Compared my double exposure to a friend's...

I tried to do a double exposure on my Canon AE-1 last weekend, shooting a tree silhouette first then a sunset... came out looking like a blurry mess. Meanwhile my buddy used a Holga 120N and got this perfect ghostly overlap of a bridge and a crowd at the LA River. Guess I need to stop overthinking and just let the film do its thing... anyone else find cheap cameras work better for this stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_john3d ago

Honestly, do you think the cheap camera actually did the work or was your friend just in a better spot with better light? I've messed around with a Holga and a Polaroid and half the time the blur is just random, not artistic. My best double exposures came from a beat-up Pentax K1000 where I had to guess the overlap because the frame counter was broken. Maybe you were just too careful with your AE-1 and it froze up your instincts.

ray64818h ago

That bit about the frame counter being broken really hit me. I had a Zenit-E where the shutter would fire when you least expected it, so every shot was a surprise. You're right about the AE-1 thing too, @the_john, I think that Canon made me so focused on getting the settings right I missed the happy accidents. My best shot from a trip to the coast was taken with a $20 Holga where I forgot to advance the film and got a ghost boat floating over the pier. Sometimes the chaos is better than the plan.