Group Shot is a free program that can automatically create a single ’perfect’ image from multiple image sources. It does this by merging the ’good’ parts from other images (typically shots of groups of people) into a final, perfect composite image.
Did you notice that whenever you’re taking pictures of people in a group that there’s always at least one person who’s squinting, frowning, or looking away even when you’ve finally managed to get all the other people in the picture flash perfect 
smiles?
Group Shot from Microsoft Research can take a number of pictures and semi-automatically merge the good parts to construct a perfect output image. If this is sounding a little bit strange, or if it sounds like it might involve a lot of work/tweaking — I have some news for you: it works like magic; a few clicks will automagically deliver perfect group shots that never existed in reality (its almost disconcerting).
To test this software, I took 2 pictures of 2 of my coworkers (thanks John, Mark) where only one of my colleagues was smiling in each image. I then processed the two pics with Groupshot and within seconds had a perfect composite image with both guys smiling (it was so quick and looked so undoctored that I was a bit taken aback- see screenshot on the right).
How to use:
- Select a number of images and drag into the Group Shot window: Images have to be the same size (which they will be if they are taken by the same camera in the same place in succession). If images aren’t aligned Group Shot contains a number of tools that can help you align them.
- Go to each one of the images (which at this point will be displayed as tabs), and select (draw a rectangle) around each of the good faces that you want to include in your final groupshot.
- Once that is done, click on ’view composite’ and you will most likely get a very good composite image where the ’best’ features you outlined are merged into te composite.
- Save the results, in either low or high resolution. Export options include TIFF and layered PSD.
In theory you can use this program to selectively merge the best parts of images together that are not group photos (although I personally haven’t tried this).
Version tested: 1.03
Compatibility: Windows XP; no info on Vista.
Go to the Group Shot program page to download.
On Vista compatibility: This software was originally developed for Vista and was showcased at the Vista “WOW” launch back in January.
Another great use for it is to remove unwanted objects (like cars or people) from tourist-type shots. Here’s an article that shows this use:
http://blogs.technet.com/jamesone/archive/2007/01/09/the-first-windows-vista-quot-ultimate-extras-quot.aspx
But, where do I get the program from???
Clicking on the download link keeps giving me a “Page cannot be found” error!
Any direct downloads anywhere???
Paparazzi,
Once on the Groupshot page, there is a download button on the upper right of the screen. I just tried it and it works.
This looks great, but I keep getting “Evaluation period had ended. Please visit research.microsoft.com for an update.” That would be fine except the help forums they list have been phased out as well. It would be nice to actually be able to use this.
Change the date on your computer to Sept 2007…works for me with this tweak.
Hi! I’m John Strass and i like your site!
Thank you!
Is there any registry change that can be done to run program past evaluation period rather than changing date on computer?