What are the best techniques for taking multiple exposure photos?

Multiple exposures are one of the best ways to push your creativity with film photography. Here are a few techniques to help you take your photos to the next level.

Silhouettes:
Making silhouettes is one of the most popular practises in multiple exposure photography, and for a good reason: when they’re done well the results are incredible. To create a silhouette you will need to capture your subject against the light (with a bright background). Then shoot your second exposure over the top of the first to fill up the dark silhouette with interesting colors and textures. Remember that anything bright will destroy information and anything dark will maintain information for the next exposure.

Using a Splitzer:
This Lomo accessory allows you to slice up your frame and control which parts of the current frame gets exposed, so you can create even more imaginative multiple exposures. Simply twist the Splitzer’s blades to decide exactly what appears in your photo. Take a shot, twist the blades again and take another. Using the splitzer you can slice up your photos into halves or even quarters.

Nailing Exposure:
When shooting multiple exposures it can be a good idea to go down an f stop or two to avoid overexposure. This is because by shooting the same frame multiple times you will be exposing the film to more light than normal. How many f stops to go down will of course depend on how many exposures you’re taking. However, most film handles overexposure very well, so don’t worry, if you shoot using your regular camera settings you still have a good chance of achieving great results.

Composition:
When it comes to composition some photographers like to carefully choose the subject of their multiple exposure. If this is your style it may also be a good idea to shoot the two exposures in the same session so you have a clear idea of how the final image will turn out.

However, you could also leave it completely to chance by treating multiple exposures as an exercise in unpredictability. You could even take it a step further and take part in a film swap with another photographer.