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Using Multiple Exposures to Recreate or Alter Reality
Written by Ron Risman
http://www.cameratown.com
The ability to take double-exposures with a film camera came from the desire to achieve effects otherwise impossible. Combining two or more
exposures was also a great way to capture a scene the way you remembered it.
With film cameras creating a double exposure was easy. Take two (or more) pictures without advancing the film. In the digital world
there are no cameras that have this ability (as far as I know). However, creating this effect using image editing software is very
easy - and a lot of fun.
Some will argue that combining images is fraudulent, some call it art or creative expression. Personally, I sometimes combine images for artistic purposes as well as to recreate a scene the way my eyes saw it.  I love night photography, but cameras are not as capable as the human eye at capturing different exposure levels within the same scene. Take for example the photo on the right, fog was hovering above a golf course while a full moon had just risen above the mountains. In order to capture the golf course and fog, I needed to use a very slow shutter speed. The slow shutter allowed the camera to absorb enough light from the dark part of the scene. Because a slow-shutter absorbs so much light, when coupled with the intensity of the moon, the camera wasn't able to be capture the details visible to the naked eye. In order to capture this scene correctly, I needed to take two photographs. One using a slow shutter to capture the dark part of the scene and another using a high speed shutter (1/200th approx.) to capture the correct exposure of the moon. Short of using a graduated ND (Nuetral Density) filter, this was the only way I could recreate what I had seen with my own eyes. The Process of using multiple images (exposures)I knew ahead of time that the slow-shutter and the bright moon were not going to get along. During my shoot I purposely captured a separate photo of the moon using the correct exposure in order to merge them together when I got home.
SummaryUsing multiple exposures, you are able to recreate reality or make your own. Don't let the comments of others stop you from experimenting with your photographs. Great artists do it all the time. Painters do it with the stroke of a brush, photographers with filters and lighting - and now software. The image below was made from three pictures taken on New Years Eve. I
made this photograph from three separate fireworks shots, then merged them
together into one. The image helps to convey what I had hoped to capture
in just one exposure. Unfortunately, this year's display was less than spectacular.
Editors: If you would like to reprint this article on your website
or in your publication please drop me a note. |
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