double exposures

&Denekamp · Jul 8, 2005

I have a question, or more of a check.

I've almost figured this out by logic thinking, but I don't know if my logic is straight, or if this is such a logic thing..

My question is, if I want to do a double exposure, what would the shutter speeds on both exposures be like? I guess this depends on the situation, or what look you are going for, very much. So here's a situation:

If I, for instance, meter that a particular shot needs a 1/250 s shutter speed. And I'm going for that ghost-ish look. A scene with a person vaguely visible (as a ghost) then, do I set my shutter to say 1/1000 for just the scene? and for the scene + person to 1/500? to make the two combined to be about 1/250 s as originaly metered?

I hope you guys (and girls) can help me out here. O wait, I'm sure you can

Niels

spiralout · Jul 8, 2005

Actually in that situation you would want both to be shot @ 1/500. 1/250 at a given aperture is twice the amount of exposure as 1/500 would be at the same aperture. Of course, I have no experience with film double exposures, except for the ones that I DIDN'T intend to happen, but that is what you will read pretty much anywhere you look. The best way to learn is by experimenting. If you want to give the scene with the person in it less than half the exposure, e.g. the 1/1000 you were talking about, then you could shoot the same scene sans the person at 1/500 two more times. Like I said, experiment. Now I want to get my AE-1 and start messing around with double exposures...

&Denekamp · Jul 8, 2005

Thanks spiralout, So let me get this straight in my head, if I use two 1/500 exposures, the background will be 100& opaque, and the person will be 50%, right? but if I want the person to be more transparent, that would be near impossible to get a 'perfect' exposure. Or could I just use 4 1/1000 exposures? hmm..

Anyway, you just go and mess around spiralout

I can't try anything for now, since I have only one photo left on my film.. hehe, that's one short of a double exposure..