I love double exposure photography! If done right, you can cleverly create exceptionally artful pictures. But how do you do it on your Fujifilm camera? What are some easy techniques that give good results? In this article I’ll discuss this topic in detail and provide some useful tips to help you make your own artistic double-exposure photographs.

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Many Fujifilm X cameras have the option to shoot “Multiple Exposure” photography (an old camera trick where two or more exposures are combined into one frame for artistic effect), although on most Fujifilm cameras it is actually “double exposure” photography, as you can only combine two exposures; however, some newer models are capable of combining up to nine exposures. For this, we’ll be doing double exposures, and not more.

You access (depending on the model) Multiple Exposure through a knob on the top plate or through the Drive button on the back. If you are not sure, check your user manual. For the X-Pro3 and newer models, you’ll also have to go into the Shooting Setting Menu, select Multiple Exposure CTRL, and choose one of four options: Additive, Average, Bright, or Dark. Additive or Average are the two options you’ll want to consider for this project. Bright and Dark work well for making color images from toned black-and-white, but otherwise are tricky, and I don’t recommend them for this.

How are Additive and Average different? Additive is literally adding one exposure onto the next, so you have to significantly underexpose both frames or else get an overexposed image. Average mixes both frames together by averaging the difference. Additive tends to produce brighter pictures (although it depends on the two exposures), while Average tends to produce flatter images. I find that Additive often delivers results that I prefer, but Average is easier to use. There’s no right or wrong choice, but the way that you use each is different. For cameras older than the X-Pro3 that don’t have these options, what you get is the same thing as Average.

No matter your camera, with Multiple Exposure activated (through the top plate or Drive button on back, depending on your model), you capture the first exposure. The camera will ask if you want to keep it and move on or reshoot—if you didn’t get it quite right, you have this chance to try again. Once you are happy with your first exposure, you’ll hit “OK” and move onto the second exposure. The camera will show you the two exposures, which is a great benefit of doing this on a digital mirrorless camera. Line up the frame as you’d like it, adjust the exposure as you wish, and capture the second image. The camera will show you the double exposure, and it will ask you if you want to keep it or reshoot the second exposure—if you didn’t get it quite right, you have a chance to try again. If you are satisfied, select “Back” and you’re done!

You can use any film simulation recipe that you’d like. For these pictures, I used Ferrania Solaris FG 400. Recipes that have more contrast often work better than ones with less contrast. If you want to get really creative, you can even change recipes in-between exposures, and have two different recipes in one image—I didn’t do that here. Clarity is disabled for cameras with the Clarity feature. If you shoot RAW+JPEG, I’m not certain if older cameras will keep a RAW file for each exposure, but newer cameras will; however, the double exposure itself will not have a RAW file, you only get a JPEG.

Once your camera is all set up, and you’re ready to go capture some pictures, you’ll have to find some interesting subjects to photograph. The easy way to get artful double exposure images is to photograph two opposing things. For example, the picture at the very top of this article combines leaves and metal. You can look for smooth and rough. Manmade and natural. Cool and warm. Soft and hard. Bright and dark. Find two things that don’t seem like they should belong together, and use those for your double exposure image. You certainly don’t have to limit yourself to that—it’s simply a starting point. Not all of your ideas will work well, but some will—keep experimenting, and you’ll get some good pictures. I like to think of one exposure as being the main image, and the other as texture.

Average

Let’s look closer at some techniques if you are using an X-Pro3 or newer camera and select Average, or a camera that’s older than the X-Pro3 (which uses Average). What I like about Average is that you can achieve a more painterly effect with it—almost impressionist.

In my experience, the main image of the two exposures needs to be exposed brighter than the secondary exposure. For example, in the picture above, the leaves (first exposure) were exposed more than the road (second exposure). The camera will produce a fairly flat photograph, so to make the main subject stand out more you will want to consider making it a little brighter than the background, adjusting exposure compensation between shots. Thankfully, the camera will show you exactly what you’ll get, and you can adjust the exposure compensation to be exactly as you want before you even capture the second exposure. The Ferrania Solaris FG 400 film simulation recipe that I used for these pictures has only moderate contrast, and using a more contrasty recipe will produce a less flat photo. Best case scenario is a contrasty scene captured with a contrasty recipe.

Using Average is the easiest way to get good double exposure results. It still can be tricky, but it is more obvious what you need to do with each of the two exposures to get what you want. Let’s look at some examples:

The top image is a combination of a wild plant of some sort and a large stone (which filled the entire frame). The middle image is a combination of a stump with autumn leaves on it and a flowing creek (looking down from a bridge). The elements in the last image are a little more obvious, and is more of an example of mediocre results. In my experience, it’s more common to get mediocre results than great pictures, but if you keep trying and keep creating, you’ll definitely get some double exposure photographs that you’ll love.

Below is an example of two exposures that made a final double exposure image using Average. You can see that the leaves are brighter in the first exposure (not overexposed, though), and the rusted metal is darker in the second exposure (slightly underexposed). In the double exposure picture, the two images are combined into a lower contrast photograph that’s almost painterly. If the first picture had been exposed 1/3 stop brighter, the leaves would have been slightly brighter in the double exposure image (but not by a 1/3 stop). When you carefully select the subjects to combine, you can make them more compelling together than they are as separate images.

Additive

Additive is an option only found on X-Pro3 and newer cameras. I like Additive because you can get brighter, slightly less flat images than using Average, yet the results are fairly similar. I find it to be less painterly, and more like double exposure images on film.

Additive is trickier to use. Since each exposure is added onto the previous ones, two correctly exposed images will make one very overexposed double exposure picture, which means that both exposures need to be underexposed significantly—one to two stops, sometimes more. The camera will not show you exactly how bright the double exposure image will be until after both images are captured, so you’ll have a lot more failures with Additive than Average. Like Average, you’ll likely want the main exposure to be a little brighter than the secondary exposure. There’s certainly a lot of potential for creative concepts with Additive, but be sure to give yourself more grace. I guess you could say that Additive has more potential for greatness and failure simultaneously. Let’s look at some examples:

The top picture in this group was an early attempt. Maybe I’d title it The Nature of Music but I don’t think it’s anything profound. What I like about the second picture is that it is fairly dark, yet the flowers really stand out. The third photo is a simple cinderblock wall and a tree stump, which could have some metaphoric meaning.

Below is an example of two exposures that made a final double exposure image using Additive. You’ll notice that both exposures are pretty dark, especially the second one, yet the double exposure image is fairly bright, bordering overexposure. I probably should have reduced the exposure of one or maybe both images by 1/3 stop. The method to achieve good results is definitely different and more difficult with Additive, and the trick is to underexpose.

Conclusion

The quick and easy way to get artful double exposure photographs from your Fujifilm camera:
– Use a film simulation recipe. Often higher-contrast recipes do better than lower-contrast ones.
– If your camera is newer—no older than the X-Pro3—choose either Average or Additive. Average is easier. For Additive, be sure to underexpose.
– Set the camera to Multiple Exposure, which you access via the top plate or Drive button, depending on your model.
– Choose two subjects that are opposing in some way.
– Expose the “main” image more (brighter) than the “secondary” image.
– Don’t be afraid to retry if the results aren’t as good as you’d like them to be.
– Don’t be afraid to really experiment and try things just to see what happens.

Double exposure photography can be a fun and rewarding experience. It doesn’t have to be difficult to achieve good results—in fact, Fujifilm cameras make it pretty easy, no matter your model. I believe that anyone can do it, and whether you are experienced or a beginner, it’s worth trying. If you’ve never done it before, try double exposure photography the next time you are out with your camera.