Ready to transform your cat photos into stunning masterpieces? In this quick guide, I will explore the fun and fascinating world of double exposure on your smartphone, using just one free app called Snapseed. Grab your sense of fun and adventure, your smartphone and some of your favourite cat photos!
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
App used here:
Photoshop Camera (free) calls its filters ‘lenses‘. Explore your own app (if you have one installed) for similar filter functions.
With the power of Adobe ‘Sensei’, Photoshop Camera understands the scene you try to capture and suggests lens effects and filters that can instantly transform it into a unique creative worthy of being posted on social channels like Instagram. It not only makes everyday photos better but also makes it easy to share.
Adobe.com
How To Explore Double Exposures
A strong central figure or motif is a great place to start trying out your smartphone app’s double exposure function. After this you will find that it takes a little bit of experimentation to make sure your cat is nicely located for the exposure or filter to work best. For my two images here, one cat is positioned on the right of the photo and the other more central.
If you look at the Window Reflection experiment below, you can see that a lot of the image was originally included is removed. I am guessing that you, like me, will have spotted the alert expression from Candy the cafe cat’s face as he sits upright, and I wanted to focus in on that lovely expression!
The ‘Window Reflections‘ Lens
If you look at the original image it is quite ordinary, a cat cafe customer enjoys furry company. But, Candy’s alert and focused expression caught my eye and I experimented with a bit of cropping to draw our eyes to him before I tried a filter. There was still some busy background but, with a layer of refection all of this background vanishes.
- Tip: Don’t stress about your background too much until you try a filter. This can successfully obscure your busy background.
Candy is transformed into a cat who appears to be behind a colourful glass window in a busy metropolis with a whole world on the other side. The image creates, for me, a touch of kitty Blade Runner mystery.
The second experiment I tried was a double exposure surprise. It looks like an amazing book cover you might see on the best seller lists. Just add your own title at the top – right?
The Double Exposure Lens
This can transform your double exposure as it did to mine. Each of the four lenses uses a different background and this changes how your image s changed. Miranda is reversed behind the cityscape.
- Cityscape
- Forest Landscape
- Industrial Landscape
- Rainy Pine Trees
This screenshot below shows you what Photoshop Camera looks like in use. You can see the Windows Reflection lens and the Double Exposure Lens under the main image.
Finally, a warning. You will find that a lot of your experiments will make you laugh! Sometimes your ideas are not going to work, like this experiment of a closeup of Phoebe, our dark haired cat. Sadly, the app thinks she is part of a pine forest! Let me know in the comments if you have had any triumphs or disasters with your own apps, or Photoshop Camera!
See my Snapseed App tutorial here and get creative!
Bonus shot of Snapseed Filter ‘Frame’ showing edge of photographic film filter.
I will look into this. My pictures always have stuff in the background … unless I’ve carefully planned the shot in advance.
Looks amazing!
I have never tried that! I like it and I do not like it, so that is to say I have mixed feelings, LOL!! When its a mask like exposure, I think I don’t care much for that, but the overlay types that you used for Candy offer a mysterious thoughtfulness to the image.
Beautiful kitties. I will have to look for that app. XO
Wow, love those double exposures! Blade Runner indeed! (The original theatrical release is one of my all-time favorite movies, for visual effects as well as the story.
Wow, those are great! As always, thank you for teaching us such cool stuff, Marjorie! Hugs!
Those are pretty amazing, but you can make every photo look terrific!