Combine some group photos so everybody smiles ;-)

[Dietmar.Harms]

How can I combine some group photos so that everybody smiles and has his eyes open? 

I read in MacLife magazine from July 2019 that this is possible in an automated way in Affinity Photo, but I can't find this function. I found stacks for HDR, exposure, noise reduction, , object removal, focus merging ... but not the feature above.

What am I missing? Is there a tutorial around?

Best, Dietmar

[Dan C]

Hi Dietmar.Harms

I believe you're referring to the following -

Quote

 Affinity Photo can merge a burst of handheld snaps into a layered document and align them, so you can blend the best bits of a group portrait and have everyone smiling.

I'm not 100% certain which feature MacLife are referring to, so I'll try to outline both for you!

Live Stack- https://affinity.serif.com/tutorials/photo/desktop/video/295557964/

This technique is usually used to remove people from landscape shots - but it certainly could work for a group portrait shot, depending on the specific images.

Try File>New Stack and add your images and leave the alignment options at default. Once your Stack is created, try changing the Stack Operator (Median is default) to see if any of these work for your images.

Focus Merge - https://affinity.serif.com/tutorials/photo/desktop/video/295557891

Another option could be to use a Focus Merged image, then use the Clone tool and Sources panel to select the 'best' face from each image for each of your subjects, then clone this from the original image into the focus merged image.

I've covered this topic further here - https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/59621-multiple-action-exposure-outlier-blend-help/

I hope this helps