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Double Exposures and Merged Photographs
When I first started taking pictures (1954, actually) one of the hazards of photography was forgetting to wind the film between shots. The resulting double-exposure spoiled many a photograph, but on the other hand, it made it possible for ghosts to appear in my box Brownie images! By the time I had graduated to something more sophisticated, cameras had double-exposure prevention and ghosts became more difficult to photograph! Later cameras I owned could be coaxed into allowing multiple exposures, and what is more, provided the ability to adjust exposure so that solid figures were possible instead of spectres.
No digital camera can make a double exposure. A very small number can put two images into a single file, but that isn’t really the same thing; the vast majority can’t do anything like a traditional multiple exposure. Fortunately, you can combine separate images in any photo editing program that has layers. With film, allowing for the combined exposure of each image required some tricky calculations, but there's no need to vary the exposure with the digital equivalent. Just take each photo the way you normally would, and get them into your computer; then fire up your favourite photo editor. The technique I am going to describe makes use of layers to "stack" images and vary their opacity. Good photo editors like Photoshop Elements (Elements) and Corel Paint Shop Pro (PSP) have this feature. It isn’t the only way to do it, but it is probably the most flexible. I’m using PSP but the technique is virtually identical. Step One: Import Your Files -
Start PSP and open all of the files that you want to include in your multiple exposure. They can be any images at all, but it’s easier if they have the same orientation and pixel resolution. Let’s say you have opened 4 pictures. Depending on how you have PSP set up, you may see them as tabbed documents along the bottom of the screen, or as cascaded windows, or perhaps only the top picture will be visible. That’s the most awkward view, so we’ll use it! The other views are easier to work with, but the principle is the same. Decide which photo will be your “base” image - the background to the others. Choose one of the other pictures (The Window menu will list them all: click on one to select it, which will bring it to the front) then copy it (Edit/Copy) and close the picture. Select the Base image and paste the first image into it as a New Layer(Edit/Past/Past as New Layer). Repeat with each of the other photos, copying, closing and pasting each in turn as a new layer in your base image. You should now have just one image open; it will look like the last one you pasted, but you will see all of the pictures as thumbnails stacked in the Layer Palette on the right side of the screen. If the Layer Palette isn’t there, open it (View/Palettes/Layers). Make the Pictures Visible - Select the top layer in the Layers Palette and reduce its opacity using the slider above the layer thumbnail until the layer underneath shows through. With a double exposure, start at 50 percent and fine tune it until you are satisfied. But we have four layers, right? That will take a bit more work. Each layer will need a bit more transparency than the one above it. You could go with 50% for the top, then 70% for the next and so on. After the third you are in trouble: we need a better trick. Multiple Layers - To cope with more than 3 layers, get the first two just right, then merge them (Layers/Merge/Merge Down - the Merge Down command merges just the selected layer and the one immediately below it). Now You can adjust the opacity of the new merged layer to view the one below it, merge them and repeat as often necessary. It will only need the 50% opacity that you used with the first pair, fine tuned, of course. Saving the Merged Images - If you hit the Save button at any stage, you risk overwriting your original base image. Also, saving as a jpeg tif or other image type will automatically merge the layers, which means you can no longer edit them. I advise you to Save the image under a new name (File/Save As) as soon as you have all the pictures imported into their layers. Save the file as a PSP image and you will be able to edit it, undo any operations etc. You could even save it as a Photoshop file if you wanted to edit it with Elements... Some applications may require a jpg or similar file. When you have completed your merged image, save a copy in the required format (for instance, to use in a slide show or post on-line) but remember that if you don’t keep a PSP or similar version, you will no longer be able to unmerge or otherwise work on the individual layers.
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This intel was contributed by David Rich
David Rich
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May, 2012
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