Textures and Multi-Exposures 2021

There was a novel feature to the outing led by Sharon and Tim Sawyer on 23 August. Those who attended were invited to do “homework” afterwards and show their work at a special Zoom meeting on 8 September.

The aim of the outing was to gather suitable images to use as textures behind other images – part of being creative with our photography. Added to that there was the opportunity to use the multi-exposure feature that is available on many cameras to see what images could be created totally within the camera.

The Sawyers had chosen Saltaire as their texture hot-spot and members were soon gathering such things as slimy marks on the back of notice boards, rust on a skip, bird droppings on steps, rough stone walls, and cobbled streets.

For homework, members were invited to use the textures or images that they had collected to create an innovative image that benefited from the texture or the superimposition of an additional layer or two. The Sawyers took members through some of their own work showing how Photoshop was used to blend the images together and mask out areas where the texture was not wanted.

Three things became clear. These techniques are great fun to mess around with. They are  engaging ways to put your own stamp on a photo of someone else’s art work or an over-familiar scene. But also it is very easy to become obsessed to the extent that you sometimes don’t know when to stop adding more features.

Well members did finally manage to stop and here is a selection of the images produced. Click on an image for a full sized slide show.