As soon as you read "double exposure", an overlapping of two different photos comes to mind. Who can blame you? Up until recently blending two photos together was one of the hottest trends in digital photography.
But what I want to share with you now is a totally different technique. This is something that will spice up your street and travel photography. As soon as I heard about it I put it into practice and immediately fell in love with the results.
It's actually a very simple trick that works well in large cities. All you need is a street with plenty of shopping windows. Using their reflections wisely will create the double exposure, slightly surreal effect. The trick is to find a balance between what's on the other side of the window and what's on the street. You can use the colors and lights inside and transfer them to the street. You can also take secret portraits of people on the street. Stop next to a window with something interesting in it, like a painting. People who stop to look at it won't suspect anything else except you photographing the painting. It's a great way to "steal" genuine street expressions.
When you import the photos in Lightroom or Photoshop for editing, one thing you have to be particularly concerned with is that you're going to have a lot of highlights coming from the reflections. Make sure you deal with them in way that will preserve the natural look of the photo, but also have them stand out a bit. This is one technique where you don't want to leave your polarizing filter on and that's because it will minimize or eliminate the reflections, thus canceling the desired effect.
Here's a field tutorial by photographer Mark Wallace from Adorama TV.
Learn more about street photography from these recommended books:
- Street Photography: The Art of Capturing the Candid Moment
- The Street Photographer's Manual
- Street Photography: A Concise Guide