This is a simple utility that tries to do one thing and one thing only, letting you merge multiple photos into one.

Supported input formats: JPG, TIF (8bit per channel)
Supported output format: JPG, TIF (8bpc), TIFF(16bpc)
Merge arlgorithm: fancy average.

There are two image alignment methods available from this app: ORB and ECC. They both work ok to some extend. A sturdy tripod usually gives much better result in image alignment.

There are a number of reasons one might wanted to merge multiple photos into one:

1. Image noise removal, stacking multiple images helps improving the final image’s signal to noise ratio. The amount of SNR improvement is equal to the square root of the number of photos in the stack. (so by stacking 4 images together, you reduce the noise by half, etc etc)

2. Create special effects, stack mulitple photos of the night sky to create circular star trails, or stack multple short exposures of waterfalls to create a long exposure effect with silky smooth water. Google ‘photo stacking’ for more creative ideas.