GroupShotCurrent Version: 1.1.0

Powerful app makes it easy to shoot a good group photo

by Alexandra Chang, Macworld.com

Taking a group shot is a tricky task that even the bossiest and most in-control photographers struggle with. When you have more than a handful of people in a photo, there’s no guarantee that all of them will be smiling (with teeth, please!), have their eyes open, and most importantly, be looking at the camera in a single one of your shots. Macadamia Apps has released GroupShot for iPhone to solve your group photo woes.

In GroupShot, you can select two or more group photos from your Camera Roll, Photo Stream, or the in-app camera. The app automatically chooses the best photo and lets you work from there. On the right side of the app you’ll see all of the other group photos, from which you can choose to swap faces or entire bodies.

Select and swap: Make your selection and see swappable options on the right...

All you have to do is draw over the face you want to replace—your frowning son or blinking mom—and the app will pull up that face in the other pictures. You’ll see the options of faces in the right side; tap on the one that you want and the app will do its swapping magic. The great thing is you don’t have to be extremely precise with your selection—the app will recognize what it needs to change even if your selection is mildly messy.

...and enjoy the results!

GroupShot works quickly, but there is one key drawback: it’s not always accurate. If you have a pretty major change to make, such as someone with their body turned away from the camera, you won’t be able to get as seamless a swap as you would compared to replacing someone's closed eyes for opened ones in a similar shot. You also will need to make sure that your selection of group photos has the same alignment and framing, otherwise the app won’t correctly recognize the people or faces it needs to swap or replace. In the example below, I tried to swap out the turned head of my colleague Leah Yamshon, but since she stood a little further to the right in the other group shots, all of the alternate options were cut off. Turns out the app doesn't actually recognize faces, it just compares the selected area with the same area in a different photo.

Not Quite Alligned: If someone in your photo moves slightly, the app will have trouble swapping between photos.

Still, I was quite impressed with GroupShot. When it comes to full-body or simple face swaps, it works really well. And once you’re done, you can share that miracle of a group photo to friends and family via Facebook, Twitter, and email, or save the final image to your Camera Roll. It’s a powerful app that makes a complex task (sometimes an impossible one, depending on your family or group of friends) incredibly simple to accomplish.

[Alexandra Chang is a Macworld staff editor.]