My number one most popular video on this channel
is my tutorial showing how to create a double exposure effect in Photoshop.
It was posted in 2015 and now has over 3.4 million views.
Originally the double exposure effect was an analog photography technique where the
film was exposed twice to combine two different photographs, naturally blending them together.
As time went on this effect was reproduced digitally without the need of a camera using
Photoshop to manually blend two separate images together, with more control over the final result.
The effect became even easier to produce with the help of pre-made Actions and tools.
Now, with the advent of AI, the process of creating the double exposure effect
has evolved further. Not only do we not need a camera. We don't even need any
source images because AI tools like Midjourney can conjure them itself.
So let's see how powerful Midjourney is at producing double exposure images,
and see whether it replaces Photoshop and even the original analogue film method.
As always in midjourney, let's start our prompt with /imagine. If you want some
help getting started with Midjourney, check out my
'Getting Started with Midjourney' video linked in the description.
Let's keep things simple to begin with just 'Double Exposure'.
Midjourney certainly knows what the term double exposure means
anyway. These examples are pretty good, with just a few quirks here and there.
Let's try getting a little more specific with
"Double Exposure photograph of a woman and snowy mountains"
These results have lost some of the aesthetics of the popular Photoshopped double exposure style,
but the merging of two full colour images is quite reminiscent of the classic film effect.
Let's try and fine tune the prompt to bring back
the effect where one image is contained within another...
"Double exposure of a women 'side profile silhouette' and forest scene"
The results probably aren't quite as good as the super simple two word prompt,
but at least we're getting the exact combination we asked for.
Let's try some alternative wording... "double exposure
image 'combining' a male portrait and city scene"
For whatever reason these results have gone back to the style of blending two
images without necessarily containing one within the outline of another.
Still good images though and very realistic.
I've seen some lovely double exposure images featuring animals as well as human portraits,
so let's try: "Double exposure of a bear and mountains",
with the inclusion of silhouette to try prevent this overlay effect.
We can also add on the parameter to control the aspect ratio. I imagine this image would
look good in landscape orientation, so add --ar for aspect ration, then 16:9.
That kind of worked. This second result is really good.
I wonder if it will work if we ask to place one image inside another...
"Double exposure of a mountain scene inside the silhouette of a bison"
Well that didn't quite go to plan!
What other variations can we try... What about flipping the prompt around
so the subjects come first... "Fox and landscape image double exposure effect"
Not quite there...
Let's try being a little more specific again.
"Double exposure of a fox 'outline' and landscape scene 'white background'"
Nope, that's even worse!
The best results were those right at the start with the super simple prompt,
so let's go back to basics with "double exposure bear"
That's more like it. So if we've learnt anything so far it's that midjourney likes
to have creative freedom with just a very simple prompt for double exposure effects.
Let's try a completely different method by blending two specific images together. But
first we need some images to work with. No need to download any stock images,
we can just use AI to create something from scratch.
"Fox side profile" and "landscape scene"
Look at the realism of these fox images, it really is amazing what AI can do already.
It's interesting that
with that super basic prompt it has chosen this kind of vintage illustration effect, but it works!
Upscale a favourite from each result.
Right click and choose Copy Image Address,
then paste each image into the prompt after double exposure.
Well that's another experiment that completely failed, but it is interesting how Midjourney
has blended the two images while also interpreting the words 'double exposure'.
Let's try again but without any double exposure wording at all, just the two source images
As expected, no mention of double exposure means it doesn't have any traits of the effect at all,
but it has blended the two images pretty seamlessly.
So we've learnt that super simple double exposure prompts work best,
but what happens if you get really specific?
"double exposure of a woman with trees emerging from the
top of her head. Black and white. Isolated on a white background"
There are other aspect ratios you can use by the way. I imagine this portrait
style image would look good as a 3:4 composition.
These results aren't bad. It's exactly what we asked for,
so maybe a few rerolls would perfect the result.
So as one more experiment, let's quickly compare the new midjourney V5 with Midjourney V4.
Type /Settings to alter the options.
Let's try a simple Double Exposure prompt as a straight comparison.
You can see the evolution between the algorithmic styles between V4 and V5.
V4 is much more dramatic and seems to get the idea of the double exposure silhouette style,
but the colours of V5's result are softer,
so that might be something to keep in mind if you're trying to produce a particular effect.
So that's a brief look at the kind of results you can expect from Midjourney when attempting
to create double exposure images. It seems that simple prompts work best,
but you can sometimes get away with suggesting the subject.
In terms of effort, it doesn't get much easier than typing a couple of words,
but you still have more control creating double exposure effects manually in Photoshop, or even
using one of the great Double Exposure tools I've linked in the description.
But I doubt there's nothing more satisfying than creating double exposure effects the proper
traditional way by taking two separate photos on your analog camera and developing the film.