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A complete introduction to multiple exposure photography

{In-camera double exposure by Briana Morrison}

Multiple exposure photography, as the name suggests, consists of exposing photosensitive material (be it film or photographic paper) multiple times. This technique has been around since the 19th century and has been used in many creative ways in portraiture, architectural, fine-art and science photography, as well as to photograph ghosts (more on that below).

Given its rich background and the possibilities it offers, it is definitely a technique worth exploring as it can lead to quite astonishing results. Below you’ll find an overview of some of the many ways photographers have been using multiple exposure in different fields throughout the history of photography, as well as some basic technique tips to get you started.

History

Early studio-portraits and Victorian Ghost Photography

One of the earliest examples of multiple-exposure photography comes from the 19th century, where it was mostly used for fun at photographers’ studios around the world. Countless examples can be found around in history of photography books as well as on the web of images showing the same person twice in the same photograph. The interesting aspect of these images is that the subject appears as though they have been present in two places at the same time during the exposure. With a typical double exposure, having the subject change position for the second picture would actually superimpose him/her with the background from the first exposure, thus rendering the person somewhat transparent. In order to avoid this effect, studio photographers had to use special lens caps which would only expose half of the frame at a time.

Others, however, made use of this transparency effect to create what came to be known as “spirit photography”. By using double exposure, they would make “spirits” appear alongside the living. One of the earliest adapters of this technique was Wiliam Mumler, who created the image seen below:

{Copyright : National Gallery of Art}

Many others followed in Mumler’s footsteps and started creating such images to the people’s amusement, some of them even as stereoscopic photographs so that they could be viewed in 3D.

{5th Avenue Street Scene, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views via Wikimedia Commons / New York Public Library}

19th Century Russian Color Photography

{Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky - Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Prokudin-Gorskii Collection}

Another early example of different kind of multiple exposure photography comes from a Russian photographer named Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky, who used it to create color photographs from black and white images.

Gorsky would photograph a scene through three color filters (red, green and blue) on monochromatic film and would later project these images superimposed - each one with the corresponding color filter - to produce a full-color image.

As the image taking process was very slow, even by large-format photography standards, the subject matter was quite restricted. However, he still managed to produce a color photographic account of early 19th century Russia which is certainly worth taking a look at. An extensive gallery of his images can be seen here : http://www.gridenko.com/pg .