We’ve written about how to get those nice blurry photos that folks make. And the multiple exposures you see are sometimes another way to get that look. You can do it in Photoshop, but it’s not quite as much fun. Unfortunately, there aren’t many great camera systems that do multiple exposures in-camera. And if there are, then they’re very limited. However, there’s one camera system that truly stands out from the rest. Believe it or not, it’s Canon!
Canon stands out for this because, when you do multiple exposures in-camera, you can get the look of the blurry photos you desire. However, it also goes an extra step. It keeps all the RAW images and even combines them to be a final RAW photo too. No other camera system does this.
When you think about multiple exposures or double exposures, you’re often thinking about the style of the image above. That’s surely one way to do multiple exposures. But it’s not the only way. The other way has to do with capturing motion in a single frame.
Here’s a list of the best cameras for multiple exposure photography without Photoshop. They’ll let you get the look of those blurry photos you crave.
Some examples are below.
How do you do this with Canon? Well, it’s a process.
- Have a subject and a static background of some sort.
- Set the camera to three exposures to start.
- Choose whether you want it to work on function or continuous shooting. (I’d say go with the former.)
- Func/Ctrl lets you to shoot different frames and stack them as one image. As you shoot, you can see the results immediately, which lets to make modifications on the spot.
- ContShtng is used most often by sports shooters who want to capture a moving subject at different positions in a single frame. The faster the frame rate, the less dramatic the effect might be.
- Choose whether you want additive, average, or bright/dark mode. Below are explanations from Canon’s website.
- Additive: The exposure of each frame will add up. For example, if you expose all the frames at the correct exposure, you will end up with an overexposed image. To create a properly exposed final picture, the images you take must be underexposed. So, you will need two images that are -1 in exposure to create a correctly exposed multiple exposure photo.
- Average: In Average mode, the camera thinks for you, and you can expose all your shots correctly. The camera will then automatically compensate the highlights and shadow regions based on the number of shots selected.
- Bright/Dark: Depending on which mode you use, the brighter or darker areas of the first image will be retained, and subsequent photos are added only into the mid-tone areas. This is probably the most creative exposure mode, but it also requires some calculation of exposure and planning of composition.
- Then shoot the photos accordingly. I typically like adding a flash to the scene.
I also take other precautions like shooting in manual mode to have full control, locking the white balance, and locking the focus when I can. Some folks think this is just motion blur, but it’s a more complex multiple exposure setup.
For the record, this isn’t a sponsored post from Canon. It’s a tutorial on what the best camera system is to get these kinds of photos. There’s a photo type I claim as a specialty on my personal website. Anytime I do them, I try to have fun.
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