovering at the last screen. Three reveal animations exist: Slider Reveal, an eased wipe across the frame and the only one on the free tier; Tap Reveal, a hard cut at the halfway point, Pro only; and Zoom In, side by side then a slow push, Pro only.

One honest limit sits underneath all three. The video exporter currently takes its layout from the reveal animation rather than from the comparison mode you picked in step two, so a Top / Bottom or Tap to Switch pair reaches a correct image export today, but not a correct video export. If you built one of those two modes and you want a video specifically, Slider Reveal is the animation that will actually render it the way you built it. The image export honours all four modes properly right now, so a still is the safer choice for those two.

4. Set the length

Video runs 3.0 to 7.0 seconds, adjustable in half-second steps, and it defaults to 4.0. That default is not arbitrary: a reveal has to finish before a thumb has decided to keep scrolling, and a slower wipe reads as a stall rather than as drama on most subjects.

Reach for something longer only when the subject genuinely needs reading, a whole room or a garden bed rather than a face or a pair of hands. The free tier caps video at 5.0 seconds. Pro reaches the full 7.0, and the extra couple of seconds are useful for exactly the wide-subject case above and not much else.

5. Export at the ratio the platform wants

Video exports as an MP4 at 1080p: 1080 by 1920 for 9:16, 1080 by 1350 for 4:5, 1080 by 1080 for a square 1:1. The Original option keeps your source proportions and caps the longest side at 3024 pixels, which is the one to reach for on a wide subject or a website rather than a vertical feed. Decide the destination before you shoot if you can, because a re-crop after the fact is what pushes a divider under a caption stack.

Free exports are limited to 9:16 and 1:1. Pro adds 4:5 and Original. If you want a GIF instead of a video, know what you are actually getting: it is a simple looping slider at 480 pixels wide, up to four seconds, and it does not reproduce the template or comparison mode you built. It is genuinely useful in a message thread or an email signature, and it is not a substitute for the video or image export if you want what you actually designed.

What actually changes between the four modes and three animations

It helps to be clear that a comparison mode and a reveal animation are two separate decisions, because the app treats them as separate and the export sheet will ask about both. The comparison mode decides how the two photographs are arranged on the frame: split by a divider, side by side, stacked, or shown one at a time. The reveal animation decides how that arrangement plays out over the length of the video: an eased wipe, a hard cut, or a slow push. You are not choosing one thing twice. You are choosing a layout, then choosing how that layout moves.

This is also where the limit from step three actually bites, and it is worth restating in plain terms rather than leaving it as a caveat. Build a pair in Top / Bottom or Tap to Switch and export it as a still image, and you get back exactly what you designed. Build the same pair and export it as a video, and the video currently follows Slider Reveal’s own layout instead, regardless of the mode you picked in the editor. It is not a bug you have caused and there is nothing to fix on your end. It is a known gap between the comparison mode and the video exporter, and the honest workaround today is to export those two modes as an image rather than a video until it closes.

What the free tier gives you, and what it holds back

Lead with the list that matters for actually doing the work, because it is longer than people expect. Free and completely ungated: all four comparison modes, every filter, all 83 stickers, the full label editor, your business name and logo, Ghost Camera with no limit on how often you use it, saved projects, and all ten app languages. None of that sits behind a paywall or a daily count.

What is genuinely limited: three exports a day, each behind a short rewarded ad, a watermark on the file, 9:16 and 1:1 ratios only, Slider Reveal as the only video reveal, video capped at 5.0 seconds, and no background music. Said plainly rather than discovered at the export sheet: the free tier is generous about the craft and strict about the output.

Picking a template once the flow makes sense

You do not need to decide a look before you understand the steps above, and every template respects whichever comparison mode and reveal you chose. Two of the free templates are a reasonable place to start: Minimal , a plain white frame that gets out of the way when the transformation itself is the whole point, and Reels Ready , shaped for the vertical platforms most pairs end up on. The Clean category and the Social category sit above them if neither is quite right, and the full template catalogue covers all of it, including the trade-specific packs for hair, nails, car detailing, gardens and more.

Testing the pair before you commit to any of this

If you are not sure the two photographs will hold together as a comparison at all, you do not need the app to find out. The free before and after slider on this site runs entirely in your browser: drop both photographs in, drag the handle, and nothing leaves your device. A pair that was shot properly holds together as the handle moves across it. A pair that was not will jump, and that is worth knowing before you spend time on a template.

The whole thing, one more time

Two photographs in. Pick a comparison mode by the subject’s shape. Pick a reveal, and remember that Slider Reveal is the one that always reaches a video regardless of the mode you chose. Set the length, four seconds unless the subject needs more. Export at the ratio the platform actually wants. Nowhere in that sequence is there a second video clip, a timeline, or anything to trim, because the app was never built to take one in. You can read the rest of what it does, including the free-versus-Pro split in full, on the app page .