It’s finally here! My absolute favorite thing to do in-camera has finally come and I couldn’t be more excited. For so many years, I’ve always been in awe of photographers who can do multiple exposures in-camera and make them look really great. On top of that, I’m always in awe of their ideas and how ethereal the images feel. Most importantly, though, I think that multiple exposure photography is the single best way for photographers to stand out from generative AI in ways that truly make us separate and tap into our emotional capabilities. And thankfully, LUMIX cameras have the ability to do it in-camera and also make a RAW file.
This article is presented in partnership with LUMIX.
What is a Multiple Exposure?
At its core, multiple exposure photographs are just one image stacked on top of another in such a way that they bleed through into one another — creating a single image. In the film days, you’d just shoot a roll of film over again. But in digital, photographers tend to do it in Photoshop unless they’ve got a very high level of skill.
Multiple exposure photography involves the idea of layering one image on top of another. And this often involves creating and not just capturing. In a 2019 interview the Phoblographer did with the great film photographer Kate Hook, she stated, “I wanted to create a small series based around the idea of the faces of living ghosts in the cities, the ones you know but don’t know anymore… what you hope to see but never do, who still roam the streets you walk but never see…and if you do, they’re merely a ghost to you now, or you are to them.” Photographers like Daniel Mountfords also agree that it’s all about having an idea.
For many of us, this is one of our favorite genres as it makes you get really vulnerable about your work and express things in ways that lots of other cameras can’t do.
But best of all, LUMIX does this in a very unique way. During the time of writing this article, the LUMIX S1RII, S1II, and S1IIE are the only cameras that let photographers make multiple exposure photographs and also shoot them in RAW.
How to Do Multiple Exposure Photography with LUMIX Cameras
To do multiple expousre photography with LUMIX cameras, we recommend the following things:
- First you need either the LUMIX S1RII, S5II, S1II, or S1IIE.
- Grab your favorite LUMIX lens; my favorite is the 35mm f1.8 S
- Choose your favorite LUT
- Set the camera to manual mode
- Shoot a photo that will be your base. Ideally, underexpose it by around a stop or so
- Go into the menu, look for multiple exposure, and enable it
- Turn off auto gain and turn on the exposure preview setting
- Then find a pattern or an image and photograph that. The LUMIX camera will be able to show you a render of what the image will approximately look like
- Shoot, and then choose whether or not to continue or stop it right there
One of the easiest ways to do multiple exposures is to have a black background and then to move the subject across the scene frame by frame. This can be a blank canvas for you to work with. You can also experiment with the idea of stacking photos with the same scene over and over again.
When you’re done shooting the photo, you can use the editing tools in the LUMIX editing menu of your camera to change the settings on the image. From there, you can set LUTs, exposures, highlights, shadows, sharpness, etc. Some of my favorite multiple exposures tend to come out as black and white images.
But if those won’t do the trick, then you can still edit the RAW file in Capture One. Universally, this is considered to be the best photo editor.
Go try this out for yourself!