Double Exposures on the Fulvueflex Synchroflash

I had one roll of Catlabs X Film 80 left so I decided to have some fun and give some double exposures a try. I'd never taken double exposures before (not intentionally anyway) but I knew the basics. The second image will show up most obviously on the dark areas of the first image. Normally one would underexpose each image by one stop to make sure the final image is correctly exposed. Of course, with box cameras there's no adjusting the settings, so you have to do this in development.

There is an art to taking good double exposures. One of the most helpful demonstrations I've seen is this video by Eduardo Pavez Goye, so definitely check that out if you're interested in giving it a try.

I think I need a bit more practice yet, but these were some of the better results. In the end I pulled these shots to ISO 50 and developed them in HC110(B) for 7:50 minutes at 20°C.

Bath tub in the rushes

Beware

Extra secure storage

Portrait of my husband

Ghost boat

Beached

So, that was fun! After shooting 10 rolls of Catlabs film I'll definitely buy more. The results have been great and I think I can call my experiment a success. You can load a box camera with the same speed film in all different lighting conditions and then compensate in development. I pulled the film to ISO 50 and pushed it as far as ISO 640 and got great pictures. There are probably other film stocks that are just as versatile. I wanted to give Catlabs a go because I'd never shot it before. Like I've commented before, the grain is very fine, the latitude is impressive and the film is super versatile in development so overall very happy with the results.

Take the shot twice...

One way to get round the issue of exposure when lighting conditions are too dark is to take the shot more than once. This can work but obviously there are some risks. For a start, you need to guarantee that the subject, and more importantly the camera stay completely still for both exposures (unless of course you have a creative reason to want to include some motion blur or "ghosts" in your images).

In the shot below, which was taken on a Balda Baldixette, the camera moved slightly, giving a double vision effect.

In the next shot, the train station came out nice and sharp, but the car moving through the frame appears twice.

It should be stated that these shots were pretty experimental. I had a box camera that day loaded with ISO 25 film, and was hoping for brighter conditions that never came. I didn't have a tripod, so taking multiple shots handheld was never going to produce great images. However, they do illustrate that this method can produce decent photos, just as long as you can steady the camera.