brainstorms

Wednesday May 25, 2005

harley dreams [multiple exposures in digital]

if you do not have a multiple-exposure capable DLSR (fuji s2 pro, nikon d2x), there are several things you can do: you can synthetically create the multiple exposure from a single exposure in photoshop [or gimp or digital darkrooom of your choice] or you can be a purist like me and actually make many exposures to be combined into one image, as you would do with film.

here is a harley davidson police edition engine block, in both kinds of multiple exposures. a synthetic multiple exposure [left image] is a simple multi-layer operation, a bit tedious for its mechanics, but quite entertaining for its results:

• copy n layers out of a single image
• for each layer do:
  • shift, rotate, resize or otherwise transform a layer
  • set visibility to lighten
• crop the result appropriately for composition and clean edges

the example on the right is just a double exposure, one regular image, and another image made out of focus for specular highlights. [this one is for lee schlais. nikon d70, nikkor 105mm f/2.8D]

[musical suggestions while gimping along: dead can dance, a passage in time, beggars banquet music, 1998.]