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Need help with double exposure please

I keep reading different articles, I keep varying my exposure on either the first or the second shot, and I try against a light background to not .... but I'm not getting it right. Any help and advice most welcome!

13 comments

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tigg Thanks you - I will look.

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Gogi Golzman Are you trying to do double exposures on camera? Or in photoshop?

tigg In camera

Gogi Golzman first photo better be a darken .. a silhouette with a nice shape something contrasted .. and then the next one is the photo the will fill in the dark parts of the first photo

Gogi Golzman and remember ... the lighten parts will be less filled than the dark ones ... use your imagination

Magda Korzewska Tigg You have double exposure function built-in in Olympus camera. I advice to use it on A mode.

tigg That is how I am doing them. But which shot do I darken, etc. Am I right in thinking you did a lot of doubles exposure entries here quite a while ago?

Magda Korzewska I am not using it so often, so always need to experiment.

vera The principle of double exposure is:
- On the first photo: Make a shape with a dark part and a bright background, if you can obtain a black shape on white background, it is perfect. A backlight is ideal so to obtain a big contrast black shape-white background.
- On the second photo: Choose a pattern that you like. It will appear ONLY ON THE DARK PART of the first photo.

On Oly camera, you can adjust and choose the brightness of each photo before overlaying them.
Don't forget to shoot in RAW format. I also think that you can't do it in AUTO mode. You have to shoot with manuel mode or A mode, or P mode.
At the end, after loading your photo on your computer, you can also adjust, add blanks, increase the brightness to "erase" as much as possible the traces that remain on the white background.
Then let your imagination play with it. 😉

tigg That is very helpful indeed. There are a number of comments for me to make which don't seem to fit into sentences very well! The church was set completely against a grey/white/bright sky, but maybe I needed to under expose even more. I am afraid I rarely shoot in RAW. I import my photos on my mac into the photos app, and then you have to try and find which of the types you want to use as a master, etc etc and basically I am just lazy. Which also means I do not do a lot of processing; I know this limits my standard of photography. I am often in awe at some of the landscape and other photos that seem perfectly normal, but in truth they may well have been heavily but carefully processed on a computer. I had fun taking some others a couple of days later; I will try and send you one as a "private message" [I think that is the phrase]. Really helpful comments and advice - thank you very much.

Gogi Golzman Dont be afraid of using raw files
You can use much more information from raw files then jpegs
Even if your photos are overexposed or underexposed you can fix it with more quality from a raw file!

vera I'm happy you find my comment usefull! If you want, send me a pic in a private message. It would be a pleasure to look it! And if you're happy don't hesitate to make another and publish it for everybody! You make me envy to try one too! 😉😊

tigg Well I could not send it .... could not see how to attach anything.