How to Put Photos in Order for a Growing Up Video

2026-10-164 min read

Put the photos in order from youngest to oldest, and the video will play them in exactly that order. Vidotory does not sort photos for you: the order you set is the order your viewers see. Here is how to get it right, even when the photos have no dates.

The short version

Gather the photos in one place.
Find an age or year for each one, even a rough one.
Sort from youngest to oldest.
Check the neighbours: no two photos should look like the same moment.
Drag the photos into place, then look at the row once more before you continue.

Make a growing up video

Find the age of each photo

You rarely need an exact date. A good guess within a year or two is enough to put photos in order. Look for:

The date on the file. Phone photos usually carry the date they were taken. Check it in the gallery or the file details. Scans and chat copies often show the date of the scan or the message instead, so do not trust them blindly.
The back of a print. Many prints have a date or a note in pencil.
Events. A wedding, a first day of school or a holiday pins a photo to a year.
The person. Baby, toddler, school age, teenager, adult: even without a year, the person's age puts a photo in the right group.
Clothes, haircuts and backgrounds. Useful for settling two photos that look close.
Family. Ask a parent or sibling. One sentence from them can date a whole shoebox.

Sort in two passes

First sort the photos into rough groups: baby, child, teenager, young adult, adult, now. Then order the photos inside each group. Working in two passes is faster than trying to sort twenty photos in one go, and it shows you early if a group is empty.

Check the neighbours

The video turns every pair of neighbouring photos into one transition of about 5 seconds. A transition shows change, so it works best when the two photos are clearly different in age:

If two neighbours look like the same year, drop the weaker one.
If there is a huge gap, for example a baby photo followed by a teenager, add a photo from between if you have one.
Aim for roughly even steps. For a life, something like birth, 3, 7, 12, 17, 25, 35 and today works well.

For more on picking the photos themselves, read how to choose photos for a growing up video.

See the plans

Set the order in Vidotory

You add the photos, then drag them into place in a single row. The first photo is where the video starts and the last is where it ends. Put the youngest first and the most recent last. Until you pay, you can go back to your project and change the photos or their order.

Mistakes to avoid

One photo out of place. The person suddenly gets younger in the middle of the video. Look along the whole row once before you continue.
Trusting file dates on scans. A scan made last week is not a photo from last week.
Same-year neighbours. Two photos taken a month apart waste a transition.
Guessing in silence. If you are unsure about a photo, ask a relative before you decide.

More guides

FAQ

Can Vidotory sort my photos by age?

No. You set the order yourself by dragging the photos. Vidotory plays them exactly in that order.

What if I do not know when a photo was taken?

Estimate from the person's age, the clothes and the setting, or ask a relative. A rough order is enough, as long as the youngest comes first.

Can I change the order later?

Yes, while the project is not paid. Go back to your project and change the photos or their order. Once the video is made, the order is fixed; use Duplicate on your project to start again from the same photos.

Do the photos have to go from young to old?

For a growing up video, yes: the video follows your order, so youngest first makes the person grow up. Any other order will make them seem to get younger.

Are my photos kept?

Photos and videos are deleted automatically 30 days after you create the project. Your photos are used only to make your video. Read the privacy policy.

Is there a watermark or a subscription?

No. You pay once and download an MP4 without a watermark.

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