Pictures & Video Guide

This page shows, step by step, how to make pictures and lifelike videos and put them on the site. Every picture has a fixed place, so you never have to guess. While the site is in sample mode, each empty place shows a dashed gold box that says Picture goes here and the file name to use.

1. Where each picture goes

Save the file in the media folder of the site project under that exact name, then ask me to rebuild the site, and I will upload the new version. You can also just attach the picture here in the chat and tell me which one it is. Large videos are better on YouTube: put the video on your YouTube channel and give me its video ID (the letters after v= in the address), and the Meet page plays it.

2. Pictures inside lessons, coloring books and retreats

These go in on the Lesson Library page itself, with no rebuild:

• Cover picture: after you plan a series, use Add a cover picture under the title. It prints on the cover and goes into the Word file.
• Coloring page: under each drawing, choose Use my own picture instead. Use Copy a Leonardo prompt to get a ready prompt for that exact page.
• Any lesson, VBS day or retreat session: choose Add a picture.

These pictures stay in your own browser and go on your printouts and Word files.

3. Make pictures with Leonardo AI

1. Sign in at app.leonardo.ai.
2. Choose Image and type a prompt. For a coloring page, paste the prompt from the Lesson Library button. For a banner, try: wide peaceful sunrise over rolling hills, an open Bible on a wooden table in the foreground, soft gold and navy colors, no text, photographic.
3. Pick the size that matches the table above (wide for banners, square for portraits, landscape for coloring pages), then press Generate.
4. Pick the best picture and download it. Rename it to the file name from the table.
5. Look closely at hands, faces and any writing before you use it. If it looks wrong, generate again.

A note on honesty: use real photographs of real people, because visitors expect them. Pictures from AI are best for scenery and Bible-story illustrations, and it is good practice to say on the page that they are illustrations.

4. Make lifelike video with Leonardo AI

1. In Leonardo, make a still picture you like (step 3).
2. Choose the Video tools (image to video, sometimes called Motion) and select that picture.
3. Describe the movement in a few words: slow camera push in, clouds drifting, wheat moving in the wind. Keep clips short (4 to 8 seconds).
4. Generate, watch, and download the clip as an MP4.
5. Put several clips together, add your voice, and add words in CapCut (next section).

5. Voice-over videos in CapCut

1. Open CapCut and start a new project (16:9 for the website and YouTube).
2. Import your Leonardo clips and pictures and drag them onto the timeline.
3. Add your voice: record directly, or use your cloned voice for the narration and drop the audio under the clips.
4. Add captions with the automatic captions tool, so the video can be followed with the sound off.
5. Export as MP4, 1080p. For the website, keep the file small (under about 100 MB). For anything longer, upload it to YouTube instead.

6. Your own phone pictures and video

1. Take pictures in good light, held sideways for banners and straight for portraits.
2. Send them to your computer, rename them to the file names in the table, and save them in the media folder, or attach them to the chat.

7. Free stock pictures

The websites Pexels and Unsplash offer photographs that are free to use on a website under their own licenses. Read the license on each site before you use a picture, and do not use pictures that show a recognizable person in a way that suggests they support this ministry.

8. Put a video on YouTube and show it here

1. Open YouTube Studio and choose Create, then Upload videos.
2. Choose the file, give it a title, and set it to Public (or Unlisted).
3. Copy the video ID from the address (the letters after v=) and give it to me. I put it in the site so the Meet page plays it.