Double Exposure is a photographic technique that combines two different images into a single image. The technique has been practised for several years, and recently people are frequently using this technique because of the fact that graphic editing programs like Photoshop can help to create the identical effect. With the double exposure technique you can create certain effects like ghost image, mirror image or simply merging something bright with dark. The final outcome of my double exposure edit came out well as the two images are subtly merging into each other like a watercolour painting. The vibrant colours of the sunset capture’ the viewers attention and shines through the shadows casted by the prism.
Decreasing the opacityChanging the blending option to differenceFinal outcome
During my photo shoot, focusing on focus and isolating certain parts of objects/scenes was the primary aim. These are my preferred images from the shoot.
This was my take on the method of double exposure, which creates a blurry, fuzzy, duplication of the original image. This was a fairly simple photograph to create, first starting by slightly editing the original images to saturate the colours as the image tends to be quite dull without it in the finishing stages. I also increased the contrast in the image as I found that in the final piece, the glass disappeared due to its transparent appearance. I chose 3 images with the same composition but with slightly different angles.
I layered the 3 images on top of each other and by using the opacity tool, I changed how each images opacity was. The higher the opacity the stronger the image appears. When creating these images it is essential that the opacity of each image is similar to the opacity of the other two in order to create the sort of motion blur affect seen below. To finish of, I flatttened the image to merge the 3 together.
Adjustments made on the original image to adjust the saturation and contrastAdjusting opacity to create the double exposure effectFINAL PIECE
I have edited this image and created a kaleidoscope image by doing so. Firstly, to do this I have put the image into photoshop and cropped an edge because I did not want it in the image.
Secondly, I have gone to image > canvas size so that I could double the width of the canvas. Then I used ctrl+j to create another layer with the same image on it.
I then transformed this image by clicking ctrl+t and flipped it over by grabbing the middle box on the right side of the original image and pulling it over all the way to the far left.
I then flattened the outcome into one layer and changed the canvas size again to make it double the height and then copied the image to a new layer and transformed it to flip it up to create the final image.
I chose a photo of a beach with gory castle in the background and then cropped out the beach and then used the rectangular marquee tool to select the area I wanted to reflect, and I stretched the reflection so it looks more realistic.
I then changed the opacity to 63% so it looks like a more faded reflection.
On photoshop I opened up an image of an abstract photo and changed the canvas size so I could copy the image and rotate it to the left horizontally. I did this two more time for the top part of the canvas to create an abstract image composed of 4 of the same image. I think the two final outcomes came out well as they do not appear to look like the original image. The repetition of the same image helps to emphasise the formal elements, creating an interesting abstract photo.
Changing the canvas sizeDoubling the size of the widthFlipping the same image to the left horizontallyDoubling the size of the heightMirroring the imageFinal outcomeAnother Final Outcome
I have tried a few different ways of focusing on specific objects using the cameras to create effects such as creating a depth of field in some images. I have changed the focal length and have tried using auto focus and manual focus to see the better parts for each and how each are worse than others.
I have tried using manual and auto focuses. Manual focus lets you properly choose what you want to focus on in the image. This can be very useful if you want something off center or that is quite small to be the main focus of an image as auto focus usually seems to try to get larger objects that take up more of the frame into focus. Although, auto focus tries to pick a focus point. This on a lot of recent cameras has been made very well and can usually pick out the point you want to focus on.
This is an example of an image that has used auto focus that hasn’t worked as planned. I wanted to take an image with the pole in the background as the focal point, but auto focus tried to focus onto the plant in the foreground of the image.
For this image I then changed it to use manual focus so that I could choose the focal point I wanted. Doing this created a nice depth of field effect behind the pole and blurred out the plant in the foreground.
These are the other images I have taken by trying out different types of focuses, some of them I have used auto focus on and some I have used manual focus on. I have put them into a contact sheet and have put crosses and circles over some to show which may be worth looking toward editing and which I don’t like and don’t believe are worth using.
Jon Setter is a photographer who was born in Detroit, Michigan and is currently living in Sydney, Australia. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the College for creative studies in Media Arts and is currently pursuing a master of fine arts from the national art school. His photography mostly focuses on urban space and architecture. He walks around the city and photographs a different perspective. Jon makes use of repeated formal patterns such as colour, materials and textures and organizes them to create an abstract expression of space. He finds inspiration from all over, such as fashion campaigns or other artists he follows on Instagram. His main influences have been other architectural photographers like Stephen Shore, Thomas Struth and Michael Wolf.
Jon setter’s minimal urban photography will inspire me when capturing my own minimalistic photos. Like Setter, I will pay attention to colour and texture to create man made spaces into geometrically satisfying compositions. Photographing a different perspective will help me get the results I want to create abstract images. I will take around 100 images, select 5-9 from the contact sheet and edit them to correspond to his vibrant style.
After selecting eight images from the contact sheet, I opened up photoshop and edited them to reflect Jon Setter’s photographic style. I increased the saturation and contrast on each photo to created vibrant, bold and sharp images to emphasise the formal elements such as colour, shape, line etc. When capturing images on my camera I made sure to increase the aperture so my depth of field would be greater and my images would have a sharper background. Overall, I think that I replicated Jon Setter’s abstract images as my photos are simplistic yet visually interesting because of the dominant formal elements that capture the viewers attention.
After selecting eight images from the contact sheet, I opened up photoshop and edited them to reflect Jon Setter’s photographic style. I increased the saturation and contrast on each photo to created vibrant, bold and sharp images to emphasise the formal elements such as colour, shape, line etc. When capturing images on my camera I made sure to increase the aperture so my depth of field would be greater and my images would have a sharper background. Overall, I think that I replicated Jon Setter’s abstract images as my photos are simplistic yet visually interesting because of the dominant formal elements that capture the viewers attention.