Dull rainy days make moody tones and shadows.

Taken during a bright summer sunset.

I’ve been playing with a unique visuals language of double exposure portraits for some time now, reaching for something beyond the digital doubles often seen as of late. With a sort of color “subraction” I’m playing with the RGB levels of each image to combine and create an actual double exposure, one where each layer interacts with another in a unique, and often bright and over-saturated fashion. The only tricky part is adjusting the saturation and hues to create something a little more pleasing to the eye.

The results are sometimes smooth and femine…

Other times, an almost acid induced ride ensues.

The result, an oddly trippy, but somehow satisfying, sometimes two headed combos of light, shadow, and color. I call these ‘Janus Girls,’ after the two-faced Roman god, who looks simultaneously into the future and past. The majority of my subjects (so far) are female, save for the occasional experiment on my own image. At least in this case, the contrasting hues compliment each other in a mainly feminine fashion, though I have to reach out for more masculine subjects.

I’m definitely excited to play with this technique more, as it’s a challenge finding the right two images for each piece. Motion and energy are critical, as well as light source.

The efforts here are actually spawned from much earlier attempts at double exposures, though those were more digital collages, than what I consider to be exposures, below.