Some photos were never taken. A grandchild was born after a grandfather died. A wedding went ahead with one parent missing. The family gathered, and someone was not in the picture.
This guide is for anyone thinking about adding that person to a family photo, for yourself or as a gift for someone who is grieving. There is no hurry with any of it.
What this is, and what it isn’t
It is a keepsake portrait composed from your own photos. You provide a real family photo and one to four real photos of the person you would like to add. The family photo stays as it is, the person added is the real person from their own photos, and the only thing that did not happen is the moment itself.
It is not a photograph. Nobody stood in that spot, and the image is not a record that they did. We call it an artistic composite, and we think it is best kept that way: a tribute, clearly labelled as one, rather than a substitute for a photo that was never taken.
Painters and retouchers have made composite memorial portraits for families for well over a century. This is the same idea, described plainly.
Choosing photos of your loved one
These photos matter most: the result can only be as faithful as what you give it.
Where good photos usually come from. Phone galleries and shared family albums are the easiest source. Old prints work too, but copy them well first: take the print out of its frame, lay it flat away from the window and photograph it straight down without flash, or scan it. How to photograph old photos with your phone covers the details. If a print is faded, scratched or creased, it is worth restoring it first and using the restored copy.
What makes a face usable.
- The face is fully visible: not turned away, not hidden by sunglasses, a hand or another person.
- It is reasonably sharp. A little softness is fine; motion blur is not.
- It is not heavily filtered. Beauty filters and strong colour effects change a face, and the result will follow the filter rather than the person.
- Ideally they are alone in the frame, at roughly the age you would like them to appear.
Two to four photos from around the same period, in slightly different light or angles, give a steadier likeness than one.
If you only have a group photo, or a small face. Crop them out on their own before uploading, then look at the crop honestly. If the face is only a few dozen pixels across, there is very little to work from, and anything filling in the detail would be guessing. Look for a larger original first: the camera file rather than the group-chat copy, or a better scan.
Choosing the family photo they will join
The base photo decides how natural the addition can look.
- Room for one more. A photo where people are loosely arranged, with some space at an edge or behind the group, works far better than a tight row with shoulders touching.
- Similar light. Someone photographed in soft daylight sits more easily into a daylit family photo than into a flash-lit room at night. Light and grain are matched, but closer starting points help.
- A pose where adding someone makes sense. A standing group, people seated around a table, a family on a sofa. Tightly posed moments, such as a couple mid-embrace, leave no natural place for another person.
Everyone already in the family photo stays untouched.
Step by step in Phoxel
- Start a new Memorial portraits project.
- Upload both parts: the family photo, and one to four photos of the person you are adding, so five photos at most. JPG, PNG, WEBP and HEIC files up to 12 MB each are accepted.
- Choose the placement: wherever it looks most natural, beside the family, just behind the group, or seated with the family. You can also choose the framing. It defaults to the family photo’s own proportions, with classic print (3:4), portrait (4:5), square (1:1) and wide (16:9) as alternatives.
- Confirm and start. Each attempt makes one portrait and uses 10 credits. The result usually appears within one to three minutes.
If it does not feel right, you can run it again with a different placement. If you are new to Phoxel, your first 2 photos are free as watermarked previews - any credit pack unlocks them in full resolution. For a portrait like this, that matters: you can see whether it feels right before paying anything.
What we deliberately do not do
Some things are ruled out on purpose.
- No de-aging or beautifying. The person keeps the facial structure, features, hairstyle and apparent age they have in your photos.
- No changed expression. The character of their expression comes from their own photos, not from us.
- No invented body. Their build comes from the references too. Only the placement you choose is composed, and a face the photos do not show cannot be supplied faithfully.
- Nothing sexual or mocking. Our terms rule out sexually explicit images and anything made to harass or defame a real person.
- Everyone else stays as they are. The people, setting and clothing in the family photo are kept.
Privacy. Your photos are used only to create your portrait and are never used to train AI models. Uploads that are never attached to a project are deleted automatically after 24 hours. Photos attached to a project are deleted when you delete the project, along with its results.
Ways people use it
- A gift for a parent, with their own mother, father or partner added to a recent family photo.
- An anniversary, or a day of remembrance.
- A wedding photo that includes a parent who did not live to see the day.
- A print for the family, framed alongside the original photographs.
Questions
I only have one old photo of them. Is that enough?
It can be. One clear photo is the minimum, and it works when the face is visible and reasonably sharp. If the print is damaged, restore it first. If part of the face itself is torn or missing, nothing can supply it faithfully, and we would rather say so than produce a stranger.
The photos are black and white. What happens?
The finished portrait follows the family photo’s own tone. If the family photo is in colour and the only photo of the person is black and white, you can colorize that photo first so the two start closer together. Colourization adds plausible colour rather than recorded colour, so treat it as an interpretation.
How large can I print it?
It depends on the finished file’s pixel size. The free print size checker reads the image and shows the resolution it would print at in common sizes, right in your browser, with nothing uploaded.
How much does it cost?
One portrait is 10 credits. Credit packs start at $6 for 200 credits, credits never expire, and there is no subscription. Your first 2 photos are free as watermarked previews - any credit pack unlocks them in full resolution.
Can I tell people it is a composite?
Yes, and we recommend it. Close family who know the story may not need telling. If the image is shared more widely, a short line such as “a keepsake portrait made from our family photos” keeps it honest and spares anyone from wondering.