Did you try to take a group photo over the holidays?  How did it come out?  For our family Christmas photo, I took several shots, but not one of them had everyone perfect.  There were 8 of us in the group, but if you count the people in the first picture at right, you’ll only see 6.  In the next picture, the 2 missing people are there, but Marilyn (in red) seems to have disappeared.  What to do?

For once, Picasa does not have an answer for us, but another free photo program does!  It’s called Windows Photo Gallery and it’s a free download from Microsoft.com.  It has a very special feature called Photo Fuse.  Here’s what you do:

1. Launch Windows Photo Gallery
2. Select the photos you want to combine
3. Click the Create menu, then Photo Fuse
   
4. Photo Gallery will highlight an area and let you choose which of the selected photos contains the content you want in that area
5. Click the choice with the good content
6. Highlight the next area you want to fix
7. Click the choice with the best content for that area.
8. File Save to create a new photo that combines the best in your originals

Using that technique,  I selected the the outlined areas from the first and second try photos and the Photo Fuse feature created the composite photo.

Originals

Composite

For further instructions with a Show-Me-How tutorial video, you must be a Geeks on Tour member and login.  Then you can view Using Photo Fuse for Group Pictures.  It’s a 7 minute video that takes you step-by-step how I used Photo Fuse to create the results above.  If you’re not a member, find out how to join here.