5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

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DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION > PHOTO MANIPULATION

Make a Trendy Double

Exposure Effect in Adobe
Photoshop
by Yulia Sokolova 13 Apr Di culty: Intermediate Length: Long Languages: English
2015

Photo Manipulation Adobe Photoshop Photo Effects Double Exposure 

Clipping Mask

What You'll Be Creating

You’ve probably seen this interesting effect of two or more overlapping photos
on the covers of music albums, in modern magazines and in advertisements.

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

In this tutorial we’ll create a trendy double exposure effect in Adobe Photoshop
with the help of Blending Modes and Clipping Masks in a few steps. 

In photography and cinematography, multiple exposure is a combination of two

or more exposures to create a single image. Initially, this is a technique in
which the camera shutter is opened more than once to expose the lm multiple
times, usually to different images. However, with our modern software, we can
easily recreate a similar effect in Adobe Photoshop.

Looking for a Quick Solution?

If you want to create a double exposure effect with just a few clicks, try this
amazing Double Exposure Photoshop Action on Envato Elements. With it, you
can create a wonderful double exposure effect to your own image in just a few
seconds. After the action has nished, you can add a color tone or gradient to
your composition, and voilà, your effect is complete! 

Double Exposure Photoshop Action on Envato Elements

Using a ready-made action can save you time, but in this tutorial you'll learn
how to create a double exposure effect from scratch—giving you maximum
exibility and creative control. Let’s get to it!

1. Prepare the Main Photo

Step 1
For the base of our image, we’ll be using the following photo of a young man
from Stockvault.net. You can use any photo to your liking, for example, from
your personal archive. However, make sure that the background of your
photo is more or less neutral, without noisy elements such as grass or foliage,
to make it easier to work with.

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Let’s take the Crop Tool (C) and make the photo less wide by deleting its side
parts.

Step 2
Now we need to make it much brighter and add contrast. Go to Image >
Adjustments > Levels or press Control-L to call the pop-up Levels menu. Move
the lightest slider to the left, making our photo brighter, and add contrast by
moving the left black slider to the right. Otherwise, you can just set the
particular values in the spaces below: 7 for the shades of black, 1.15 for greys
and 197 for whites. Click the OK button to apply the adjustments.

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Step 3
Let’s x the guy’s ear with the Spot Healing Brush Tool (I). Just click and move
your mouse, drawing above the area you wish to x and—voila!—the marked
area is clean and awless. This is a very handy tool for photo retouching, when
you need to get rid of some minor aws and bumps on the skin. 

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Step 4
Now we need to get rid of the background. This is a piece of cake, as we’re
using a photo with a clean background. Take the Magic Wand Tool (W) and
click anywhere on the background to select it. Then go to Select > Inverse in
order to make the man selected.

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Step 5
While you are still armed with the Magic Wand Tool (W), nd the Re ne Edge
button in the control panel above to reveal the Re ne Edge options window.
Here you can change the View of your photo in the View Modes, placing the
selected element on white, black, transparent and other backgrounds, making
it more visible and convenient to edit. 

Slightly increase the Radius value in the Edge Detection, setting it to 1.5,
making the edges less rigid and thus revealing minor details, such as separate
hairs. Set the Output To in the Output section of the options window to New
Layer with Layer Mask. This will automatically create a copy of your initial
image with the background hidden by the Clipping Mask.

You can play with other Re ne Edge options as well, making the edge
smoother or more blurred. This would be handy if you’re cutting out the
element that is surrounded by other elements, or the image has some more
complex background and the edges of the main object are messy. In our case,
these minor adjustments are enough to continue creating the desired effect.

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Step 6
Create a New Layer below the cut-out portrait and ll it with neutral greyish
color (#dcdbd9) using the Paint Bucket Tool (G).
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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

2. Create the Double Exposure Effect by

Combining Two Images
Step 1
Let’s select the second photo for our composition. This can be some nice
ower shot or cityscape, or anything abstract and intricate. For this tutorial,
we’ll use this monochromatic nature scene of a forest by Samuel Rohl, which
you can nd at Unsplash.com.

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Step 2
Place the image of the forest above the man’s portrait. Keeping the forest layer
selected, press the Control key and click on the Layer Clipping Mask of the
layer below (the one with the portrait). You will see the marching ants selection
of the man’s silhouette on the forest layer.

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Step 3
Press the Add vector mask button in the bottom of the Layers panel to hide the
unneeded parts of the forest image. If you click on the chain icon between the
image thumbnail and the mask thumbnail in the Layers panel, this will unlink
the layer and its mask, so that you can move and rotate the image inside the
mask without moving the whole layer. 

In our case, let’s put the forest image upside down, so that the dark re ection
of the trees is placed in the head area of the silhouette, as shown in the
screenshot below. 

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Step 4
Select the layer which contains the cutout portrait with Clipping mask. Make a
copy (Control-J) and drag and drop it above the forest layer.

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Let’s make the portrait monochromatic to t the forest image color palette.
Keeping the portrait layer selected, move to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate
or just press Shift-Control-U, converting our image to grayscale.

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Step 5
Open the Levels (Control-L) options window and make the image much darker
by moving the black slider to the right side or manually setting its value to 117.

Apply the effect and go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Tick the
Colorize checkbox in the bottom right corner of the options window to change
the whole range of colors of our image. Set the Hue value to 212, moving the
slider to the right, thus adding tints of blue. Set the Saturation level to 10,
decreasing the vividness of the photo, and click OK to apply the created effect.

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Step 6
Right-click on the portrait layer mask and we can Apply Layer Mask in the
dropdown menu. Change the Blending Mode of the portrait layer to Screen in

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

the Layers panel. We can already see that the desired double exposure effect
appears! Only a few minor tweaks left, so let’s move on!

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Step 7
Let’s make the image more surrealistic by editing the head of the portrait. Take
the Brush Tool (B) and select the Airbrush Soft Round 17 from the standard
Round Brushes with Size set (you can nd it in the drop down brushes menu if
you click the right mouse button or in the Brushes (F5) panel).

Select the Layer Mask of the forest layer, set the Fill color to white and paint
softly over the upper part of the head area (marked with red in the screenshot),
thus erasing the unwanted parts of the head and adding some air in the top
part of the image. This makes the image look as if the trees are growing
directly from the man’s head.

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Step 8
Some parts of the image look too noisy at this step—for example, the eyes
area, where the trees from the forest image create a distracting effect. Let’s get
rid of this and make these parts more clear and contrast. 

Create a New Layer beneath the desaturated portrait layer, take the Brush Tool
(B) again and switch the Fill color to dark blue ( #2f2c35 ), which you can pick

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

directly from the hair part of the portrait with the Eyedropper Tool (I). 

Start painting over the eyes area, making it more distinct. For more
convenience, you can Control-click on the layer mask of the portrait layer to
create a marching ants selection, which allows you to draw inside the selected
area, without crossing its boundaries.

Step 9
Let’s add a nishing touch to our image. Select the desaturated portrait layer
and Add Layer Mask by clicking the mask icon in the bottom part of the Layers
panel. Take the Brush Tool (B) and switch the Fill color to black. Since our
Layer mask is white by default, the black color will help us to erase the
unwanted parts of the image. Paint over the neck area of the man, creating an
illusion of his face popping out from the trees.

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

Great Job! Our Trendy Portrait Is Finished!

Congratulations! These simple steps helped us to create a stylish double
exposure portrait by combining two images and creating an interesting
surrealistic effect. I hope you’ve found some handy tips and tricks, which will
help you to make more interesting combinations and photo manipulations.
Good luck!

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

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Yulia Sokolova
Art & Tutorials

I'm fond of drawing fancy pictures and eating sushi. I've been working
with Envato, Disney, Ask.fm and many others. I'm writing tutorials to
share my knowledge and I hope you will nd some useful tips and tricks
for your personal artworks. Enjoy!

 FEED  LIKE  FOLLOW  FOLLOW

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5/16/2018 Make a Trendy Double Exposure Effect in Adobe Photoshop

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