Photography That Tells A Visual Story

I have always loved shooting special effects in my photography. It was a way of telling a story with-in that image that could not be told with a single photograph alone.

In the old days of film/slide photography I would combine images using a technique called slide duping. This technique would consist of taking multiple images on to a new, unused piece of slide film. It was complicated and took several different pieces of equipment to make this happen, but the result was spectacular. The problem was you never knew what you were getting until you got your slide film back from the processor.

With the advent of digital photography and Photoshop that has all changed. It has given us many more possibilities and, in many ways, “the sky is the limit”

The dart board image above and the jets below are a composite of images that I made before digital. I used Kodachrome slide film on a Nikon camera using different lenses. I then selected different images that were compatible and used a device call a slide duper that would re-take the images on one slide for a composite. A bit complicated but it worked and the images look very believable even in the digital world of today.

Photography That Tells A Visual Story

Telling a Visual story…

One possibility of telling this visual story is a technique called Multiplicity which is the process of taking several photos of a human, animal, or object in different areas of the frame, and then combining them in Photoshop. In sports, this is called sequence photography.

Multiplicity Photography is not a real hard technique to do but the possibilities are endless. Do you want it to be funny? Do you want it to be serious? How about inner conflict with-in someone’s personality? The point is you could tell a visual story to suite whatever mood you are trying to convey.

You will need to use a tripod for this technique. If you are shooting these images outside, you will want to this on a day when it’s not so windy. You will move people around to different positions in the photo, but you do not want “the background” moving like blowing leaves on trees.

Photography That Tells A Visual Story

Shoot all your multiple photographs from the same position without even the slightest movement (using a tripod) and then have your subject move to different positions. If they are people, you could have them put on different cloths. Sometimes you could just have them do different things with-in that image.

I draw out what I am thinking on paper to get a better idea what I am after for my perspective and to show what I want a person who will pose for me to do.

You will then use Photoshop to merge all these images into one, so it looks like you have the same background, but your subject are in different spots.

A step by step to follow to make these fun and creative photographs go here: How to create a multiplicity image / photo in Photoshop.

Many people think you have to spend a lot money to have access to Photoshop but Adobe has a plan just for photographers that is very affordable. For around $10 a month you can use Photoshop, Lightroom, Bridge and Cloud Storage. You can find out more information about Adobe Creative Cloud.