The ability to morph two pictures together is facilitated by software that recognizes the similar features, usually in two photographs that show only the subject’s face. The various facial features are detected, and their edges are found. The two photographs are resized to be equivalent, and the shapes of the features are converted into geometric shapes and then averaged, with the size adjusted. The colors of each element are also averaged, and a new face appears.

There are a variety of ways to combine two pictures: one can make one a transparent GIF and superimpose it on the second; one can cut out an element of one and superimpose it on the second; or one could put them in separate layers of the same file and alter the transparency so that elements of both are in view. Morphing two pictures together is distinctive because it combines the features of the two pictures to create a new picture in which every element is a blend of the originals.

Morphing is most often done with photographs of faces. Unlike other ways of combining two pictures, when photos morph, each facial feature—eyes, nose, mouth, hair, chin, cheeks, brow, etc.—is a blended meshing of the two original photographs. It is also possible to have an animated morph of two pictures. In this case, you see the transition of the two faces into the blended face taking place.

People like to morph celebrity photographs. There is also interest in seeing how their own photograph or the photograph of a friend would morph with a celebrity face. Another popular option is to see what the child of a couple might look like, which involves doing a morph and an age alteration as well.

A great deal of morphing is done through online sites. Examples of these include Morph Thing, Face of the Future at University of St. Andrews website, and—solely for turning yourself into a Simpson—Simpsonize Me, courtesy of Burger King.

You can also find programs or applications to morph two pictures together, like Vidmorph, Fun Morph 3.0, FX Morph, and FaceMorpher Multi. Sqirlz Morph 2.0 has animated morph capability, as do Magic Morph, Easy Morph, Morph Man, and Morpheus Photo Animator. These programs are all shareware or freeware. You can also find specific licensed applications to do morphing.

Another approach is to use a multi-faceted design software that has many capabilities of which morphing is one. For example, morphing can be achieved with Adobe After Effects and Adobe Photoshop, and especially for Photoshop, many tutorials on how to morph are available. Adobe Flash can created animated morphs by using the Shape Tween, and tutorials are also available for this approach.