Ever since I shot Living Things for Nylon last year, I’ve fallen in love with Nikon’s multiple exposure feature. Meg’s little sister, Caitlin, was in the studio today to get her hair did by Meg. Meg went to school for all that. She’s bonafide and official. Anyway, Cait became the subject of today’s 365.
Aside from B&W conversions and some cropping… one of these images is straight from camera and the other one required Photochop tomfoolery to create the multiple exposure look. I left a visual hint for you pxl peepers. :)
I am again stuck with two images that I like for different reasons but could not make a decision on one of them being the 365 offering of the day over the other so I have posted both of them. Clicking on them will bring up slightly larger images.
The Darker Side ::
The Lighter Side ::
How it was shot :: I had an AB800 on camera left with a 30º grid on it and an AB800 on camera right in a 28″ Westcott Apollo softbox. There were times I switched them around or turned one off or the other off during different exposures. I was just making sure that light was not spilling on the white wall behind her as I shot. I have found that the more successful multiple exposure images I create are those made on darker backgrounds.
Lighter backgrounds are difficult because each time you create an exposure, the exposure of the light background builds and builds and builds on top of each other making the overall image muddy or blown out depending on your exposure at capture and how many frames you are shooting for one image. Multiple exposure is equal parts maddening and inspiring.
For those of you lacking multiple exposure in camera you can easily start mucking about with it like this…
Shoot a bunch of images on a black or very, very dark background. Add one photo on top of another and change the top layer mode to “lighten”. You can keep adding layers of images like this. You then may want to layer mask certain parts of layers in and out.
Or shoot on a white background and change the top layers to “multiply”. It’s easier to create a multiple exposure look of images on white or light backgrounds in post since you can control the amount of exposures building on top of others with the multiply layer blending mode.
Cheers,
Zack
13 Comments
Everyday, you are totally inspiring me. Thanks. :)
Oh, these are both incredible. When I saw the first, I was sure it would be my clear favorite — until I looked at the second. The variety of expressions paired with the movement in the second one works a treat for me. And the one really clear eye in the second exposure from the left hooks & grounds me. Awesome.
Wow. Both are great but the 2nd shows more beauty (whatever that means) Keep it up Zach I need the inspiration right about now. Thanks!
Love the darker one, though they are both great. Messing around with multiple exposures for landscapes is a blast as well – though that’s all I’ve done with it, so I guess I’ll have to try it on a person next!
Hi Zack, very original, so fun to see more of your work.
Question: Is it true that Alien Bees flashs are not very constant in power and light color? I am looking to get new studio lights. Already have one Camray C300, wondering if I can use different brand of flash too…
Tks a lot in advance and again, great work!
Hey Zack, great shots. I love this feature on Nikon cameras. Im a Canon user but this feature alone makes me want to get a Nikon body. Whats the feature called? Is it on all their bodies?
Yours came out nice. I wish I new how to do this easier when I did it many years ago. I did this with my mother as part of an exhibit of poems and photographs about depression. Here is a link to my photo and the poem that went with it: http://annswordplay.wordpress.com/depression-exhibit/shattered/
Ghislain – it’s true that AB’s can fluctuate on power and color but it isn’t that bad of a fluctuation. To avoid this completely requires lights 3 or 4 times the cost of an AB.
Nev – it’s simply called “multiple exposure”. I know it’s on a number of Nikon bodies but I can’t say with certainty which ones.
Cheers,
Zack
I’ve enjoyed playing with multiple exposures on my Nikon ever since I saw what Don Blankenship and Dagmar Nelson were getting with theirs back last summer on Flickr – shortly before we met. I’ve never really gotten anything worth showing to anyone on my own though. I Never thought of lighting people and doing it like this either. I love the one shot from the front. I went back through the blog and saw those from the Nylon shoot. Those were killer! Great work!
BTW is that a layer mask on the subject’s face in the lighter one; where her eyes are closed on the center of the image? Thats my vote– lighter is Photoshopped.
Completely, totally, utterley awesome and inspiring…by the way, Megs sis is a bit of a looker! Here in the UK that means attractive.
These photos inspired me. So I tried the technique and this is the result: http://www.fabianluque.com/index.php/2010/02/12/dia-42-365-multiple/
I used my Nikon D40, a flashlight, and Photoshop.
Hope you like it.
i have never checked if that feature is on on the 5D… hmmm
love the darker side” one.
2 Trackbacks
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by zarias: Day 37 / 365 :: Caitlin [multiple exposures] :: http://bit.ly/avhrHk...
[...] hace unos días, desde que vi estas fotos de Zack Arias, estaba con ganas de hacer algo [...]