# How do they blend together hundreds of photos to make a new image? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 4, 2005, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-blend-together-hundreds-of-photos-to-make-a-new-image/292988 "2005-03-04T22:49:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-blend-together-hundreds-of-photos-to-make-a-new-image/292988/1 "2005-03-04T22:49:39Z")
To elaborate further, I’ve seen one where they blended together all the photos of dead american soldiers in Iraq into an image of George W. Bush. How do they do that? ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-blend-together-hundreds-of-photos-to-make-a-new-image/292988/2 "2005-03-04T22:55:43Z")
I’m not sure, but do you have a link to that picture? There has to be more to it than putting each picture on a layer in photoshop, lining them up and setting mix mode to overlay. ---
**Author:** ![qubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f07891/32.png) [@qubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qubed)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-blend-together-hundreds-of-photos-to-make-a-new-image/292988/3 "2005-03-04T23:07:33Z")
I think it’s usually done through a piece of software that takes a normal image (such as G.W. Bush) and discretizes it into smaller chunks. It then has a large database of pictures from which it picks a picture that best represents each chunk color-wise Then, presumably, a human looks through it and fixes choices that look a bit odd. Voila, you a have a picture of Bush composed of many other smaller pictures. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-blend-together-hundreds-of-photos-to-make-a-new-image/292988/4 "2005-03-04T23:11:52Z")
If you’re speaking of a photo mosaic, there are several programs that can construct these. Here’s a comparison of some of the options: [http://www.aolej.com/mosaic/compare.htm](http://www.aolej.com/mosaic/compare.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2005, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-blend-together-hundreds-of-photos-to-make-a-new-image/292988/5 "2005-03-04T23:27:25Z")
There are two effects that you might be talking about. They are called, respectively, photomosaics, and jigsaw image mosaics. Doing a Google search on photomosaic bush brought up the image that I think you’re talking about. Hm, apparently some company named “Runaway Productions” has trademarked the term “photomosaics” and clames to hold a [patent](http://www.photomosaic.com/rt/patent-index.html) on the algorithm to produce them. ---
**Author:** ![Blueapple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Blueapple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blueapple)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-blend-together-hundreds-of-photos-to-make-a-new-image/292988/6 "2005-03-05T00:11:58Z")
> [@alanak](#): > > I think it’s usually done through a piece of software that takes a normal image (such as G.W. Bush) and discretizes it into smaller chunks. > > It then has a large database of pictures from which it picks a picture that best represents each chunk color-wise > > Then, presumably, a human looks through it and fixes choices that look a bit odd. > > Voila, you a have a picture of Bush composed of many other smaller pictures. Second item: [http://www.camerairaq.com/2004/04/related\_issues.html](http://www.camerairaq.com/2004/04/related_issues.html) ---
**Author:** ![Pashnish\_Ewing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-blend-together-hundreds-of-photos-to-make-a-new-image/292988/7 "2005-03-05T01:31:09Z")
[Bush Mosaic](http://photomatt.net/2004/04/07/mosaic/) I’ve never seen a photo mosaic that didn’t “cheat” to get the desired colors. I remember checking out the Truman Show movie poster up close, and they just tinted the small pics to match the color they needed for the big picture. Sometimes the exact same small still was used more than once, but tinted a different color each time so it would match. Doesn’t seem right to me (and I’d love to be corrected on this). Pash