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Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge Week 9 – Double exposures

double exposures photo phone apps

If you have a film camera that allows you to expose the same frame twice to different subjects, you will end up with a photo that comprises the two scenes overlapping each other. Photos taken using this method are called double exposures. And in the case where there is more than two times the frame is exposed, the result becomes a multiple exposure.


double exposures photo phone appsWelcome back to Week 9 of the Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge hosted by weliveinaflat and firebonnet ;)

This challenge asks you to (1) share a good photo that you took or edited last week, (2) run it through a photo app on your smartphone or mobile device and share with us the result. We’re back to the theme of Light. This week, let’s explore Double Exposure.

Double Exposure

Because double exposure means that the frame has been exposed to light twice, you can generally expect the final image to be pretty bright/light.

double exposures photo phone apps

A pretty comprehensive video tutorial on double exposures ; )

So let’s take a look at how to create such photos using photos apps, shall we?

Since double exposures means precisely that, exposure to two different images. You need start with two photos.

How do I pick the two photos?

In my case, I generally think about what sort of visual story I would like to tell, and also whether the photos complement each other in terms of the composition.

Set One | By subject matter
double exposures photo phone apps
This set of two photos are both taken at Nara Park in Japan. Nara Park is known for a few of its iconic Japanese temples and the deer that roam freely in the park. The two photos couldn’t have been more different, except that together they are two halves of the story that is Nara Park. Both photos are pretty balanced. Photo 1 has two deer, one on each side of the photo. Photo 2 shows a temple squarely in the middle as the focal point.

This is how the photo turned out using the app – Double Photo. The two deer end up framed within the silhouette of the temple, whose facade has been covered up by the forest detail in the deer picture. The sky remains dominant, with bits of foliage peeking through the swirling clouds.

double exposures photo phone apps

Set 2 | Photos with complementary or contrasting colours/brightness values
double exposure photo phone apps
This set of photos I picked because they both have a focuse area in the image that is a bright, warm orange or yellow colour.  The bright colour in one and the dark silhouettes of the other are very different from each other and should create something of interest visually. It is also typically good practise to pair a photo taken at a shorter distance with a longer short so that the resulting image does not get too busy due to both photos having the same level of detail in them, which cumulates when overlapped.

I flipped the close up of the flower in PicsArt, before blending the two images. This ensures the warm yellow core in both images are aligned. I ended up with bright pink trees under a darkening sky, the focus still being on the setting sun behind the trees, the glow of which is now amplified by erratic yellow stamens emanating from where the sun is setting. I like how the two colours – yellow pink and blue work together in this case.

double exposure photo phone apps

These are just two examples of how to pick photos. There are many possibilities and you may even choose to go abstract with your choice of photos.

double exposure photo phone apps
Composite of 4 different double exposure photographs to show the dog in it’s environment.

 Double Photo

DoublePhoto is a very basic app that lets you load the two photos you have chosen speedily. You can choose either the “screen” or the “lighten” blend modes to blend the two pictures. The blend mode – Lighten – picks out the lighter colour in the two photos and displays that, the screen mode multiplies the brightness in the photos. Play around with the blend modes and you should see the differences between the two modes visually.

double exposure photo phone apps

PicsArt

Unless your photos line up perfectly with each other, you may find that you want tweak one or two of your chosen photos. The PicsArt app comes in handy because of it’s all in one functions.

The following set of screenshots shows you how I flipped the flower image to align the focal points of my two photos to the lower left corner of the photo, before I set the blend mode. Again, since the frame should have been exposed twice, you should be choosing either the “lighten” or “screen” blends modes for a lighter/brighter image.

double exposure photo phone apps
double exposure photo phone apps
double exposure photo phone apps

PS Touch

PS Touch is another powerful app, which takes a little getting used to. So there is a learning curve there. But if you are used to having layers and blend modes, plus the other basic functions available to you in Photoshop, then you will appreciate PS Touch.

This screen shows you where the photos layers and blending options can be found. Since the frame should have been exposed twice, you should be choosing either the “lighten” or “screen” blends modes for a lighter/brighter image.
double exposure photo phone apps

Assuming I wanted Donna’s eyes to peek out of the flowers, I have to move the top layer to position the eye exactly  there there is a break in the flowers. I then need to trim the layer below so that the two layers  will overlap neatly without the bottom layer peeking out from under the top layer to the left and top of the image.

This screen shows you where the Crop tool can be found to crop the image. double exposure photo phone apps

When you are done, click the arrow on the top left to go back to the Project page. You will be prompted to save the project you were working on.

This screen shows the project page, where you can save the project as a picture file to your Gallery.
double exposure photo phone apps


Get Inspired!


Go get it!
photo apps for your mobile devices

iPhone

Android


Host Challenge Post

Photo of the weekdouble exposure photo phone apps

App challenge photo
filtered with VSCOcam T1 preset and tinted pinkdouble exposure photo phone appsdouble exposure photo phone apps
double exposure photo phone appsdouble exposure photo phone apps
Snapseed Black and White, EyeEM and Snapseed Retrolux effects used respectively for the last three photos.


Now it’s your turn to share!

Create your challenge post from now until Sunday, 13 Apr end of your day. Post your Photo of the Week and your App-ed version of that photo on your blog. (You can follow my format above if you like).

Pic 1 – Your Photo of the Week can be taken with any equipment – a regular camera, a DSLR, a smartphone, hack even a pin-hole camera if you so choose!

Pic 2 – Pic 2 is optional. The theme this week is Double Exposures, but if that is not your cup of tea, you are free to choose other app effects for your app-ed photo. In all cases, it would be helpful if you can name the app effect used so we can understand what you are doing ; )

Add the challenge badge and link your post to the host and co-host sites. Be nice and visit with some of the other challengers for this week! :) And do remember to leave me your blog post link in the comments below, in case I do not receive the pingback/trackback from your link.

For more information, you can read in detail more about the challenge and the instructions at the About page here. You can also grab the badges here.

Questions? Feel free to pose any questions in the comments below or email me at weliveinaflat@gmail.com. Next up, what happens after you have linked up? Why you start getting your challenger photo grid filled up!


Challenger Photo Grids

Every week, challenger grids get updated with the new photos! At the end, you get to grab your grid off this blog for your own pleasure. :D Meanwhile, you can view one another’s photos on the blogs by clicking on the linked numbered weeks above each challenger’s photo grid. I will try to keep it up to date as quick as I can ;)

Host| weliveinaflat.com
[ photos tagged “snappy happy” ]
weliveinaflat's Snappy H'appy Photo Grid

Host| firebonnet.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
firebonnet snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Blogagaini
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Blogagaini snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Roxy The Traveling Dog
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Roxy the Traveling Dog snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| 1stworlddog.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
1st world dog snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| completelydisappear.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
completelydisappear snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Little Dogs Laughed
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Little Dogs Laughed snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Zeke’s Adventures
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Zeke's Adventures snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| ForestWoodFolkArt.wordpress.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Forest Wood Folk snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| LivingWithMyAncestors.wordpress.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Living with my Ancestors snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| sassmuffins.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
sassmuffin snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Claim your photo grid, join the challenge today!

Next week, we’ll get Snappy H’appy with Colour! Thanks for checking out this Photo Challenge and making it all the way to the end of the post! ;) 

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11 Comments

  1. Awesome and detailed run through. It’s very cool how you can achieve so many traditional effects with just an app on your phone.

  2. Your results are amazing. I love them all especially the photo of Donna blended with pink/purple flowers. Beautiful one.

  3. Pretty cool. I like the first one a lot.

  4. As usual, I love all of these! And another new app to try. Sorry I am so behind now, but have been working on moving my website over to Shopify, and it’s been tedious. As soon as my domain transfers over I will be up and running again, and will then play catch-up with the photo challenge. This has been the best thing ever for me; it has even given me new business ideas, and now I am fully vested on Instagram. Such fun!!

  5. I really like these. This is something i would never have thought of doing, but I am really pleased the way my turned out. Thanks! http://roxythetravelingdog.com/snappy-happy-photo-challenge-9/

  6. Interesting stuff, but we don’t use our phone much for photo stuff. Mom will have to see if we can find these apps for the laptop.

    • If you have Photoshop on your laptop than you are good to go. If not Photoshop, you can try the Pixlr Editor, they have a tutorial here. I focused on mobile apps because it is generally free or cheaper than Photoshop. And also lots of pictures are taken on mobile these days and it’s just more hassle free to edit on the mobile where the pictures are already stored. ;)

  7. I LOVE the first picture of Donna with the tree branches inside of her shape-it is hauntingly beautiful!!

  8. I am going back and filling in the gaps I missed for the challenge. I am certainly feeling challenged by using these apps. You have great instructions, but my phone has a different format and I don’t think I am very technologically intuitive. But I did have some success with PicsArt. Here is the link for the double exposure week:
    http://forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/snappy-happy-photo-challenge-week-9-double-exposures/

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