Multiple Exposure Work Diary

At the beginning of today's lesson, we watched a short clip on youtube on how to form a multiple exposure shot. There are two ways of doing this effect and that is actually doing it in the raw form through the camera, however, as my camera doesn't have this setting to do so, I have learnt how to do it via photoshop. To achieve this technique, you can two photos, one of a landscape (or an object it is up to you as a photographer) and then one of a subject. The most important part about taking these images, is that the background has to be over exposed. The way I achieved this was to shoot upwards so that the only thing in the background, was the sky- this made it easier to over expose it. Additionally, the change of camera settings was important because if you had the same camera settings for both the subject and the object/ landscape, the final products may result in being too over exposed which isn't what you want. 

The equipment I used for this techniques was simply subjects from my class, the surroundings I had and then my camera. The reason I didn't use a tripod within this technique was simply because I didn't think it was necessary, because I had a fast shutter speed and I wasn't trying to capture something in the same place- for example like I did in the sequencing technique, I didn't need one.

My favorite image from this shoot:

I really like this image because certain parts of the raw image of the subject are still really visible, yet certain parts are of the tree- mainly her coat. This is really interesting because it's as if my subject is "wearing nature". The only negative of this image which I don't like is the over exposure- I can actually improve by editing it in photoshop. However, I do like how her glasses and her camera strap is still really clear (due to the dark colouring) as this helps shape my subject- the viewer can follow these lines and still tell it's a person- not just a tree. 

My photograph shown above, resembles this image taken by the photographer "Christoffer Relander", in his series of photos called "Contemporary photography", Relander has taken many different multiple exposure photos, however I chose this one to relate to my work. This is because like my photo, this photo is mainly green because of the leaves of the trees. Even though the leaves take up the majority of the subjects in mine and Relanders photos, our subjects are still visible to the audience.

My least favorite image from this shoot: 

I do like how the flowers are shown in this image however I feel like this technique wasn't displayed very well within the image as I believe the flowers over take my subject which isn't what I wanted. Also, as the flowers and leaves are at the bottom of the frame, as the portrait of my subject gets to the face, there isn't really anything there to display her- the only dominate part of her face is her eye and eyebrow within the flower, which personally I do not like. I think this image would have been better if I would have made it so the flowers and leaves were further up the frame, but not all the way around it- this way my subject wouldn't have been swallowed from the plants. Finally, I also do not like how the only part of my subject which is really clear is the Nikon sign on her camera strap, because even though some may argue this to be a punctum, I believe it is almost as if I am advertising this brand as it is the only clear part of my subject, which I weren't trying to do and therefore, this image is my least favorite image from this shoot.

Using this technique?

When I come to shooting my independent project, I do not think I will be using this technique because I do not think it ties in my the effect that I want. I want a "gritty" and "slum-like" atmosphere formed in my images so I don't think combining this technique would work. However, it may be worth me experimenting with this technique any way because, I could do it with out flowers and do scenery such as the graffiti tunnel along with a skateboarder.  So I might try it for one image, but I will not be dedicating a whole shoot on this technique.