I'd like to take some double exposures of my kids. (Where the same kid shows up in the photo twice.) Would the proper method be to make one exposure at half the proper exposure settings, move the kids and take the second exposure (again at -1 stop) so that the overall negative has the proper exposure?

My concern would be that the people in the image that are only getting half the required exposure will start to look "ghosty" or semi-transparent.

Some one suggested covering half the lens, taking the exposure, cover the other half of the lens and take the second exposure. This sounds very tricky as far as getting the lens cover just right so you don't leave a gap or cover just a bit too much in the middle.

Any advice on the "typical" way to do double exposures with people in them?

- Jay

-- Jay Johnson (jay_johnson@delmia.com), April 11, 2001

Answers

Jay,

It sounds like to me that you will cover half the lens. Regular multiple exposures will yield ghostly images.

-- Johnny Motown (johnny.motown@att.net), April 11, 2001.

Umm, err, that should have read:

It sounds like to me that you will need to cover half the lens. Regular multiple exposures will yield ghostly images.

-- Johnny Motown (johnny.motown@att.net), April 11, 2001.

Jay, you don't say what format camera you are using - anyhow, I recommend you give full exposure. [don't cover half your lens] Photographing against a dull black background will make things a lot easier. Buy fabric remnants at WalMart or the like.

chris

-- Christian Harkness (chris.harkness@eudoramail.com), April 12, 2001.

I remember seeing some "precision" devices that could clip on the lens of a 35 mm camera, but that was years ago. Doing this in camera seems to be a lot more trouble than it is worth, unless you can do it with a mechanical camera that will allow double exposures. The easy way out is photoshop. It excels it tricks such as this.

-- Joe Lipka (JoeLipka@compuserve.com), April 13, 2001.

I would recommend full exosure, Use dark cloth to drape over whatever you do not want to show in the print.

-- Keith V. Polischuk (Kpolischuk@yahoo.com), April 18, 2001.

actually this is easier than photoshop, use a black velvet background (black velvet soaks up light like no other) shoot each kid indiviually and use minimum amounts of lighting. think of it as "painting with light".

-- mark lindsey (lindseygraves@msn.com), April 28, 2001.