How to merge multiple pictures or images to create the perfect group shot

Posted on January 2, 2008 at 7:15 am

Have you ever taken pictures of a large group and been annoyed at the fact that there is at least ONE person in every photo whose eyes are closed, who is squinting, who is looking in another direction, or or doing something else that messes it up? Group photo shots are extremely hard to get perfect because there are simply too many people and everyone reacts differently.

Wouldn’t it be cool, though, if you could take five group photo shots and then merge the pictures together to only take the best parts of each photograph? Well that’s exactly what Microsoft Research is trying to do with a new free piece of software called Group Shot.

Group Shot can help you create the perfect group photos from a series of group photos. Using Group Shot, you can select your favorite parts in each shot of the series and Group Shot will automatically build a composite image. It’s actually quite simple to use and works amazingly well!

The only thing to note is that the photos must be of the same scene, taken from the same point of view and taken within a short period of time. Of course, if you take a group photo in front of a house with 10 people and take the next photo on the street with only 6 people, it’s going to be quite hard to get a composite photo from that.

Here’s how it works (you’ll be surprised how easy it is!):

First, you need to import the image sets that you want work with. You can go to File and then Import Images or you can simply drag and drop the photos from Windows Explorer. Once the images are loaded, you can view each one individually by using the tab strip across the top.

Then, you begin by selecting a region on the original image and adding it to the composite. Once you select a region, the contents of the rectangle appear on the filmstrip on the right side.

Continue going through your pictures and selecting rectangles in the original images. As they show up on the right side, only add to composite the ones that look the best. After a few seconds, you’ll see the new composite image made up of the selected regions.

The other cool thing is that you can remove unwanted backgrounds from an images by select a different background from another image. For example, in the picture below you can replace the person in the background on the beach with the ocean view.

You can then export the composite photos to TIFF or layered PSD format in high or low resolution. Theoretically, you can also use this program to merge the best parts of images that are not group images, but you’ll have to play around with it and things could go awry!

Even so, this is an amazingly cool application that will definitely make some avid photographers very happy! I don’t know how many group photos I have where I can use this program! Enjoy! Source FreewareGenius

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Comments

6 Responses to “How to merge multiple pictures or images to create the perfect group shot”

Sydney Wood said on : January 2nd, 2008 at 9:07 am

I have downloaded and installed Group Shot. When I run the program a message comes up stating that the program has expired and then it closes down. I have gone back to the site looking for a new release but it looks as if Microsoft has given up on the program.

Bottom line – do not waste your time. The program does not work.

akishore said on : January 2nd, 2008 at 10:15 am

Hi Sydney! You’re right about the expiration of the software! That’s annoying! You can still use the program by changing the date on your computer to September 2007 and then it works fine! I just tried it on my machine. Give it a shot and see how it works.

Madhur Kapoor said on : January 3rd, 2008 at 11:39 am

Nice software buddy . I was looking for something like this.

akishore said on : January 4th, 2008 at 9:34 am

Madhur, yeah it’s definitely cool software! I wish they would update it though, it’s been more than a year! And you have to reset the time on your computer to run it, which is annoying.

amacee said on : February 28th, 2008 at 2:31 am

as i know, Photoshop can do the same thing. using “merge” option there will work automatically or manually

Recap of last month’s best posts on Online Tech Tips Says:

[...] How to merge multiple pictures or images to create the perfect group shotWouldn’t it be cool, though, if you could take five group photo shots and then merge the pictures together to only take the best parts of each photograph? Well that’s exactly what Microsoft Research is trying to do with a new free piece of software called Group Shot. [...]
February 1st, 2008 at 10:05 am