My creative Process, Double exposures

Introduction

The best way to think of multi exposure images is in layers. Layering photos is is a technique used since the birth of photography, photoshop was not the first to come up with it they just steam lined it. Photoshop can be a great tool for creating double exposure but for this post we will be focusing on film and how to achieve these results in camera. A term used to describe what is made with only a camera and some soft editing techniques.

35mm film

There are two main ways to make double exposures with a film camera. You can do this process with any film camera even cheap plastic disposable ones. A lot of 35mm cameras won’t let you take another picture without advancing the film or they will advance the film automatically for you. The best way to combat this is to take the whole roll of film slightly underexposed a stop or two. Then if you have a camera that you can manually roll the film back up with try to leave a tail at the end. If your camera automatically rolls you film back up for you or you miss the tail, don’t worry there are tools to help you retrieve the tail from the roll. Take that tail and feed it back into your camera and shoot the roll again. Do this as many times as you want. Two times for your first few is best so you can understand the process. I like to do three times, I have found four to five really hard to achieve with out blowing out the picture entirely. I used this process to shoot the image here. I shot it with a cheap plastic camera to show you don’t need fancy equipment.

Concept and Theme in your work

Concept is important when Shooting double exposures. The time between images can say a lot about your project. I shot this image while completing my bachelors of fine art. This was for my final exhibition it was about nostalgia and the blurring of past and present memories. The first layer of this roll was created When I revisited old places from growing up, I revisited the road my dad first taught me to drive on. This road is out in the middle of nowhere and we used to always stop at a dinner to get burgers. Then we would take our food to this grove of trees and eat and take pictures after. Learning how to drive was such a life changing skill for me. It allowed me to take a measure of control in my life. When I was a kid I would constantly ask to stop at places I thought looked interesting. We couldn’t stop everywhere or we would never get home so my parents would say well when you can drive you can go there. It felt like such an sense of accomplishment when I I finally got my license. The second layer I shot present day places that are important to me. This next layer was was taken at a park near campus. I would go there to think a lot when the wether was nice and I was stressed. The red of the flowers encapsulate so many of my favorite flowers growing up while the thorns of the thistle symbolize the trap of getting to lost in the past. If you want to see more form this series check out my work page under “Memory of a place”

120mm film

Another way to take double exposures is with a camera that simply lets you manually move on to the next picture. This way you can take multiple images on top of each other then advance the film when ready. 120mm film cameras most commonly have this feature, and it is what I use for a lot of my work. A holga is a good affordable option you can get them used or on amazon or eBay for about $40. I have used these and they are fun. I mostly use a flexaret twin reflex camera. I was lucky to find one used for $100 other antique film cameras such as Mamyia can be $500 or more. But if you are going to do this a lot its good to invest. Ounce again do two pictures at first till you get a feel for the process then you can do more when you get a sense for how many you can take with out blowing out the image.

Having a camera that lets you manually advance the film can allow for on the spot multilayer images on the spot. But you can also take your time between images and really contemplate your shot. . This can allow you to combine multiple elements of a place or experience. Here I wanted to capture the tranquility of this spot. So I shot a far away shot of a person on the bench, a close up of the bench and a close up of the blossoms in the tree above the bench for a total of 3 layers.

You can also really contemplate how you want to combine images. This next image is one example of 2 pictures combined 4 months later. The back image of the lake is from the first of the summer when I went to visit Pando near fishlake Utah. This group of inter connected aspens is considered one of the largest living organisms and the presence of the lake just made the trip such serene an experience. The combination of the wind in the trees and the waves on the lake. The outer image of sunflowers I took at the end of summer before the start my last semester of art school. I took this image at a sunflower a festival. The sunflowers all together in such a large number and diversity reminded me of the trees at pando . These two images together encapsulate my summer as a whole. The theme of unity also stays present in both images. I took this image at the end of pando and at the beginning sunflower festival. Meaning I used other cameras in the months in between. You have to take this into account when shooting. My next post covers this series more as a whole click the link “Sunflowers a work in progress” below

Shooting double exposure can be really difficult at first but it can also be really rewarding if you keep at it. Hopefully this blog was help full. it can be a really unpredictable process even if you plan it out some images just don’t work together they way you hope. Others come together in ways you don’t expect. For this next image I wanted to capture my moms love for drawing flowers. I took picture of her, then her sketchbook, then the field of sunflowers. I ended up with this silhouette affect I love But I am not sure I could recreate on purpose.

If you like my work and want to support future projects check out my print shop or my works page. Try these methods yourself and have fun.