Double Exposure

Project Aim

The aim of the project is to combine two exposures to create a single image. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other. This effect can be achieved with a DSLR camera by enabling multiple exposure in the shooting menu and manually capturing both exposures or for more creative control, it can be replicated using Adobe Photoshop with your own images or stock photos.

Members

• Amith Vijayan
• Ankush Chandrashekar
• Mihir BL
• Tarun M
• Vineet Vijay Pujari

Work done

The double exposure technique gives rise to very creative results and allows the photographer to produce ghost images and mirror images that tell a story in a unique way that can’t be achieved with a single photo.

We can break down the process of creating a double exposure into 5 steps:

● Choose A Theme For Your Image

● Capture Both Your Shots

● Edit Both Your Shots In A Way You Want to Overlay Them

● Merge Both the Images

Choose a Theme For Your Image:

Visualize how you’d like the final image to look like. Think beyond the visual appeal and try to think of a good message to convey. All you really need are two images, so take your time in figuring out what you want them to be. Some of the most compelling double exposure images are composed of a portrait and an abstract or landscape photo with a lot of interesting textures. Create a connection between the two to produce an image that evokes certain emotions and makes your viewers take a few more seconds to observe the photo and contemplate the underlying message.

Capture Both Your Shots:

Start focusing on the visual aspect of the image—specifically the kind of image you want to capture and use for editing later on. You can even use free stock photos to create your own double exposure shot so you can skip the entire process of having to take the photos yourself. But taking the photos yourself gives you the most control over your final image. Your base photo can be anything—a portrait, body part, still object, or even a popular scenic spot—as long as it has the main subject, a good amount of highlights and shadows, and a background that is more or less neutral without noisy image elements so that it’s easier to edit later on.

Your layer photo can also feature anything from an overhead shot of the city to a grassy yard or forest.

Edit Both Your Shots In a Way You Want To Overlay Them:

Edit out certain imperfections, like sensor dust and blemishes and tweak the brightness and add contrast in order to optimize the image for blending.

Then eliminate the background in the base image and you can leave the layer image as it is since you will keep that as the backmost layer, but it helps if you can remove the necessary parts here as well.

Merge Both the Images:

Now you just have to overlay the layers on top of one another. You can experiment with the layer blending options, depending on your desired effect.

Finally, make a copy of the subject layer, drag it on top of the second layer, and change the subject layer’s blending mode to Lighten.

Video demo