Double Exposed Portraits

Hellooooooooo (Stampy Cat Voice)! This is Kasiah Vercelli writing to you from my GT classroom! Well all you frequent readers out there probably know that (I'm guessing there's not too many of you :P). This blog post is about our new photography project Double Exposed Portraits! Yay!

Photography is one of my favorite things ever, so these projects are my favorite ones every year in GT. I imagine not all of you know what portrait photography is so I will try to explain it as best as I can. Portrait photography is a type of photography that focuses on taking a picture of a person or a group of people. There are many different types of portraits, like profiles, side profiles, head shots, self portrait, etc. and believe me all of these are difficult to do. Silhouette photos are very common. It usually has the subject in front of a light source so it casts a shadow over the subjects body. Profile shots are also very similar to silhouettes but in a profile the viewer can only see half of the subjects face or one eye of the subject.

Well I bet your wondering how you make these things! You shall wait no more, because I will tell you. First you actually have to take some photos that communicate the message you are trying to communicate whether it's what represents you or a powerful artistic statement. For our assignments we used 3 photos. Now you load your files into a stack in Adobe Photoshop (or whatever design program you're using) and use the dodge tool to white out the background. Next you align your images however you like and crop your image (and make sure to change the picture mode to "screen")! Then you apply as many layer effects as you dream and there you go!

I really tried to incorporate a lot of symbolism into my photo. I took two photos that I thought really represented me. For my first photo in my final is a picture of a pine tree because I feel really connected to the earth and I am a tree hugger :). My second photo is a picture of a cloud because I have always wanted to fly and travel. I want to travel the world and as learn as much as I possibly can in my lifetime. In my practice when we were taking photos we kind of had limited options because we took the photos on campus. I incorporated similar ideas in it with trees and nature all over the place. I think my work was good and I tried really hard on this project to do my best. I could have made them better though by placing my photos more strategically behind my portrait.

Well I hoped you like my post! If you try this I'd love to know how it went in the comments (but you don't have to :). Until later!