This week has been more of a processing week than a photography week, as it is all about doing double-exposures, which is basically combining two pictures. There are a few methods to do this, apps on a phone, in camera, and different youtube tutorials for editing software like photoshop. I was quite looking forward to it as I’ve not dabbled with this sort of thing, and I do like doing a bit of arty farty stuff now and then. The thing with double exposures is to use complementary pictures, and not just random stuff. Anyway, I’ve had a go, it was harder than I thought it would be so some of my pictures are a bit sucky, but the silver lining to this week is that there is only one AFAC, result!

Day 234 ~ water. ~ This week we are pushing ourselves to try double exposure, it is relatively easy once you have done it a couple of times, but you can spend hours in the processing if you want to.  But not to worry if that is too much for you.  Take a photo using the prompt word or just go prompt free. We enjoy ALL of the photos that you post. Double exposure can be done in the camera or in the processing using editing tools, like Photoshop. I have written a blog about it on the website so do go and have a look. Today’s prompt word is water, I think that water makes a good textured photo. You might still like to find a subject of which to take a photo. I went with Jasper and a photo of some water ripples.

I had intended to go to the sea front and had a picture in mind, however today was also my birthday and family turned up out of the blue and stayed a long while, so that got scuppered. I ended up taking a picture of Phil watering the hanging baskets 🤣, and then for the 2nd shot an overlay close up of the flowers he was watering. I used the Hipstamatic app on my I-phone, which is easy to do, but you can’t really finesse the outcome overmuch. It looks a bit messy I think so this one is in the Sucky category.

Day 235 ~ 8 O’Clock. Double the pleasure!  8 am or 8 pm you chose and multiply it! At 8:00 take a picture (or 2 or more) I am lucky; my Canon R has multiple exposure built into the camera and I chose to use it for my  photograph. I photographed a setting sun over the lake and some of my beautiful white peonies.  In this picture I chose two different f stops. By using f4 for the close up on my flower I was able to superimpose a macro shot over the landscape I shot at f11.  I also chose a white flower as it seemed to show up best against the blues and oranges of my sunset at 8 pm!

Mad day at work today so I did my shot at 8pm, I used one of Winnie from the out takes from a couple of weeks ago, and took a new shot of my Space Hotel clock when it got to 8pm. I used Photoshop and just stuck the clock image over the image of Winnie, and lowered the opacity a bit, quite straightforward, and I think this is in the Unsucky cupboard, as it turned out OK.

Day 236 ~ Prompt Free. Prompt Free Days often bring to mind the saying, “The grass is always greener on the other side.”  Some days, we feel restricted by the prompt, but on other days, no specific prompt makes us feel lost by having no point of departure. Think about these prompt free days as a check-in as to how this project is changing you. What do you notice that you would have overlooked previously? What small moments in you day now feel bigger and call to be documented?

Another shonky day at work, and I really couldn’t get inspired for a doubler, so reverted to taking a shot of Winie, and combining that with two different shots I’d taken in the past of Koi carp- I was thinking cats and fish go together well, anyways this one turned out really sucky, but I did learn a new technique which I employed nicely next time. Avert your eyes people.

Day 237 ~ Walkway. Have you heard about Blend Editor?  It’s the iPhone app that I used it to put these two photos together.  This app is super easy to use and I highly recommend you try it for a double exposure photo edit!  

Woah Nelly! I have in the past had numerous photography apps on my iPhone, and after an initial burst of playing with them, soon gave up and returned to my beloved Fuji’s and film cameras. I deleted most of them in the end, so am loath to download anymore. I decided instead to use the new technique I’d had a go at yesterday in Potatoshop. The first thing to come to mind was the walkway from the mainland to St.Mary’s Island and Lighthouse, and thought I’d place a nice shot I have of it inside my old walking boot. It was a bit of a faff on, and took me a few wranglings to get the result I wanted, but I do like it so it’s going in the Unsucky cupboard.

Day 238 ~ Awesome. ~ I find double exposure difficult to get right.  The placement of objects in the two photos has to be just so for the photo to make sense. The fact that I even attempted a double exposure is awesome as far as I’m concerned. I took maternity photos for a friend of mine.  The park and marina where I took the photos have special meaning for both my friend and her husband.  I took a photo of her and placed it over a photo of the lighthouse at the marina to make it look like she was overlooking the park.  I created the double exposure in editing rather than in camera.  I think the final result is pretty awesome! Today brings another opportunity for you to try your hand at double exposure.  What awesome creation can you come up with today.

My first thought was AFAC/AAFP! and my second was – my friend Pete is going to be annoyed. 😀 He does not like the way the word awesome is used about things that really are not awesome. And he is quite right, the prompt lady’s picure was nice, but not awesome, and mine isn’t either! We were in charge of Cal and Liddy today whilst Mum went off for appointments, so took them down to the seafront to search for sea glass and have ice cream. The weather was also not awesome with a chill northerly wind, but it ddn’t bother the kids. My FujiXT2 has a double exposure setting on it so I took a few whilst we were there. My first shot was always facing the horizon and trying to catch a breaking wave on the shore, with the second being at 90 degrees to the horizon catching Phil, Cal and Liddy walking up the beach. This one worked best I think, and I like it so one for the Unsucky cupboard.

Day 239 ~ Building. ~Double exposure week has probably pushed your creativity really hard. You may be loving it but you also may be frustrated with it. I have to admit, it isn’t something that I can usually visualize when I am creating an image. There are some members of this group that are amazing with their double exposure creations. With the prompt word of “building” I immediately thought of the skyline in Chicago, a city I have visited many, many times. I decided to embed a sunset photo from my hometown to give the city a sunrise glow. I brought my photo into photoshop, and then I embedded my sunset image over and reduced the opacity to get the look I wanted. I rotated the embedded image to make a sunrise rather than sunset and I’m pretty happy with the result.

I went all creative thinking with this one and wanted to somehow combine the buildings of Newcastle with one of the impressive castles I’ve visited, and as I was in Newcastle for an appointment it seemed fortuitous. However it chucked it down whilst I was there so I couldn’t get the photo I wanted. I combined two that I took in 2019, one of Bamburgh Castle (that IS awesome 😃 ) and one of the buildings along Newcastle quayside. I had a few to play with, and tried various combinations, and this is the best one I did. Looking at it now I can see how I could have done this beter, so it’s going in the Sucky cupboard.

Day 240 ~ Share. ~ It’s the last day of double exposure photos.  Let’s have some fun!  I decided I wanted to create an “artsy” photo using two things in which I share an interest – my garden and music.  Beyond that, I had no clue what I was going to do.I began by taking several photos of flowers in my garden and several of my guitar on a white background.  I layered the two images in Photoshop, the guitar on top of the garden  Then I started pushing buttons and playing with sliders.  I first tried all of the blend modes.  Since the outcomes are unpredictable, it is fun to see how each affects the image.  Once I found one that I liked, I tweaked the contrast, saturation, and brightness a bit. This is not my favorite technique, but since I had no concrete expectations, going through the process was kind of fun.Takes some time to play and have fun today.  Leave expectations behind. Please share your photos as well as your process used in creating them.

It’s not my favourite technique either lady! I did as she suggested and had a good old faff session. I took a macro photo of some flowers I got (think they are chrysanthemums) and used a sunset picture from my trip to see Ben in July, added some textures, added some twinkles, blended and layered, and Bob’s your uncle, arty farty picture!

So that is the end of the double- exposure week. Can’t say I enjoyed it, but I did learn stuff so there’s that. I think I’m not really an arty farty type of photographer, though I do like a dabble, but I can’t ever see myself developing this way. But it’s good to try new things and think new ways, so on the whole, a good week. Sorry there’s not many laughs to be had but next week we are doing a colour week, this time it’s brown (blerk!) and I already have spotted at least 3 AFAC’s! Stay tooned!