Affinity Photo: create a double exposure

Continuing our series on Apple’s Mac App of the Year, Affinity Photo

REQUIRES > Affinity Photo, images to work with

LEVEL > Medium

IT WILL TAKE > At least an hour

The double exposure takes its name from film: a frame of film would be exposed, then exposed again, instead of being wound on. The result: a merging of the two frames, often with unpredictable and beautiful results. In the age of digital, merging two frames is easier than ever, and with care you can produce provocative images that blend subjects, places and more.

At its most basic, a digital double exposure requires two images. Add both to one Affinity Photo document as separate layers and reduce the opacity of one of the layers (see previous issues for guides to this). The result will be cluttered and lacking contrast, so we’ll get rid of your subject’s background and experiment with blending two layers.

The first thing to do is isolate your subject. Often, the best results will come if you can shoot a subject against a plain white background. This is often impractical, so use paths and selection refinement tools to cut your subject out (see last issue). Creating a new layer with a mask when you’ve finished will give the best effect.

One useful approach is to vary which parts of your subject are transparent. If a double exposure has a human subject, say, you’ll often want your subject’s face unadulterated by your background layer. Create a layer mask and drag the gradient tool from the top to the bottom of your image. Make the point nearest your subject’s face transparent by setting its opacity to zero, and the background will gently fade away, leaving things pleasingly uncluttered.

Otherwise, all that’s left is for you to carefully select your images; if any digital photography technique rewards experimentation and creativity, it’s this one.