If you do not have recorded material yet, use a camera that can record a short movie clip. The higher the resolution, the better. If you want a portrait picture, you may need to turn your camera 90°! Try to record as much as possible. You need only 4-6 seconds, but people may relax after a while, giving a much better result. If you record a meadow, clouds, etc., you do not want the loop of the photion to show the same bird flying by every 5 seconds again and again.
If you already have a clip, that can be converted into a photion as well. Our "imáGROW" technology can enhance the resolution, remove video interlace, etc. But for use on websites your photion will not need to be much larger than 200x300 or 300x200.
Use any software you like to select a 4-6 second clip from your original material. You could even use free software, like VirtualDub or AviSynth.
Next you create the loop. Duplicate the clip, and let the original dissolve, or crossfade, into the duplicate. Next, duplicate this endresult, and let it crossfade. You now have your clip 4 times. Now select copy 2 from that clip. This contains a fade-in, and a fade-out (as copy 3 has). You do not need the audio track (although somebody suggested to me to record whispered words: room for experiment!). Audio will be looped too, and may disturb the subtle experience. Save the clip in a high quality video file, for example MP4. And save it as OGG, not all browsers are happy with just MP4.
Since Photions rely on HTML5, and HTML5Video will not loop without help, you need a player. Install for example the VideoJS player.