Use Group Shot for Flawless Group Photos

Hasn't this happened to you? You take several shots of a group photo, specifically trying to get at least one good one, and after downloading the photos to your computer, you find that the best expression of each person is in a different shot! Microsoft Research Group has recognized this problem and developed Group Shot to deal with it. I just finished fooling with it and it works well provided all your source photos align fairly well. It won't work with unrelated shots.

To use it, load multiple group photos into Group Shot. In my example here, I used a total of 5 sources. Then drag a rectangle around one of the faces in a photo. Group Shot will display a filmstrip showing this region from all the source photos. In the filmstrip, just click on the one you like best, and press the "Add to Composite" button. Repeat the selection process for each person in the group photo. When you've selected all the best expresions for the people in your group shot, you can view the composite. If you like the results, you can save a low resolution composite, or export a full resolution composite in JPEG format.

Here's another example where I used just two source photos.

Microsoft Research Group Shot is free to download but only runs on Windows XP.

Update 5/12/08: A new posting on Microsoft's Group Shot page states the following:

"The Group Shot Beta period has expired. We are currently considering several options to bring Group Shot back. Please stay tuned to this site for information on future releases."

Meanwhile, those looking for a replacement for Group Shot may want to explore the Photomerge Group Shot feature in Photoshop Elements 6. If you know of another similar solution, please tell us about it using the comments link below.

Also see: Photo Masking and Compositing Software