Compositing and Portrait Capstone: Creative Multiple Exposure Portrait

Creative Multiple Exposure Portrait Project:
Imagine being able to capture not only a subjects portrait, but also communicate a life experience or story, internal impulses, dreams or perhaps an alter-ego. In this project students will demonstrate mastery by creating a multiple exposure portrait that involves a storytelling element.

"The Driver" By Seth Wilson. "I have always loved the open road, since I was a child I traveled across the desert many times and that imagery has always been burned into my subconscious. Recently I took photos on a solo trip back to my home city for a memorial to honor a childhood friend. This image is a representation of the road always being on my mind."

Links for Reading: think about how you can use the multiple exposure method to tell your own story or share an experience visually, because that is part of the challenge for this project... read and review these links before proceeding.

• Echosight, a collaborative double exposure project: echosight
• Article, double exposure and journalism: The formidable impact of double exposure and journalism
• Daniella Zalcmans Project: Canada's Devastating Legacy of Residential Schools

Creative Multiple Exposure Assignment:
In this hands-on project, students will plan and create their own creative multiple exposure portraits. Students will develop their own narrative, develop imagery to represent it and use photography to capture those images and combine them into a finished work with Photoshop.

Students must create pencil sketches and concepts for approval before proceeding.

Follow the processes below to complete your own portrait:

Part 1: Pre-production
Before proceeding create a pencil sketch of your concept or write a brief description of your narrative (who, what, when, where, why) for approval before proceeding. Think of something you want to communicate about yourself or an experience you have had, or ideas, causes or hobbies that interest you...

Part 2: Portrait Production 
You may work in pairs or small teams to capture the portraits you will use for your compositions. You will need to research and get creative with your environment to capture a portrait that will edit/blend well with their other exposures. You must frame your portraits correctly and capture them with good lighting and a background with good contrast for editing. Backgrounds with excessive noise (leaves, wood grain, signs, etc) will be difficult to edit out, so look for clean white walls, green screen, etc. Use our studio for best results.

Part 3: Additional Exposures
You must capture at least 3 additional exposures to use for this project, this can be done on campus or off campus as homework (take many pictures so you have 2 good images to use). You should take original photos for this project. Capture images that will help communicate the narrative you established in Part 1.

Part 4: Lab Work
Edit your portrait and captured images into a creative multiple exposure image with Photoshop. Follow the steps listed below and watch the video for an understanding of the process. Research online tutorials for inspiration and additional tips and tricks. Focus on using imagery to communicate the narrative you established in your concept sketch or written description.

Aaron dreams of redlining v8's, the autobahn and finding the ultimate set of rims for his twin turbo 1 series. This multiple exposure portrait contains elements that speak to his inner desires.

Photoshop Process: 

Tutorials:

Using Masks for Double Exposure

Using multiple exposures in Photoshop

Open your portrait in Photoshop, make a duplicate of the portrait layer in the layer palette and turn off the visibility for the original (this is a backup layer in case you make a mistake and want to re-edit). Follow the steps below as a rough guide to create your own composition. Research online tutorials for additional tips, tricks and techniques: 

1. From the Select Menu choose Color Range. Use the Eyedropper tool to select the background area of your portrait. Then use the Eyedropper with the + symbol to add to the Selection area, use the - symbol option to remove areas. Continue until you have a clean Matte and click OK 
2. Use a Lasso Tool to fine tune your selection 
3. Click DELETE to remove the selected area 
4. Scale down your layer by using the quick key Command T (T for Transform). Hold the Shift Key while you scale your portrait layer down in order to keep the proportions correct 
5. Use the Eraser Tool with a soft and large brush to create the face effect on your portrait, hiding any edges
6. Create any color modifications with Adjustment layers above your portrait 
7. Import your other images 1 by 1 by clicking and dragging or using the import option from the file menu
8. Adjust your new layer and set the Blending Mode to something that looks good, for my example I used Screen. Try all the options to see what looks best for your images; the different light and dark and color values in different photos will create different results for everyone. Tip: Hold the Shift Key and click the + or - Keys to quickly jog through the Blending Modes for your selected Layer
9. Position your layers and scale if needed, use Command-T to quickly scale 
10. Adjust the Opacity for your layers in the Layer Palette if needed 
11. Continue editing until complete, refer to the additional online tutorial links in the next section for inspiration and other techniques 
12. Save your file and export as a JPG for sharing

Ask your instructor for a demonstration of this process for more help!

Have fun!

Student Work Examples: 

- Mr.W