How to do double exposure technique with David Bergman

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Have you ever seen these cool photos that look like two or more pictures being merged into one, where the first photo acts as a contour and the second fills that contour with its details? Yes, I am talking about the “double exposure” photos, a pretty common technique that got introduced in early 20th century. Back in the days when everything was shot on film, sometimes when you load the film into the camera it would not advance properly and you’ll end up with multiple exposures in one shot. Later, photographers figured out that it might be a cool affect to implement. Nowadays of course, it can be easily done on the computer. Yet, today we are going to learn how to do it with the camera only. Our speaker David Bergman will be using his Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR.  

PUT YOUR CAMERA ON ADDITIVE MODE

First, let’s go into camera’s settings and under “multiple exposure” choose additive mode. In this mode, photos will layer on top of each other, just like if you were shooting two exposures on the same frame of film. You will see how things work in the lighter and darker parts of your image. When images are put together, the brighter part of the photo basically wins out. So white will stay white, no matter what the other exposure looks like. You can really see both exposures better, if they both have darker tones to demonstrate.

Taking First Exposure

At this step the photographer has his model in the park being photographed against the bright sky, so the background is pretty much solid white. David added a little flash on the side to lighten the front of model’s face, while the rest of her head and hair remains dark.

Taking Second Exposure

For the second frame David is after some texture. He is experimenting with tree leaves, rocks and other available material. When combined in camera, the texture is more visible in the darker area, while mostly staying off the front of her face and the background. Pretty cool! With Canon you can always use a live view to align images exactly how you desire. The key here is to shoot a lot of frames until you get one or two that you love.  

Experiment With Other Modes

There are other modes in camera that you can experiment with like “average”, “dark” and “bright”. Try playing with those and let us know which one you liked better!   Watch the full tutorial video of David Bergman for Adorama TV here: