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So: how my Victorian Explorer’s pictures are made? Here is a quick tutorial explaining my personal workflow and the programs I use. This isn’t in any way the only procedure to create multiple exposure in post-production but it’s, in my experience, the most simple and practical one. If you have questions just use the “ask me!” button on my Tumblr and I’ll answer to the best of my knowledge.

Part 1: what programs do you need?

- A photo editor like Photoshop or an alternative program (like the freeware Gimp, e.g.)  that allows the use of layers and trasparencies.
- Google’s freeware photo browser/editor Picasa.
- Photographs (or pictures) of the same size and orientation (vertical pictures go with vertical pictures, horizontal with horizontal).

I use both Picasa and Photoshop for my multiple exposure pictures. The two software have positive sides and a not-so-positive sides and using them together help me to get the best of both words.

Picasa
This free program has a specific tool to blend together multiple exposures. It’s fast and the software takes care of the exposure for every single photo, which is great. It’s also very intuitive and it doesn’t need a specific knowledge (in opposition to Photoshop) to be used. The cons are that you don’t have real control over the look of the final pictures because Picasa automatically gives the same degrees of transparency to every photo. Also, the resulting picture can be saved as jpg only with a PPI of 72.

Photoshop
Photoshop is a commercial product that gives you the total freedom to choose any final format and any PPI number you like. It also allows the use of the eraser tool, many layer blending tools and much more. The only negative side is that’s not possible to see in advance (and in one glance) the final result like in Picasa: you actually have to work on the pictures for a while before to have an idea how the multiple exposure is coming along. It also require some knowledge of computer graphic.

Use both!

That’s why I use both programs: Picasa gives me a quite accurate idea how the pictures looks together right away and allows me to change one or more photos with a simple couple of clicks. At that point, if I like, I can easily open the same pictures in photoshop and create from scratch a more refined multiple esposure.

Part 2: the Picasa workflow

Open Picasa, select 2 or 3 photos in the browser (holding ctrl and then clicking with the left mouse button on every picture you like) then click on the “collage” icon at the top.

In the collage page, choose the option “multiple exposure” in the left menu. After few seconds, Picasa will show you the multiple exposure completed. At this point you can edit the image using Picasa’s own filters and save the final image.

Part 3: the Photoshop workflow

Open the final picture (the one made using Picasa) in Photoshop. Place it on a side to use it as a reference and open the same 2 or 3 pictures you used before.

Copy every picture and past them one over the other in the same sheet so that every photo has a different layer. In this way you can freely test different degrees of transparency or different blending modes. You can also take advantage of the eraser tool (or the really useful layer masks) to cancel parts of the photos. At the end, when you’re satisfied, you can save the picture in the format you like and with the PPI you prefer.

I wanted the face and the wing of the statue to be more visible so I worked on different layers to let them emerge. I also cancelled part of the pink flowers to make the face more visible. The picture is quite dark but this is a temporary problem that can be fixed working on “adjustment level” and brightness and contrast settings.

And these are the final pictures: the one on the left was created using Picasa, the one on the right with Photoshop. They’re quite different but both interesting in their own way.

A final note

If you have no intention to use the pictures for editorial purpose (where a 300 PPI is mandatory) Picasa is a program more than suitable, very fun to use and extremely easy. If you want to create pictures for a professional use and you need to have more control over the final result, than the pair Picasa + Photoshop (or Gimp) is probably the best solution.

Some useful links:

Official Picasa guidebook »

Official Photoshop guidebook »

Brand new blog dedicated to ”The Victorian Explorer” project. Come for a visit and live a comment or ask a question, if you please :-)