UNIT 1 - MOVEMENT - AO1 - Dual Exposures - Sara K Bryne

Who is Sara K Byrne, what does she do and how does she make these dual exposures?

Sara is a photographer currently based out of Boise, Idaho. Predominately shooting weddings along with her husband Dylan. When she isn't shooting weddings she otherwise spends her time experimenting. Here are some examples of her work:

Sara is drawn to light, movement, texture, and the inherent beauty of people. Combining all of these qualities, Sara recently experimented with double exposing images using the Canon Mark III. The results are spectacular, and the original shots were all implemented within the camera. Below is a video tutorial on how she creates these images:

What are dual exposures?

"The repeated exposure of a photographic plate or film to light, often producing ghost images."

to do this with film you would take the photo then rewind the film to the same piece then retake the photo creating two images in one.

However, for digital cameras the process can be much more difficult or easier. It depends on what camera you are using. For example, when we look at the video shown above us. Sara tells us that her Cannon 5DIII has a "Multiple Exposure Mode" on the camera featuring a "Live View" which shows the a previous image which overlays onto the digital viewfinder on the screen.

Whereas on my Nikon D3200 it doesn't have a Live view mode however it has a "Image overlay" modifier, this means that I have to take the photo, remember where it was on the viewfinder, take another then merge the two on the camera.

This may not even be the case for people who don't have the D3200 or the 5DIII As many people shy away from Professional or non professional SLR cameras and instead use their Smart phones or compact cameras. There is probably already an Multiple Exposure App for just this kind of thing however the last thing they can do to create these images is to use Adobe photoshop or for those who cannot afford, it they can use an online adaption of it E.g. Pixlr.com a handy copy catch with most of the tools of the original. The only thing wrong with it is you can't really close it and continue later and the Quality isn't great. However it works.

Trial and Error...

When I started this side project I thought I knew how these images were created:

1,Take a portrait photo of some against a wall.

2.Take a picture of some plants or trees.

3.Download contents onto photoshop

4.overlay tree image on portrait

5.use the rubber tool and rub out the portraits face so tree image would fill

6.Tree like face created.

That seemed the right idea however when I finished the image I would end up not having any of the detail for the face like the hair or mouth etc like in Saras photos.

So I decided to watch her tutorial video shown above and read her page on it realising my mistake I retry and using the tools found on my camera and create these:

Moral of the story: Don't be too quick to judge how people create there images, see what they have to say before you assume anything.

Heres my failed attempt:

Heres what I created using her Method:

With these three photos I wanted to experiment with the exposures and settings with each of the two images. with the first one I felt that the face was under-exposed so I increased the exposure on the camera which created the next then the next. this exposure gives a naturalistic and surreal effect for the audience I think.

With this last photo I decided to flip the tree photo. I like it as the person looks more tree-like than a person. giving it a mystical effect, possible connotations of the ideas like "mother nature" I am pleased with how the photo turned out however I am not so keen on the half-exposed leaves which are not the subject. to me it ruins the themes which I am trying to present.

In Conclusion I admire these Dual exposure portraits and believe it would be a very good idea to continue to experiment with them in the future.