What it does

How to install

Controls

Things to try

FAQ

Versions

Questions

 

Polymerge

 

What it does

Given a gang of similar pictures, Polymerge can combine them into a single weird image. It's ideal for blenderizing your digital photos, giving a new take on multiple exposures.



How to install

Illustrated installation instructions are online.

To use this software, you need a paint program which accepts standard Photoshop 3.02 plugins.

Just put the plug-in filter into the folder where your paint program expects to find it. If you have Photoshop, the folder is Photoshop:Plugins:Filters or Photoshop:Plug-ins. You must restart Photoshop before it will notice the new plug-in. It will appear in the menus as Filters->Flaming Pear->Polymerge.

Most other paint programs follow a similar scheme.

If you have Paint Shop Pro: you have to create a new folder, put the plug-in filter into it, and then tell PSP to look there.

PSP 7:

Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... and choose the Plug-in Filters tab. Use one of the "Browse" buttons to choose the folder that contains the plug-in.

The plugin is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From the menus, choose Effects->Plug-in Filters->Flaming Pear->Polymerge.

PSP 8, 9, and X:

Choose the menu File-> Preferences-> File Locations... In the dialog box that appears, choose Plug-ins from the list. Click "Add." If you are using PSP 8 or 9, click "Browse". Now choose the folder that contains the plug-in.

The plugin is now installed. To use it, open any image and select an area. From the menus, choose Effects->Plugins->Flaming Pear->Polymerge.


If you use Microsoft Windows you should also install QuickTime, so Polymerge can open more kinds of images.


Controls

When you invoke Polymerge, a dialog box will appear:


Quick start

   
Start Polymerge and click the "Image Folder..." button.

Choose a folder that contains about six images, all similar but not identical. A gang of attempts to get the perfect shot from a digital camera would be ideal. Or use the folder called "flower photos" that came with Polymerge.

   
Click the dice button until you see an effect you like.

Save the resulting image. There are two ways:

• Click the Apply apply the result to your document. The result might get cropped if it's larger than your selection.



dice

• Click the button to save the result to a new .psd file. The result won't be cropped.

If you want to hand-tune your own effects, it helps to learn the controls, which are explained below.

The controls are in four groups:

Image gangs

Merge modes

Fine tuning

Other controls



save result to file




Image Gangs

To use a group of images, put them all in any convenient folder and click Polymerge's "Image Folder..." button.

Polymerge can't mix and match images from multiple folders.

It can take a while to load all the images. Polymerge can load up to twenty-four images at once, but you'll find that gangs of just five or six produce the best results.

When the images have loaded they appear in the picture-buttons. All the picture-buttons will be turned on, meaning every image contributes to the result. By clicking the buttons you can turn individual images on and off.

The Assort button turns images on and off at random.

The All button turns on every image.

The next time you use Polymerge, you can click the Reload button to quickly reload the last folder you used.



picture-buttons




Merge Modes

The merge mode control chooses among the twenty different ways Polymerge can combine images. Most merge modes work by scoring every pixel of every image according to some criterion, then building a result from the winning pixels.

For example, Polymerge could choose the most saturated color available everywhere. In the result vivid colors would be more plentiful than in any of the inputs.

The Tweak slider does something different in each mode. In saturation mode, for example, it ranges from "favor vivid colors" to "favor pastels and greys."

The gradient control makes the Tweak setting change across the picture. To get a constant Tweak everywhere, set the gradient control to the center by holding down the Control key on your keyboard.

Brightness

Tweak ranges from dark to bright.

Saturation

Tweak ranges from pale to vivid.

Hue

Tweak chooses hues from the rim of the color wheel.

Typicality

Chooses colors by how well they represent the whole set of images. Tweak ranges from least typical to most typical.

Starkness

Tweak ranges from contrasty to uniform grey.

Focus

Chooses pixels by their involvement in edges. Tweak ranges from most focussed to least focussed.

Random

Chooses pixels randomly. Tweak does nothing.

Angle

Uses the angle of nearby edges. Tweak chooses the target angle.



gradient control

Color swatch

Picks colors resembling the color swatch. Tweak chooses high or low resemblance.

Contours A

Divides images up by brightness zones and chooses pixels that best represent their zone. Tweak shifts the zones around.

Contours B

As above but with more zones.

Contours C

As above but with many more zones.

Subtraction

Mathematically combines all images to produce new colors. Tweak changes the overall brightness.

Range

Shows the difference between the brightest and dimmest colors in all the images. Tweak does nothing.

Input all

Ordinarily Polymerge ignores your paint program's currently open image, but this mode chooses pixels by their resemblance to that image. Tweak chooses high or low resemblance.

If the input image is smaller than the result, Polymerge will match sizes by repeating pixels on input's right and bottom edges. This makes stripes appear in the result.

Input brightness

As above, but only uses the input's brightness.

Input saturation

As above, but only uses the input's saturation.

Input hue

As above, but only uses the input's hue.

Gamma average

Averages all the input images. Tweak lets you apply a gamma correction.

Fixed average

Averages all the input images. Gamma is always 1.0 and Tweak does nothing.

Sweep

Sweeps across all the input images in the order they were loaded. Tweak makes the boundaries follow image features. The gradient control doesn't modify Tweak here – instead it sets the direction of the sweep.



color swatch



















a picture gang




Fine Tuning

The basic result can look gritty because the input images have grain. Polymerge offers three controls for calming the picture.



closeup: gritty picture without simplify or blend

Simplify de-noises the pixel choices by clumping them into regions.

simplified

Blend blurs hard region boundaries into soft fades.



blended

Unblend makes the region boundaries firm again but keeps their soft rounded shapes.



unblended

How much unblending to use depends on the Blend setting. If Unblend is much higher than Blend, lanes open up between regions.



unblended more




Other controls

The Result popup chooses three ways to view the result picture.

Merge is the regular merged result.



merge result

Grey map shows which image contributed to each part of the result.



grey map

Boundaries shows the edges between regions.

For the merge modes which don't use scoring and choosing (Subtraction, Range, Gamma Average, and Fixed Average), there are no grey map or boundary images.



boundaries

Fusion erases the boundaries between regions.

Fusion reconciles images by changing their colors, so the result always has a color shift.

The best results come from setting Blending and Unblending to zero.



fusion

Image Search Instead of supplying your own pictures, you can download some from the web. Polymerge lets you fetch results from Google Image Search.

Type some text in the blank and click the magnifying glass to start a search. Click the eye button to use the results.

The search will try to return up to 20 results, but because of link rot it's likely that fewer usable pictures will actually arrive.



image search




use results



Show selection box If you want to apply the result to the document currently open in your paint program, this will display a dotted outline showing whether it will fit.

Dice The dice choose a random effect. Click as much as you want to see different effects.

Plus, % and minus buttons: These zoom the preview in and out. Drag the preview to move it.

Load preset Polymerge comes with some presets, which are files containing settings. To load one, click this button and browse for a preset file.

Save preset When you make an effect you like, click this button to save the settings in a file. 

Undo backs up one step.

Apply Applies the effect to your image.

Save Result to File Saves the result to a .psd file.

Send to iPhoto Sends the result to iPhoto. (Mac OS X only.)

Cancel  Dismisses the filter, and leaves the image unchanged.

Done Dismisses the filter, and leaves the image unchanged, and forgets about the last image folder you used.



dice



load preset



save preset



undo



save result to file



send to iPhoto




Things to try

• Denoising. Take several identical pictures and combine them with Fixed Average mode to reduce grain.

• Bizarre portraits. Merge about half a dozen head shots of someone with varying expressions or head positions. Results are always ghastly.

• Deep focus. Using the Focus merge mode, combine several identical but differently focussed pictures into one picture that's focussed throughout. You can achieve depth of field beyond what's possible naturally.

• Multiple exposure. Take several different pictures and average them to get a traditional multiple exposure. If you use Mac OS X, you can shoot multiples using TakePictures.

• Minimal reflection. In a scene with many reflections, a polarizing filter may not be able to remove all the reflections at once. Instead, take four or five photos with the polarizer turned to a different angle in each. Combine them with the Brightness mode to get the least reflection everywhere.

• Still motion time-lapse. Using a tripod-mounted camera, take pictures of a changing scene like pedestrians walking along a street or birds taking flight. Combine the pictures to depict all the movement in a single picture.

• Shadow manipulation. Using a tripod, take photos of a building as the light changes throughout the day. Merge using the brightness or saturation modes to make the shadows expand and contract.

• Surreal florals. Take a some pictures of flowers while moving the camera about slightly. Use the color merge modes to make unreal-looking new flowers.

• Depopulation. With a tripod, take pictures of a public place where a few people appear in each frame. Then use the 'typicality' merge mode to remove the people and leave an empty place behind.

 



FAQ

There's no preview.

Maybe no images are loaded. Click the Image Folder button.

Maybe some images are loaded, but they are all turned off. Click the All button.

Turn on the Auto Preview button.

When I click Apply, the result is cut off too small.

If the image gang is too big to fit in your paint program's document, the result will get cut off. There are ways to fix this.

 

Use the Save Result button instead. This writes out the result to a whole new .psd file which you can then open in your paint program.

• In Mac OS X, use the Send to iPhoto button.

Start with a new, larger document that's big enough to contain the result.

The Show Selection Box checkbox lets you see if the result will fit in your document.

Polymerge won't auto-resize the result to fit your document.

When I click Apply, the result has diagonal grey stripes on the edges.

This just means the result picture is smaller than your document, and the grey stripes are the leftover space. There are two things you can do:

- Crop out the grey stripes manually.

- Use the Save Result button instead. This writes out the result to a whole new .psd file which can then open in your paint program.

Polymerge won't auto-resize the result to fit your document.


Polymerge for Windows will only open JPEG and BMP images.

Install QuickTime; then Polymerge will open many kinds of images.

Unfortunately Polymerge can't open Paint Shop Pro files, so you'll need to re-save those in another format first.


What is TakePictures?

TakePictures is a very simple utility that comes with the Mac OS X version of Polymerge; it makes a digital camera take shots automatically. In combination with a tripod, it's handy for shooting image gangs.

TakePictures can take photos directly to your hard drive, so you can shoot huge numbers of photos in a session without fear of filling your camera's onboard storage -- handy if you want to shoot time-lapse movies with your still camera by importing the frames into QuickTime Player.

TakePictures cannot control every camera, only certain ones Mac OS X knows about. Try connecting your camera to see if TakePictures likes it.



save result to file



send to iPhoto




Version History

Version 1.3 February 2005

The default button is now "Apply" instead of "Done." Adds the "Send to iPhoto" button in the Mac OS X version. Cancelling a render from the keyboard now works better.

Version 1.2 February 2005

Adds Fusion output and image searches.

Version 1.1 July 2004

Adds the Sweep mode.

Version 1.0 April 2004

The first release.

 



Questions

Answers to frequently asked questions appear on the FAQ page.

For bug reports and technical questions about the software, please write to support@flamingpear.com .