With the advent of AI, the process of creating the double exposure effect has become so much easier. Not only do we not need a camera. We don’t even need any source images because AI tools like Midjourney can conjure them itself! So let’s see how powerful Midjourney is at producing double exposure images and see whether it replaces Photoshop and even the original analogue film method.
In today’s Photoshop tutorial I’m going to show you a simple technique to create what has become known as double colour exposure, where two images are overlaid to produce an interesting effect with contrasting colours. It’s a similar visual style to 3D anaglyph images, or the overprint effect used in old school print designs. The steps to create the basic double colour exposure are very simple, so stick around until the end to also see a few additional tips and tricks to add colour grading effects to finish off the artwork.
In today’s video tutorial we’re going to play around in Photoshop to create a cool Double Exposure effect, which is originally a Photography technique using nothing but cameras to blend two separate images together by exposing the film twice in two completely different photos. The style of this effect has also become popular with digital artists, who can use Photoshop to mimic the double exposure effect to create a surreal image. Popular examples are the True Detectives TV show intro, or if you’re a Taylor Swift fan, you might recognise this effect from her latest music video.
Traditionally the double exposure effect is produced by photographers using nothing but their camera to combine two separate photographs to create an abstract and surreal image. However, we can also mimic the effect in Photoshop, which actually gives us more control over the final output with the ability to adjust and preview the effect as we go. Follow this step by step tutorial to create a double exposure effect yourself, we’ll blend two existing photographs together with the help of some simple clipping and masking techniques.
Have some fun transforming yourself, your family members or your work colleagues into a bobblehead style caricature with this step-by-step tutorial for Adobe Photoshop. We’ll make use of Photoshop’s image manipulation techniques to exaggerate the features of a portrait photograph to give it a funny cartoon-like appearance. Since we’re using a photograph as the source, rather than illustrating the caricature by hand, it retains degree of realism and retains a strong resemblance to the subject.
The double exposure effect has been extremely popular over recent years, and has been a featured topic before in my inspiration showcases. Originally the effect was produced using a photography technique where two images are exposed onto the same piece of film, but the style has since been digitally replicated by designers in Photoshop, as I explain in my recent double exposure effect tutorials. I’ve noticed the effect has also been adopted by illustrators who mimic the trendy double exposure style, but rather than use existing imagery, they skilfully recreate the effect by hand and combine multiple illustrations into one layout to form interesting compositions. In today’s showcase I featured 30 cleverly illustrated poster designs that have been hand drawn in the popular double exposure style.