Beginners guide–Double exposure

I have just recently been working on double exposures myself, but the pictures I saw on the internet of double exposures made me so exited about it. I’m still figuring out how to make the best double exposures, but I thought to share it anyway. So here is a double exposure that made me want to make double exposures myself. I ‘m still a beginner myself so I ‘m not capable of doing something like this yet.

This picture was made by Florian Imgrund.

Isn’t this awesome?! I love how the dark parts of the picture are filled with another picture. And its actually quite simple. The only thing I was struggling with was not winding the film at all. Let me show you what I made with my Olympus trip  35 and how I did it. Again, I am still experimenting with different cameras and films, so they’re not good at all.

So this one came out best. I didn’t plan on having a half frame double exposure. But I was quite surprised about the outcome. I didn’t expect the other picture would come exactly on one half of the cola bottle.

This one was a little less. It’s a triple exposure which caused the picture to be way over exposured. If you look closely you can see two bubbles over each other. I used an 400 ISO film, If I had used an 100 ISO film it would have been better.

How do you make a double exposure?
To get the best double exposures like the picture from Florian Imgrund, you should do the following:
You think of the picture you want to make. Then the best is to first take a picture with the darker object. The next picture that you take will be in that dark object, so make sure there is enough light around that object. That way you will only have your dark object filled and not other parts of your picture.
So when you have the first picture, you want to take another picture on the same part of the film you just exposed. So you don’t want to wind your film. To do so, you have to hold your rewind button. That way, you can ‘wind’ your film without actually winding your film. So push it, hold it until you are done winding. Then take another picture!
The most cameras have their rewind button on the bottom of the body.

Some have a rewind button on the front:

If you cant find it anywhere, you can comment me on this post. Tell me what camera you have, I’ll find it.
There is one other way to make awesome double exposures. A filmswap. I will do a complete post on that later. I’m currently working on a filmswap with Maria Nichol.
You take pictures with a camera in –for example- a city you like. Then you take out your film and send the film to someone else. Then that person puts the same film in their camera, and take pictures over that pictures. That way, you get –for example- London and Amsterdam in the same picture!
That was it for today! Have fun shooting your double exposures and show me the results if you can!!

Beginners guide–New years firework photography.

I have been writing about the basics of the analogue photography. About film, aperture and shutter speed. If you know how those 3 things work, and know how to use them on your analogue camera, you’re ready to learn some more things that make photography fun. Since new year is coming up I thought it would be fun to work on some firework picture skills. If you haven’t read the basics and you want to know more, here are the basics:

Part one.

Part two.

Part three.

If you’re not in the mood to read all those post, I suggest to only read part three. Its about shutter speed. Which is important in this post. If you don’t know how it works, you wont understand what I ‘m telling you guys in this post.

 

New year is coming up and you’ve probably bought some firework to celebrate it. Ever tried to take a picture of the firework with your little pocketsize digital camera? There is a big chance you never get the whole explosion of colors and lights on your picture. Why? Its because your camera probably doesn’t has shutter speed options. It takes one or two seconds for the firework to fully explode in the air. Your digital camera probably takes such a small shutter speed it doesn’t get the full beautiful firework picture you want. So take out your dusty old vintage camera and a tripod. Put roll of 100 or 200 ISO film in your camera and go outside to take some pretty awesome firework action pictures!

 

So how does it work:

 

Take your camera outside. Put it on your tripod and make sure it cant move when you want to tae a picture. Look through your lens and wait the first few times to check if the firework is completely in your viewfinder. If your composition is good, check your settings. Put the focus on infinity.  The setting looks like a little 8, put sideways.

Then check your shutter speed. It has to be on the B setting, which means that the shutter speed will be as long as you push your shutter button.

 

Now you’re ready. Wait for the firework to come in your viewfinder. The second you see it popping in sight, press the shutter button. Keep pushing it until you got the full explosion on there.

 

Now you have captured the firework from the beginning till the end and you will have a beautiful picture!

Have fun shooting your new year firework, and have a very happy new year of course!

Good luck shooting beautiful pictures!

The beginners guide to analogue photography. 2 --- Aperture.

 

 

Part one here!

Now you know what kind of camera, and what film to use. So on to part 2 of the beginners guide to analogue photography. Making beautiful pictures on an analogue camera is a bit harder than with a digital camera. You really have to think what you are going to take a picture of before shooting. If you failed to take a good picture, it is a waste of your film, and development. So a waste of your money! Before making a picture, think about the composition of your photo.

The aperture is one of the tree most important things to make a good picture.  The other two most important things to make a good picture are light sensitivity, which I already explained, and shutter speed, which will be explained in the next post.

The aperture controls how much light your film will get. The amount of light that hits the sensor determines how much depth there is in the picture. Depth of field is the distance within which the subject in the picture appears sharp. By playing with the aperture value you get a completely blurred background or a completely sharp background and everything in between. So the aperture offers you possibilities for creative photography.

 

 

The Diaphragm (= aperture) is located in your lens, the settings are on the side of the lens indicated with an F/number. The numbers vary from F/1.4 to F/32. Some lenses have even more, but those would be really special professional lenses.

Let me show you the difference between a high and a low aperture:

Low aperture: +/- F/2.8

 

High aperture: +/- F/3

There is one other thing that is important to know about the aperture. A low aperture can cause over exposure of your film! I found this picture on the internet, It shows what happens with picture when you shoot with a high and low aperture. (So the pictures are from high to low)

 

I think that was it for explaining the aperture. If you think I’ve missed something, please comment what. I will include it if its important.

Thanks!

Part 1 – 12/18/12

Part 3 – 12/22/12

Part 4 -