Double Exposure
There's this one song that I've been listening to a lot lately, and it's called "Youth" by Daughter. It's a really great song, and I love the lyrics, which refer to today's young people running towards cigarettes and other forms of self-destruction in order to distract themselves from the problems in their lives. I think this will resonate with a lot of people, whether they smoke or not. Anyway, this post is about that double exposure effect. And for the first one, we'll be playing with smoke.
Look at that compilation above. If you're going to die young, that sight of smoke on a dark background is worth it on its own.
We'll be combining that with this image of a girl. Look at her, all innocent with a bun and flowery shirt. This is beginning to look like one of those psychology something-awareness ads. Also, I like the white fabric background.
You'll want to create a new layer, and fill it with 50% Gray (or is it Grey? What's the difference? I'm genuinely curious).
Layer blends are a saviour. Did I tell you I once wanted to create a candy bar or snack that was like, Jesus-related? And the tagline would be "Savour the Saviour".
This blog is so offensive that I'm sort of disappointed in myself.
In the fill layer, darken the girl using the Burn tool. We want a nice dark surface so that the smoke will show up.
Insert the first smoke image. Just drag it over from another window.
Screen layer blend. The smoke immediately "becomes one" with the girl.
Use layer masks and Brush to refine.
This is what the smoke and grey (gray?) fill looks like without the girl.
Use Transform to adjust the smoke a bit, if you wish.
Add a few more smoke wisps in there. Once you're satisfied with the smoke, you can play with gradients to achieve a more "totally music-video-worthy" look. This reminds me of Coldplay for some reason. THERE IS THAT ONE MUSIC VIDEO. I shall put it here.
As you can see, tons of double exposure. This is one of my favourite Coldplay songs/music videos actually. It's featured in the movie "Unbroken".
Anyway, gradients.
The final result. It looks damn good if I say so myself. Though there's a tad too much smoke. It takes the focus away from the girl's profile.
Anyway, trying to apply the same technique into a second photo here. Same girl, different hairstyle, same flower shirt.
Let's get a city girl vibe going on, woooo. I like cities. Mostly because everything moves so fucking fast and no one knows anyone.
Burn, grey fill, layer blends, walla. Girl, you lookin' hot af.
Final result. There is this liiiiittle blurred black space between her face and the city itself, and I'd love to limit the city to only her hair area, but overall this really tells a story. You could make a movie out of this. Or better yet, a music video. What song would look good on this?
It fits the theme, you gotta admit. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting my sixth-grade class anthem!
Overall, this was:
a) a handy exercise
b) interesting
c) great
Seriously though, I see many uses for this double exposure thing in the future. You could Photoshop ghosts. Or the Illuminati. Or create a new religion. Double exposures offer a surreal look to images, but one that is polished at the same time. So, I like it, and with that said, I am going to sleep.