Further Techniques

Hayley Roberts

Multiple ExposureMultiple exposures can be achieved by using a camera or by using Photoshop. The camera that I own doesn’t let me create multiple exposures so if I used this technique it would have to be completed using Photoshop. For this method there can be a lot of ways to create a multiple exposure effect depending on how you want the final outcome to look and how you want the images to blend together to create the effect. I’ve seen a few ways to create the effect. The first method which looks like image 1, is created by opening a portrait image in Photoshop with a plain background. The photograph is then duplicated by clicking on the layer of the portrait and right clicking and selecting ‘Duplicate Layer’. Making sure that the duplicated layer is selected, you have to click ‘Ctrl + T’ and then right click on the image and select Rotate 180*. The next step is to change the blending mode of the duplicated layer. Choose the option that says ‘Lighten’. Then change the first layer to black and white and this will create a really unusual look to the image. Then, add in an image (preferably a landscape image) and add this image above the other layers and set the blending mode to ‘Lighten’. This then leaves the effect that is shown in the first image and I think it looks really unusual and has a really calm effect to it. Another way of achieving this method is by getting a portrait image and pasting a landscape image over the top of it. Change the blend mode of the images to ‘Screen’ and when having trees or plants for example this will work really well as it will show the trees growing out of the portrait image and this will work really well and this step is the simplest way to create a double exposure effect. For this method, I would need to use the studio at college or choose a really pale background to take portraits against as this would be my main subject to use for the double exposure. I would then go take images of different landscapes or even plants and link it all to nature and this would be my other main subject for my images. The whole method will be completed using post-production and so the skills required are all Photoshop skills and I like the technical challenge with this method as it will be really interesting and using different blending modes will create different effects so it can be a really interesting project. The method overall is really simple and even though it can be really technical won’t take a lot of time to produce in post-production depending on what is being done to the image but to create multiple exposures it can be done in a couple of steps. I just have to make sure that the background of the portraits are really white and there is a strong contrast with the shadows in the images and that there is a strong outline from the portrait photograph.

GlitchingThe glitching method is another effect that I think would work really well and makes the image look like it has a few technical issuers with it and it really distorts the image and this can be done quite extreme or only have little effect to the image and this can make the image look broken in certain places. The colours that are used when using this method can leave really bright and extreme colours but this brightens the image up as well. To achieve this effect is really easy and doesn’t take long to achieve. The first step involves selecting an image that is being glitched and it has to be a TIFF, RAW or BMP file format as this works better for this method and this is the method for Mac's. Then, you have to make sure that you duplicate the image so if it goes wrong or to make sure that the image being used isn’t destroyed. Open the ‘Text Edit’ application and then open the image that is being glitched and then their will be a long code that will appear and loads of random text. Destroy the code that has appeared by messing around with the ¾ of the code and avoid messing with the ¼ as it will destroy the image completely but you can destroy the code by adding or taking away parts of the code and this will then create the glitch and then save the image by clicking ‘save’ and not ‘save as’ as if you ‘save as’ the image, the glitch won’t work or run. If the result isn’t what you wanted you can always go back into the ‘Text Edit’ application and edit it till you get the image you were looking for. The subject matter for this method could be anything really as it might not look how it did when the image was taken depending on how bad the glitch is in the photograph because it will distort the image a lot or even repeat parts of the image so it will look quite unusual to when it was first taken. This method involves a lot of post-production after the image is taken so it gives the result that is expected as it’s a lot more complex achieving the effect or even possible using a camera and this is the simplest step I found, there could be a lot more ways to do it but all you do is mess with the data of the photograph taken. All I will need for this effect will be a camera and a computer to edit it and the subject matter. But overall that is everything that’s involved with this effect and the outcome looks really good and interesting as you don’t know what the end result will look like as you won’t be able to see what you have done till the image is saved and opened again so it can be really mysterious and intriguing to see what has happened to the image and every time you do it, there will be a different end result.