Gdddk

Suppose, I have the grouping of images as specified below.

My problem is that I want to include this kind of image grouping in an environment that uses the subfig package and that subcaption and subfig do not go well together. My question is therefore: How do I replicate the image grouping below in a subfig environment --> e.g. How do I obtain the same result as you shown below but with the subfloat macro from subfig package?

The goal really is to have a big image in the middle, and 8 images around it.

documentclassarticle
usepackagecaption,subcaption
usepackage[demo]graphicx % demo is just for the example

begindocument
beginfigure
centering

beginsubfigure[].2textwidth
 includegraphics[width=textwidth,height=2cm]x
 captionA short figure

endsubfigureqquad
beginsubfigure[].2textwidth
 includegraphics[width=textwidth,height=2cm]x
 captionA short figure
endsubfigureqquad

beginsubfigure[].2textwidth
 includegraphics[width=textwidth,height=2cm]x
 captionA short figure

 vspace2ex

 includegraphics[width=textwidth,height=2cm]x
 captionA short figure
endsubfigureqquad
beginsubfigure[].4textwidth
includegraphics[width=textwidth,height=5cm]x
captionA tall figure
endsubfigureqquad
beginsubfigure[].2textwidth
includegraphics[width=textwidth,height=2cm]x
captionA short figure

vspace2ex

includegraphics[width=textwidth,height=2cm]x
captionA short figure
endsubfigureqquad

beginsubfigure[].2textwidth
 includegraphics[width=textwidth,height=2cm]x
 captionA short figure

endsubfigureqquad
beginsubfigure[].2textwidth
 includegraphics[width=textwidth,height=2cm]x
 captionA short figure
endsubfigureqquad

captionThe full caption
endfigure
enddocument

see, if the following solution can help you.

documentclassarticle
usepackagecaption
usepackage[demo, % demo is just for the example
 export]adjustbox
usepackagesubfig
usepackagemultirow, tabularx

begindocument
 beginfigure
setkeysGinwidth=linewidth, keepaspectratio

begintabularxlinewidth@ *4X @
 & subfloat[A short image]includegraphics[valign=t]x
 & subfloat[A short image]includegraphics[valign=t]x
 & \
subfloat[A short image]includegraphics[valign=t]x
 & multicolumn2>hsize=dimexpr2hsize+2tabcolsepX
 multirow[t]2=subfloat[A tall image]includegraphics[height=78mm,valign=t]x
 
 & subfloat[A short image]includegraphics[valign=t]x \
subfloat[A short image]includegraphics[valign=t]x
 & & & subfloat[A short image]includegraphics[valign=t]x \
 & subfloat[A short image]includegraphics[valign=t]x
 & subfloat[A short image]includegraphics[valign=t]x
 & \
endtabularx
captionThe full caption
 endfigure
enddocument

As requested, here is a version of subfloat which is compatible with subcaption.

Adding sufloatbox is probably overkill, but it is conceivable that #2 could contain code using, for example, box0. I noticed that both subfloat and caption use @tempboxa, albeit for different purposes.

documentclassarticle
usepackagegraphicx
usepackagesubcaption
usepackageblindtext

newsaveboxsubfloatbox

newcommandsubfloat[2][empty]% #1 = caption (optional), #2 = image
bgroup
 captionsetup[subfigure]font=footnotesize%
 saveboxsubfloatbox#2%
 beginsubfigure[t]wdsubfloatbox
 useboxsubfloatbox
 ifxempty#1relax
 stepcountersubfigure%
 else
 caption#1%
 fi
 endsubfigure%
egroup

begindocument
beginfigure[htp]
noindentrlapruletextwidth0.5pt% show baseline
subfloat[]includegraphics[scale=0.3]example-image-ahfill
subfloat[blindtext]includegraphics[scale=0.3]example-image-bhfill
subfloatincludegraphics[scale=0.3]example-image-c
endfigure
enddocument