What is the best method for merging time lapsed photos? Accessable from python(PIL) I have numerous photos from a still image camera that I would like to merge into one photo to allow for easy spotting of motion or new objects. There is a bit of noise across the photos but not very much movement (Cameras are focused on areas that do not expect much to change).

If you were to merge these photos into one image, what would you use to do it provided the tool or library had to be relatively easy to call from a python script.

I believe this technique is called Image stacking.

NOTES from comments


I have snapshots taken over time from an IP camera. The jpeg compression can be sett to 100% quality to prevent the noise from overwhelming the information in each picture
The camera never moves and the scene is typcially static. I can mark images that have movement or new objects. I would like to stack the images to provide a single glance report of what happend at this site
There are multiple challanges. What tool to use with python bindings, how to overcome noise in the jpeg compression, and methods for detecting big changes in the scene (objects)
You can composite (more) with the well-known and free imagemagick.

Another option, which I have no experience with, is imagestack.