Multi-Camera Composites

I came across an interesting image-producing technique a few months ago, the “multi-camera composite,” on the Flickr page of Tony Kemplen.  [Sidebar: Tony Kemplen is known for his “52 film cameras in 52 weeks” project, which he started in 2010 and is now in his fourth year.]  The idea behind the multi-camera composite is, you take multiple pictures from the same spot, using different cameras, and then stitch them all together using Photoshop.  Here is one of his examples:

St. Andrew's Church

So I thought I’d give this a shot myself. The challenge, of course, is to find a good subject. You usually find a good subject when you happen to NOT be carrying 4 or 5 cameras around with you. And vice versa. Also, when you take a few photos with different cameras, you have to fill up all the rolls before you get them back, and remember what you were up to when you started.

So here is what I came up with. I tried photographing along the length of an old building in town. But I think it’s better if you don’t leave gaps.

Building Composite

From left to right, the first, second and fourth camera are from a 1950-ish Kodak Retina 1a and some inexpensive Kodak film; the third photo is a 1957-ish Ricoh 500 with Fuji Superia film; and the photo farthest to the right is from a mid-1990s Ricoh Kr-5 Super II, using TX100 film. So another option was to grab just a couple of photos, and see how that would look:

Building Composite

The photos are from a 1957-ish Ricoh 500 with Fuji Superia film; and the b&w photo is from a 1950s Kodak Duaflex II with old, expired Dynapan brand film.

I tried the same thing at another location, from a bridge spanning the Adyar river. For the first one, the color photo is taken with a 1957-ish Ricoh 500 with Fuji Superia film; and the black and white photo is taken with an early 1990s Ricoh Kr-5 Super II using Kodak TX-100 film. So yes, the camera with the black and white film is almost 40 years newer!

Bend in the Adyar

Bend in the Adyar

In the second photo, the color photos are both taken with a 1950s Kodak Retina 1a using cheap Kodak 400 film (they look different because I changed the light settings); and the b&w photo is a 1950s Kodak Duaflex II with old, expired Dynapan brand film, from “who knows when.”

For a few other combinations, you can check out this album on Flickr.

I’d be curious if anyone else has ever tried this.

There is a similar technique I’d like to try which involves taking a bunch of photos in rapid succession, all slightly different, and then mashing them together.  I did one of those by mistake using a film camera – a Canon FTb I was testing out got stuck at the end of the roll of film (it would no longer advance).  As a result, the photos I was trying to snap of this guy washing his cows all ended up on top of each other.

Accidental Composite

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