How to add a picture to a video
Last updated 2026-10-20
To add a picture to a video, put the image on the timeline above your footage at the moment it should appear, then set how long it stays and how big it is. Full-frame, it works as its own shot. Small and in a corner, it works as a logo or an inset. Use a PNG when the picture needs see-through areas.
Four ways to put a picture in a video
Decide the job first, because the settings follow from it.
Use the table for starting points, then adjust by eye. Apple's iMovie picture-in-picture guide starts the same way, by dragging a clip above another in the timeline. It describes clips and does not mention still images.
| Job | Layer | Size | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| A photo as its own shot | Above the footage | Fills the frame | 3 to 5 seconds, longer if it holds text |
| A logo or badge | Above the footage | One tenth to one fifth of the width | The whole video, or the moment the brand matters |
| An inset picture (picture-in-picture) | Above the footage | One quarter to one third of the width | While you talk about it |
| A still as the background | Behind the footage | Fills the frame | As long as the footage in front of it |
Timing and size
Start the picture on the word that names it. If you say "the receipt" and the receipt appears half a second later, the gap reads as a mistake. Remove it when the sentence moves on.
Size follows purpose. A full-frame photo is a shot, so give it time to be read. An inset should be large enough to show its detail and small enough that the speaker stays the focus. A logo should be easy to find and easy to ignore, so leave a margin and keep it in one spot.
A photo between two clips either covers the story or pauses it. Covering means the footage keeps running underneath and you lose that stretch. Pausing means you push the later clips back to make room.
Transparency and file types
A logo usually needs see-through areas so the footage shows around its shape. The PNG specification supports an alpha channel, where in-between values mean partly transparent pixels. If your logo arrives inside a white box, the file has a solid background, and you need a copy saved as a PNG with a transparent background.
The picture types Woven accepts are PNG, JPG, WebP and GIF. Convert iPhone HEIC photos to JPEG before you import them. An animated GIF stops on its opening frame.
When a picture should be faint on purpose, such as a watermark, lower its opacity rather than editing the file. After your first import, check on the canvas that the footage shows through.
Make a still picture move
A picture that sits unchanged for several seconds looks stuck. Let it enter, leave and drift. In Woven, an image has In, Out and Loop animations: an In such as Fade, Pop or Zoom In, an Out such as Fade Out or Shrink, and a Loop such as Float or Slow Zoom.
Slow Zoom and Slow Spin run once across the whole clip instead of cycling, which suits a photo held for a few seconds. Two photos in a row cannot crossfade in Woven, so give each one a Fade entrance and a Fade Out exit.
Add a picture in Woven
In Woven, higher picture lanes cover lower ones. The main video is lane 1, and an image you add lands on lane 2 or above. Text and captions are drawn on top of all lanes, so a corner logo cannot cover a caption. Added by hand, an image comes in at about a third of the canvas width, lasts three seconds and fades in. For a background, ask in chat to put the image on lane 0, behind the main video. It shows only where that video is smaller than the canvas or masked.
Ask in chat
- Put this logo in the top right corner for the whole video.
- Show the photo full screen for four seconds after the second clip.
- Put this picture behind my video and shrink the video so it shows.
- Add a slow zoom to the photo.
Or do it by hand
- 1Import. Choose Add, then Image, and pick the file, or drag it from Finder onto the timeline. Selecting several files places them in a row, starting at the playhead.
- 2Place it in time. Drag the picture's edges on the Picture track to change how long it stays, and drag the picture itself to start it on the right word. To make room instead of covering footage, drag the later clips to the right.
- 3Size and position it. Drag it on the canvas and use the handles to resize and rotate. For a full-frame shot, open the Crop tab, set Fit to Fill, and size it to cover the canvas.
- 4Style it. On the Style tab, set Corners, Border, Border color, Shadow and Opacity.
- 5Add motion. On the Animation tab, choose an In such as Fade or Pop, an Out such as Fade Out, or a Loop such as Slow Zoom.
Common questions
Put the image on the timeline above your footage, set where it starts and how long it stays, then size and place it. Full-frame makes it a shot. Small in a corner makes it a logo.
Use a PNG with a transparent background, place it above the footage, shrink it to about a tenth to a fifth of the width, and keep it in one corner. Let it run the whole video unless it belongs to one moment.
For see-through areas, use a PNG with an alpha channel. To fade the whole picture, lower its opacity, which Woven offers on the Style tab.
A photo that is its own shot needs 3 to 5 seconds, longer if it has text. An inset can leave when you stop talking about it. A logo can stay the whole video.
Yes. In Woven, select several files after choosing Add, then Image. They are placed one after another from the playhead, and each lasts three seconds.
Give it an entrance and a slow zoom. In Woven, the Animation tab has In, Out and Loop presets for images.
Sources
- Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Specification, Third Edition - W3C, checked October 20, 2026
- Create a picture-in-picture effect in iMovie on Mac - Apple Support, checked October 20, 2026
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