Change can be hard 

I upgraded my camera in July, before a reasonably long hiking trip. I wanted to be able to better capture the nature I was going on.

Little did I know that the new body I was purchasing wasn’t able to do double exposures, and I would have to resort to post-processing to do one of my favorite experimental forms of photography.

This is a tough thing for me to stomach. I’m not a Photoshop wizard. Heck, I’m a bit of a purist when it comes to photography — I much prefer to do everything in camera. The challenge of balancing framing, exposures, and moments is a thrill I love getting on set.

That’s a thrill I won’t be getting for the foreseeable future. Boo.

If it’s a sunny day and you don’t like sun, there’s going to be just as much sunshine, just not as much joy.

Luckily, I’m the sort of person who enjoys adapting and learning new skills. So I’ve started upping my masking and image compositing skills in Photoshop. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m really enjoying the preliminary results. Although I do really miss doing things in camera, this has an undeniable flexibility.

Flexibility is really the trade off. It’s fun to put your hard skills to the test with in-camera double exposures. Lighting each frame just so and lining up each frame perfectly is something that comes with only great practice. It combines centuries old techniques with today’s technology. It’s incredible. And it’s something I have to get used to not having.

Below is a mockup of the style I want to start working on. The image of the woman was selected just because the lighting and image compression was ideal for experimenting, but I’m really happy with it so far.