Taking a Double Exposure Posted On 21st January 2025 To Magazine & Stories

The lessons I’ve learnt

I would like to start this blog by stating that I consider myself a relatively inexperienced photographer. I’ve been taking film photos for around eight years and have only ever done so as a hobby. However, something I have spent many of those eight years doing is experimenting with double exposures. In this blog I’d like to share some of the lessons I’ve learnt in that time.

If you have any questions

I could talk about double exposure for hours and go into a huge amount of detail, however in order to cover all the aspects that I consider important, much of what follows will only be a brief summary. If you have any questions about what follows please feel free to contact me.

The main issues I want to cover in this blog are the technical aspects of taking a double exposure, the subjective aspects (what I believe makes a good double exposure) and common mistakes that I see people make.

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Technical Aspect

The questions I get asked most about taking double exposures relate to the technical aspects. This includes what kind of camera I use, what method I use for layering the photos and how to properly expose the frames that make up the double exposure.

In relation to the first two points, I should clarify from the start that I use a 35mm SLR camera (usually a Nikon FE) and I take my double exposures using the “double exposure lever” which is included on many such cameras. This allows me to expose a frame and then prime the shutter for subsequent exposures without advancing the film.

Exposure

The issue I‘ll focus on most in this blog is how to properly expose the frames of a double exposure. This is the part that people seem to find the most difficult. It’s important to note that there is no magic formula for creating double exposures. As is often the case with film photography, there is always a degree of uncertainty and there are many variables to consider. Much will depend on the conditions you are shooting in, the subjects you are shooting and the film stock you use, to name a few. However, when it comes to exposure, there is one variable which is of particular importance in double exposures and it is contrast.

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Contrast

When people ask me how to take a double exposure they are usually asking how to get the crisp clear outline of the silhouette which is present in some double exposures. Achieving this look is one of the most misunderstood parts of taking a double exposure. However, once you understand the theory it’s actually fairly simple and not too difficult to repeat consistently.

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Silhouette Shot

For the purpose of this explanation I’m going to talk about using a “silhouette” shot and a “subject” shot. Hopefully it’s clear what I mean by this; the silhouette shot is the image that “frames” your double exposure. For my photos I most often use the silhouette of a person or a hand. The subject shot is whatever fills this silhouette. The key to achieving a clear outline in your double exposure is making sure that there is a lot of contrast in your silhouette shot. More specifically, the background must be very bright, and the silhouetted object must be very dark. A perfect example is someone standing in front of the sun.

When we take such a photo our aim is for the bright background to completely overexpose the film so that no more information can be taken on. The result will be that the area behind the silhouette will be essentially bleached white. In the meantime, we want the object that forms our silhouette to be underexposed. If the silhouette is underexposed, this means that the film has taken on very little information and is essentially still blank.

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The result

The result is that if we take another exposure on top of this first one, the space within the underexposed silhouette can still capture more information from our second exposure, while the bleached-out background will take on nothing. I suggest metering for both the object you use as a silhouette and then metering for the background and then pick an exposure somewhere between those two. As a rough guide it should work to underexpose the silhouetted object by at least two stops and overexpose the background by at least two stops. However, the more contrast you can find, the crisper the end result will be.

Subjective Aspect

I found out fairly quickly that although learning the technicalities of taking a double exposure is extremely rewarding, it does not mean you will start automatically taking “good” photos. Now I don’t want to enter into a discussion about what a “good” photo is, as that’s a subject which is entirely too subjective and I dare not put my opinions down in writing for fear being criticised! I know that everyone will have their own tastes and opinions about what makes a good photo, but I have a few thoughts that I consider are worth sharing when it comes to taking double exposures.

The primary thing which I find I need to focus on to achieve a result I’m happy with is foresight. By this I mean the ability to plan out and visualise what I want my double exposure to look like before I even raise the viewfinder to my eye.

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The Mistakes

I find a strange kind of tension in film photography between trying to control the outcome during the shooting process and learning to accept the irregularities and mistakes that are inherent in film. If we wanted perfection and complete control, we would use digital. By using film, we are accepting that no matter how hard we try to control an outcome, the results we get back form the lab may well be full of anomalies, light leaks, odd colours and incorrect exposures. Learning to love these “mistakes” is part of shooting film.

However, even when we accept that these mistakes will happen, I still believe that the more foresight and thought we put into the shooting process, the better the results will be. We just need to get used to switching between the focused mindset when shooting our film, and the accepting, less-controlling mindset when we get our results back.

The Planning

I think this applies particularly to double exposures. If you randomly expose silhouettes and subjects onto the same frame, you will find that the majority of your double exposures will be messy or uninteresting (although you may well occasionally strike gold!). For me, the primary determiner of whether I am happy with a double exposure is the extent to which I planned out the image. The end result may not be how I envisioned it, but it usually results in some kind of coherent and visually pleasing image.

So, my main advice when going out to shoot a double exposure is to envision what you want out of the photo. When you get the results back you may be initially disappointed as the image won’t resemble exactly what you had in mind but try and look at it through fresh eyes. Equally importantly, try and figure out what went “wrong”. Why did the image not turn out how you wanted? Was it the exposure, composition, subject choice? You will learn a lot very quickly if you use this method rather than just employing a random point-and-shoot method and hoping for good results.

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Common Mistakes

Ultimately, if you want to consistently shoot double exposures you are happy with, the only answer is, of course, practice. However, there are some mistakes that I see a lot of people make. I’ve tried to cover the main ones below so you can hopefully avoid them!

Lack of contrast

This has to be the most common mistake I see. Hopefully what I wrote above about contrast makes sense to you. If you do not have good contrast in your “silhouette” shot, you are likely to end up with an image in which the two exposures blend together and create a slightly messy feel (although this may be what you are aiming for, in which case ignore this advice!). A common way that this mistake is made is that people will take a picture of their “silhouette” object with the sun (or light source) behind themselves rather than the sun being behind the silhouetted object. Remember, the idea is to have as much contrast as possible between the dark silhouetted object and the bright background behind it.

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Poorly lined up silhouette and subject

This is something which everyone will have to work on in their own time. Part of the challenge of taking a double exposure is remembering what your first exposure was and how much of the frame it took up. It’s easy to take your first exposure of a silhouette, lower your camera and realise that you have no idea which part of the frame the silhouette was filling. This will make it very hard to line up the second shot in a pleasing way. Make sure that when you take an exposure you make a mental image of where that exposure sat in the frame. I use marks on my viewfinder to “map” this out.

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Worrying about the order of the exposures

This isn’t really a “mistake” but perhaps more of a misconception. A question I am asked incredibly often is which exposure I took first. I have heard people say that this makes a difference and it may well do! But if it does, the difference is minimal and it’s not something I have ever worried about. Take either your “silhouette” shot or your “subject” shot first.

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Indistinct silhouette

In my opinion, a good double exposure relies a lot on the silhouette being something clearly recognisable. As a double exposure will essentially contain two images, it becomes very easy for the image to become confusing. I find that using a clearly recognisable silhouette (such as a portrait, leaf or hand) helps ensure that the image isn’t too confusing. This is, again, a matter of preference and you may well be looking to take more abstract double exposures in which case the clarity or familiarity of the image may not be as important to you.

Summary

There are so many more considerations when taking a double exposure and there is much more that I could talk about, but I hope this has given at least a basic overview of the process involved. If you have any questions at all, please get in touch!

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Images ©Euan Grimley